| TABOO REVIEWS |
| THE BLITZ KIDS SITE |
| Boy George Takes Musical Time Machine to Eighties BY PAUL MAJENDIE LONDON (Reuters) - Gender bender pop idol Boy George took a time machine back to the Eighties on Tuesday with the world premiere of his musical ``Taboo'' which recreates a London clubland packed with outlandish cross-dressers. With actor Euan Morton memorably playing his foppish younger self, Boy George transported theatergoers back to the halcyon days of the decade when his group, Culture Club, topped charts around the world and sold 20 million albums. The show, for which he wrote the music and lyrics, was staged at the tiny 300-seat 'Venue', billed as the first new stage to open in London's theaterland for more than 70 years. Reliving the glory days of clubland, showbusiness glitterati turned out in force for the premiere where Boy George was determined next day's critics would not spoil his big night out. ``I really don't care,'' he told Reuters before the show's launch. ``People are going to slag it off -- that's par for the course. I have been slagged off for 20 years. What can they say that they haven't said already?'' But he is certainly hoping the critics would be kinder than they were to fellow pop icons The Pet Shop Boys whose gay musical ``Closer to Heaven'' was panned last year. Boy George, who plunged from the summit of pop stardom to heroin-induced depths before recovering, wants to be recognized for his music and not his make-up. ``The music is the most important thing. Because of the way I have looked over the years, people have dismissed what I'd done as a writer. I don't think I've ever been respected in the way I wanted to be as a songwriter,'' he said. He makes no secret of his own sexual proclivities but he doesn't want ``Taboo'' to be seen as an exclusively gay musical. ``What we assume in the show is that everyone has a multitude of sexual values and possibilities. As far as I'm concerned, we are all queer, we are all straight. It's not a gay or straight world, it's not a gay or straight show.'' At the age of 40, Boy George has carved a new career as a globe-trotting disc jockey as well as re-forming Culture Club, writing a newspaper column and penning a memorably frank autobiography -- ``Take It Like A Man.'' But after watching the gruelling rehearsals for ``Taboo'' he is certainly in no hurry to take up acting -- and he watched nervously from the back of the stalls as his rollercoaster life was played out in front of him. ``I watch what they do and I couldn't do it,'' he said. ``That is why I became a rock star because I was lazy.'' |
| REAL CITIES - JANUARY, 29, 2002 |
| “Taboo”, written by the former Culture Club singer, was staged on the 300-seat Venue theatre on Leicester Square in London in front of a packed house of stars. With unknown actor Euan Morton playing the younger Boy George, “Taboo” takes theatregoers back to the 1980s when his group topped charts with songs like “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” and “I’ll Tumble For Ya.” The production reconstructs a London club scene filled with eccentric cross-dressers, and takes the audience from pop stardom to heroin addiction to his discovery of Eastern spirituality. On Tuesday's opening night Boy George was joined by celebrities, including many of the characters whose stories contribute to the production. The singer -- who is now a DJ -- confessed that he had been nervous but said he was very pleased with the way “Taboo” had been received. "I was very quiet before the performance which is unlike me, but now it's over I'm thrilled that everyone seems to have enjoyed it so much," the performer told the UK’s Press Association. Teenage singer Charlotte Church accompanied by former Steps star H were among the celebrities present at the premiere. After the show Church said she had thoroughly enjoyed the show even though she was not born when Boy George first found fame. “I didn’t really have the context for many of the references but production is fantastic,” she said. “The songs, the acting, the singing and the dancing were all magnificent and I really loved it,” she told PA. H added: “It wasn’t what I had expected at all but I thought it was brilliant.” Also in the audience were former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, Lord Lloyd-Webber and Lily Savage star Paul O’Grady. |
| CNN - JANUARY, 30, 2002 |
| YAHOO NEWS - JANUARY, 30, 2002 |
| LONDON (Reuters) - Young unknown Euan Morton has won rave reviews for his uncannily accurate portrayal of gender bender pop icon Boy George in the new clubland musical "Taboo." And his biggest fan was Boy George who felt like he was looking on two sides of the same mirror. "It is weird. The first time I saw him in make-up, that was spooky," the gay pop icon told Reuters before the show's world premiere on Tuesday night. Reviews for the musical, which takes theatregoers back to the drug-filled Eighties when flamboyant cross-dressers reigned supreme, were mixed from theatre critics. But Boy George's startling double was warmly praised. The Evening Standard, which rated the show as only adequate, said on Wednesday: "Euan Morton, the spitting image of George with the same walk, beam of a smile and high-held chin, puts up a quite brilliant performance." The Times agreed, saying: "You wouldn't believe how Boy George-ish Euan Morton is." The Daily Mail said: "Boy George is impersonated with uncanny accuracy by Euan Morton" and concluded "George obviously has a new sort of theatrical future if he wants it enough." Reliving the glory days of clubland, show business glitterati turned out in force for the premiere where Boy George was determined the critics would not spoil his big night out. "I really don't care," he told Reuters before the show's launch. "People are going to slag it off -- that's par for the course. I have been slagged off for 20 years. What can they say that they haven't said already?" |
| MIRROR - JANUARY, 30, 2002 |
| IN the golden days before a new generation of trendsetters inevitably came along and stole the limelight, Boy George and his flamboyant friends thought they owned the world.They didn't. And that was their tragedy. For much of Taboo - George's musical about that long-gone New Romantic era - there is an almost irritating feeling that these people really believed they were somehow doing something truly different. That dressing up as women and being openly gay was shocking. But in the second half of this wonderfully tuneful and entertaining production, Boy George shows us he is still very much an artist to be reckoned with. This is a story of inexorable decline. In their heyday during the early 80s, George's entourage - Philip Sallon, Marilyn, Leigh Bowery, Steve Strange and the gang - became fixtures in the Press. The trouble was they believed it. With the exception of Mr O'Dowd, they burned out all too soon. For much of Taboo - attended last night by some of George's ageing pals, as well as luminaries like Andrew Lloyd Webber, H from Steps and, of all people, Charlotte Church - it seemed the poignancy of this almost generic fall from grace would not be noted. But in the searingly honest denouement, it most certainly is. Leigh Bowery, the over-the-top cross dresser who launched the real life Taboo club, dies of Aids. Sallon is viciously beaten up by a threatened suburbanite male. Billy, apparently an amalgam of all the heterosexual pretty boys George has ever fancied and loved in real life, is stabbed to death by a drug-dealing transvestite. George, brilliantly played by Euan Morton, descends into his own heroin hell, from which he emerges to establish himself as a lasting player on the London scene and create this excellent musical. Taboo works because the songs are good, the singing excellent and the performances exceptional. Paul Baker is excellent as Philip Sallon and Matt Lucas is memorable as the awful Leigh Bowery Gemma Craven also deserves mention for her efforts portraying Josie, the frustrated commuterland mother of Billy. Do yourself a favour, go and see this fascinating look at a forgotten piece of modern history. |