TABOO - What was wrong?

Double post.

Updated On: 10/31/05 at 03:23 AM

E-u-A-n. Thank you.

The reviews regarding the show sucked. I'm pretty sure most of the reviews on Euan were good. I think most of the reviews can still be accessed.

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Haven't we done this already?

A lot of the problem was in the book. I remember that I knew very little about Boy George when I saw the show, and so much was missing from the story that at the end, when all of these people came together, I was a bit confused about how some of the relationships were as close as the final scene was telling me they were -- it seemed like pieces of the story were missing. I hadn't seen these relationships develop. In fact, some of the characters hardly interacted at all; maybe one mentioned the other one one line here and there, but that's not enough. The parts of the story we had weren't poorly written, per se -- they could've been worse, but it was confusing.

It was also geared to such a small group. I remember my dad driving me over to the box office to get tickets, and he looked at the marquees and things and went "why would you EVER pay money to see Boy George?" I think people were afraid of it.

ETA -- I realized how negative that all sounded. I loved the show anyway. I think the score is brilliant, George deserved that Tony. And the cast was perfect.

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Updated On: 10/31/05 at 08:17 AM

When I heard about it, saw the cast recording but did not buy, I thought it looked awful, like nothing I'd ever want to see. I pretty much had to be forced to experience it, and it's one of my favorite shows of all time. I'd say marketing.

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As I said before, yep, Rosie.

While i think Rosie did have a lot to do with the show's demise, there we some MAJOR problems in the show as well.

The book
As stated before some of the characters just did not interact. The biggest problem for me was the leigh/george relationship. They were suppose to be besties and leigh this huge influence and yet they never talked to eachother...they never interacted. Also Boy George's acting was ATROCIOUS. Some of the scenes were played completely incorrectly. The best example of this is 'ich bin kunst.' With george in the role it was this super campy, kind of lame song that was just kind of liek 'oh look he thinks he is art.' If one looks at the song knowing the placement and character arc it can be an INCREDIBLE emotional ride. The song, i think, is suppose ot be him getting fed up with people starting to lose notice of him and it starts out as him being all wierd and leigh like but ends with im screaming, pleading for people to notice him.
Direction: some of the direction was god awful... the huge video show of leighs death was comical instead of sad and the show just felt a bit sloppy. It was also hard to understand/hear the music because it was so freakin loud. It wasn't until i got the cast recording that i realized how good the music actually was.

actually a lot of the book changes were because boy george can't act so a lot of his character's scene's were cut.

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Why is everyone so quick to blame Rosie? Because you can, or because you actually know what went wrong?

I highly doubt that any of you have any idea what the exact reason for the shows cold reception was, but don't be so quick to blame Rosie.

This show was in trouble before it even began. This show could have had a brilliant book, a smart marketing team, and flawless direction - and it still would not have succeeded simply because it's a musical about BOY GEORGE. Who is interested in Boy George anymore? Absolutely no one. To be honest, I thoughthe was dead until this came around. No one - particularly tourists- are going to pay money to see a show starring, by, and about an 80's gay cultural pop icon that people stopped caring about 10 years earlier.

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For me, the main problem was the book and the score didn't really fit together. The songs were written to go with the London storyline. On Broadway,they wrote a completely different story but most of the songs were the same so they didn't fit. They either should have written new songs to fit the new story. Or kept the story similar to the London one, so the songs would tell the story.
I don't buy the idea that it was doomed to fail because people aren't interested in Boy George. There are many plays and musicals that I have enjoyed that have been about things that I personally don't have an interest in. If the book is well done, it will make you care about the subject matter and understand a different world than the one you know.
But the way they approached the book, they sort of assumed that you already knew all about and cared about Boy George and his friends, instead of making you care. Like someone said, a lot of the relationships weren't fleshed out, particulary the relationship between George and Leigh, and also between Geroge and his boyfriend.

Updated On: 10/31/05 at 12:36 PM

I agree with marketing. But the story I think sort of sucks too. I think they should have threw away the Boy George storyline. The fact that it was marketed as a Boy George musical kept a lot of people away i'm sure. I think if it was just about this teen finding himself in the London night life sort of thing, it would have worked wonderfully - or like a group of friends finding themsevles in the city - sort of like RENT in London. The music is great. I love the OBC. Maybe they should have tried an out of town tryout in like San Fran. or something?

NOTHING WAS WRONG. THE STORY WAS GREAT THE MUSIC WAS AMAZING AS WERE THE ACTORS. WHAT WENT WRONG.

THE CRITICS WERE SMOKING CRACK.... as usual

It was intended to be a balanced juxtaposition of Leigh Bowery and Boy George's lives at that time. It just wasn't as sharp and balanced as it could have been.

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