With ‘Camelot,’ a legendary fight director exits the fray

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A complex and thrilling fight scene with broad swords in a spring Broadway revival of “Camelot” will be the swan song for a legendary fight director. B.H. Barry helped bring rigor, safety and artistry to fight scenes in England onstage and television and then was lured to the U.S. in the 1970s to teach and spread his unusual sort of magic. The fight scene he created for “Camelot” is pure poetry, a mix of muscle, humor, ballet, pride and aluminum swords. There are actually three mini-fights, with escalating levels of intensity, until the last combatants wield two swords each. Barry’s worked with everyone from Richard Harris and Susan Lucci to Kelsey Grammer and Ethan Hawke.