Taylor Swift releases Fate of Ophelia video after limited theater run

Taylor Swift released the music video for The Fate of Ophelia on YouTube on Oct. 5, two days after premiering it as part of a limited theatrical event, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, which screened Oct. 3–5. The Swiftdirected visual, the lead single from her new album The Life of a Showgirl, reunites dancers and crew from her Eras Tour and will be accompanied on YouTube by lyric videos for the album's remaining tracks.

The video follows Swift inhabiting a series of showgirl personas across eras — from a PreRaphaelite painting to a Busby Berkeleystyle musical number, a 1960s girl group frontwoman and a modern pop performer — ending with an image that recreates the album cover: Swift partially submerged in a bathtub. Swift described the concept as a historical survey of what it means to be a showgirl, saying, "The idea I came up with for this music video was sort of a journey throughout all these different ways in which over time periods, historically, you could be a showgirl." The song reimagines Shakespeare's Ophelia by framing the narrator as rescued from a tragic fate, rather than succumbing to it.

Key collaborators credited on the project include choreographer...