| THE BLITZ KIDS |
| TABOO REVIEWS |
| ANANOVA - JANUARY, 30 , 2002 |
| Boy George says he's thrilled the audience seemed to enjoy the opening night of the musical Taboo. The production follows George's journey from a wannabe to pop star and then charts his heroin addiction and discovery of Eastern spirituality. Among the audience at the Venue Theatre in London was Charlotte Church, who was accompanied by former Steps star H. Also attending were many of the characters who appear in the play and whose stories also contribute to the musical. After the show Boy George admitted to being nervous but said he was delighted 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," he said. Church said afterwards she thoroughly enjoyed learning about a musical era from before she was born. "I didn't really have the context for many of the references but the production is fantastic. The songs, the acting, the singing and the dancing were all magnificent and I really loved it," she said. H added: "It wasn't what I had expected at all but I thought it was brilliant." Among other celebrities at the theatre were former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, Lord Lloyd-Webber and Lily Savage star Paul O'Grady. |
| ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT - JANUARY,30, 2002, |
| 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." |