Posted on 11/16/2003 11:13:57 PM PST by lainie
The Boy George musical Taboo, a surprise hit in London, seems set for a short run in New York if the Big Apple’s critics are right.
The show opened on Broadway last night and was described as “lost and bereft as a wet cod on a fishmonger’s slab” by a New York Post critic.
The newspaper’s advance publicity for the show had so upset Boy George, who co-wrote and also stars in the musical based on his life, that the pop star banned its critic Michael Riedel from the opening night.
“Fine,” said Riedel, "I’ll cover the closing next week.”
Another Post critic wrote today: “For the most part, the score is lovely and should be a main contender at Tony time. And the performances are much better than the material that one’s heart bleeds for” the stars.
“What Taboo needed was shaping, reshaping, discarding, and a divine but shabby warehouse to play in. In other words, it needed producing.”
The New York Daily News critic wrote: “The show turns out to be more tedious than awful.
“Taboo confirms – along with Mamma Mia! and The Boy From Oz, all of which recycle hits from decades ago – that Broadway is becoming a purveyor of sloppy seconds from pop culture.”
Ben Brantley in the influential New York Times said the musical is “a disastrously overcrowded tableau of a show about hedonists who hide their hearts ... it is foolishly trying to tell the story of seven different people whose relationships become as entangled as those quaint things called phone cords used to.
“It’s not a good sign when a main character returns to the stage, and it takes you a couple of seconds to remember who he is.”
PA
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At the after party at Plaid on E. 13 St., George spent the entire evening sequestered with pals in an unlikely VIP room: the coat-check reserved for furs, mostly from those in drag. He left alone (he recently posted a personal ad on gaydar.com) but O'Donnell told us: "He and I are identical twins separated at birth. I found the puzzle piece who fits my life" - "wife" Kelli Carpenter - " and I'm sure he can."
More girly-boys in London?
Show should have opened in San Francisco....
Semper Fi
It was no fluke that salmon sure didn't like this play.
(This story fairly CRIES OUT for ichthyological puns)
I liked this one.
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