50 Favourite Musicals: 16: TABOO (2002) (Boy George, Kevan Frost, John Themis, Richie Stevens / Boy George)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

 First performed: 2002, Venue Theatre

First seen by me: as above

Productions seen: one

Score: Boy George, Kevan Frost, John Themis, Richie Stevens
Book: Mark Davies

Plot: The fictional Billy James leaves his drab suburban life for the excitement of Soho and London in the early 1980s, where he witnesses the rivalry between underground club icons Leigh Bowery and Philip Salon and the birth of a pop icon as George O'Dowd becomes Boy George...

Five memorable numbers: PETRIFIED, STRANGER IN THIS WORLD, TALK AMONG YOURSELVES, LOVE IS A QUESTION MARK, OUT OF FASHION

There hopefully comes a moment when you are seeing a new musical when you realize the show really has won you over and you can just RELAX - the show is working and you have heard enough of the score to know it will be a keeper.  With Boy George's TABOO that magical moment happened about a third of the way in when two of the fictional characters in the show, Billy and Kim, realize that their verbal fencing is hiding the fact that they are in love but are too scared to give in to these feelings.  There are bigger numbers in the show but "Love Is A Question Mark" was so well-placed and winningly performed by Lucy Newton and Luke Evans that it hit that new musical sweet spot.  It also confirmed that rather than just a jukebox show squeezing in any Culture Club song to fit a plot moment, Boy George had written an excellent musical theatre score - I had already heard scene-setting ensemble numbers, an 'I want' number, an introspective solo and a comedy duet - and there was more to come!  My Saturday matinee ticket came through my Flashbanks shop customer Adam Longworth who was on that afternoon playing the larger-than-life club legend and designer Leigh Bowery and he was excellent in the role.  But the show was packed with vital performances that spilled off the split-level stage and filled the intimate space of The Venue off Leicester Square.

In the two main roles Euan Morton was sensational as the mouthy young George O'Dowd finding fame but not happiness as Boy George and Paul Baker was on Olivier Award-winning form as the eccentric Philip Sallon.  Lyn Paul was surprisingly good as Josie, Billy's put-upon mother who also discovers liberation in Soho, David Burt gave two contrasting examples of toxic masculinity, John Partridge was a charismatic Marilyn and Drew Jaymson as Steve Strange was marvellous in the "Out Of Fashion" quartet.  In later visits to Christopher Renshaw's production, we saw Declan Bennett as Billy, Jackie Clune and Mari Wilson as contrasting Josies, and finally we saw Boy George himself as Leigh Bowery, an extraordinary and dangerous performance - it was a terrifying experience when he came into the audience during ICH BIN KUNST, his ad-libs were toxic but delicious!  US star Rosie O'Donnell saw the show and personally produced it on Broadway - TABOO ran for nearly a year and a half in London but on Broadway it ran for only three unhappy months.  TABOO was re-written for New York with new characters and songs added and in the melee of all this, the theatre columnist for The New York Post Michael Reidel took aim at Rosie O'Donnell and put out bad publicity on a regular basis about the show and despite a devoted audience following it was not enough to survive.  Despite all this, it achieved four Tony Award nominations including a deserved nod for Boy George's excellent score.  The Broadway production also won Euan Morton a Theatre World Award and Raul Esparza won a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Philip Sallon.  TABOO's Broadway life is wonderfully covered in Dori Berinstein's documentary film SHOWBUSINESS: THE ROAD TO BROADWAY but more wonderful than that, the original London production was filmed and released on DVD and while it would never win any awards for filming, it does capture the excitement of being in that theatre for that show.  Another reason TABOO is very special show for me as it was Owen and I's first Christmas theatre trip.

So... what to choose to illustrate this fabulous show?  Here is Euan Morton as George and his spine-chilling rendition of STRANGER IN THIS WORLD with contributions from Luke Evans and Lyn Paul

but I have to include the Boy himself so here he is singing ICH BIN KUNST, recreating Leigh Bowery's 1988 'residency' in the windows of the Anthony d'Offay gallery in Bond Street...

CLOSER TO HEAVEN is still out of reach

Since it's unsuccessful first run in 2001 I have often wondered when the Pet Shop Boys musical CLOSER TO HEAVEN would get a revival.  Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's electronic score finds room for both their signature dance beats and their introspective ballads and I've played the original cast recording regularly over the years.

Despite showcasing a magnificent star performance from Frances Barber as the drug-addled Eurotrash hostess Billie Trix, the original production foundered at the Arts Theatre after 5 months with most critics pointing the finger at Jonathan Harvey's paper-thin book which fundamentally damaged the show despite the goodwill that the score and cast generated.

But now - and I might have guessed this would be the case - the enterprising Union Theatre in Southwark have revived the show and the fact that it sold out in a few days shows that I wasn't the only one wanting to see it again.  I had hoped that Harvey's book would be re-hauled for this second twirl round the go-go pole.  Sadly that is not the case - and it looks even more threadbare on the unadorned Union stage.

I suspect that this is also down to the equally threadbare casting.  Like the Bridewell Theatre in the 1990s, it's great to have a theatre which regularly stages musicals that otherwise would not be revived but it must be said that the shows are cast with performers from the second or third rungs of performers.  A scan through the programme mostly reveal understudies, fringe and regional productions, cruise ship performers or first-job from Drama School.  Now I know everyone has to start somewhere... but not the lead surely?

CLOSER THAN HEAVEN follows two young characters whose lives intersect at a Soho gay club run by Vic, a hard-drinking, hard-snorting self-confessed "vampire" who lives at night.  Vic's daughter Shell from a short-lived straight relationship makes contact with him after many years and they struggle to establish a relationship.  At the same time, the effortlessly sexy - and Irish - Straight Dave arrives looking for work as a bartender although he soon establishes himself as the club's lead dancer.

Shell and Dave are attracted to each other and through her job as a PA to a gay record producer Bob Saunders, Dave is lined up to be the new member of his boy band Up & Coming.  Dave warily keeps the nasty Saunders at arm's length but finds himself attracted to the surly Mile End Lee, a young drug dealer who supplies Vic and his temperamental Eurotrash hostess Billie Trix in drugs.

Vic tries to clean up his life and club to impress Shell but when he discovers Mile End Lee delivering a large drugs package to Billie, he fires her and confiscates it.  Shell sees Dave and Lee getting physical in the club toilet and she dumps him.  Lee and Dave have a night together but Dave later dies from a ketamine overdose.  Dave becomes a pop star in his own right.

The End.

All the characters are expertly introduced during the opening number MY NIGHT but after the interval, Harvey's anorexic book starts coming apart at the seams.  Vic, Shell and Billie are neglected midway through the second act as the spotlight is switched to Straight Dave and Mile End Lee who promptly dies which leads to the big eleven o'clock teary ballad FOR ALL OF US, but it's efforts to get the tear ducts working fail because we are being asked to care for a secondary character who has had minimal effect on our sympathies up until then.

The show's climax - Dave's ascent to stardom - is unexplained and is obviously there to end the show with an uptempo number - but in this revival, the original last number, the excellent Barry White-sampled POSITIVE ROLE MODEL is ditched for VOCAL, a track from the last Pet Shop Boys album.

Director Gene David Kirk plods through the troublesome second act relying on the lights, music and his seven-strong ensemble to bump their crotches - no hiding when you are in the front row believe me - and grind their bums to hopefully distract from the paucity of content.  Said ensemble are excellent by the way but sadly Owen pointed out the similarity in Philip Joel's choreography to the famous, embarrassing flailing-about of Westlife's first appearance on Irish TV.  Once pointed out I couldn't get it out of my mind.

As in the original production some actors made the most of what they had to work with.  Although a bit shrill, I liked Amy Matthews' Shell as well as Craig Berry's blokey Vic while Ken Christiansen made the most of the viperous Bob Saunders.  Praise too for Ben Kavanagh as Flynn, Saunders' bitchy assistant.

The main problem was in the performances of Katie Meller as Billie Trix and Jared Thompson as Straight Dave.  As I said above, Frances Barber created a wonderful sacre monstre that covered up some of the dodgy, fag-haggy type lines Harvey gives her and sang her big solo FRIENDLY FIRE with a world-weary sadness that was really stopped the show.  Sadly Meller just doesn't have the wattage to deliver, her casting is a complete mystery other than I guess she's affordable.

Jared Thompson was even more problematic.  Paul Keating played Straight Dave at the Arts and was believable as the sexually-confused new kid on the go-go box while also being charismatic enough to make you believe in the other characters' interest in him but Thompson appears to not so much act as point his lantern jaw, floppy hair and erect nipples at people.  There was another more irritating problem - I had to laugh when he lisped through the line "Why does everyone think I'm gay".  Because they have ears?  What made me truly baffled though was in Thompson's duet with Connor Brabyn's Mile End Lee in the second act, Brabyn showed he had an excellent, strong singing voice - how on earth was he not cast as the lead?

So there we are, CLOSER TO HEAVEN has been revived and it is still has problems.  Not the first time a great score has been allied to a weak book but all the more frustrating when you can see it's obvious potential.  I am guessing we might not see another production anytime soon.

PSB have been very supportive of the show which is good of them and Neil Tennant was actually in the third row at our performance - I was quite sanguine about it, I only looked round a handful of times!  Oh for the chance to question him about what he really thinks of it.

I have been playing the original cast recording ever since seeing it and believe that this show could be successful if they dropped Jonathan Harvey's script which has all the depth of a Boyz magazine comic strip.

Three months after CLOSER TO HEAVEN closed, Boy George's TABOO opened a few minutes walk away from the Arts and ran for over a year.  Both dealt with gay club culture, had a bisexual leading character and of course both had scores by artists who had come to prominence in the 1980s.  In retrospect I think why TABOO survived was down to a sympathetic, inclusive outlook which CLOSER TO HEAVEN ultimately lacks.  You simply don't care for any of Harvey's characters no matter how good the songs they are singing.