TABOO headed for disaster

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 10:47am

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/9979.htm

[RobbO]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 11:09am

if, in fact, it is indeed "TABOO," then why do we all talk about it?!?

[HandsUp]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 11:17am

I wonder if the people who bash TABOO have seen it. The music is beautiful, the talent is excellent and it's fun to watch. I wish it well and hope it runs forever.

HandsUp

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 11:56am

i've seen it and i don't agree that this is bashing the show. there are structural problems with the show that by all accounts they are not addressing. this article also puts the lie to those who feel that it's all rosie bashing by making it clear that she was ready to do the hard thing and postpone. but please, chris ashley? what's agonizing is that there is a hit in there, but it looks more and more like we'll never see it. my ol' daddy had a saying. "wish in one hand and s*** in the other and see which one gets full first." i wish taboo all the best to, but i hope that they recognize that they could have a hit and act appropriately to secure it.

[Cadriel]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 11:58am

~sigh~ Egos and directors and producers not willing to put the foot down killing a retooled import show that could be good.

Have we ever heard of that before?

-Wayne
Guess which shows I'm thinking of!

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 12:07pm

DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES?

[RobbO]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 12:08pm

[Cadriel]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 12:16pm

bwaylyric gets one. There's another on my mind, of course.

-Wayne

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 12:35pm

Ya know, it's funny....I don't care enough about TABOO to buy a ticket - the antics of 80s club kids and Boy George just does not interest me.

But I would be thoroghly tickled if they really pulled this sucker off and made it a hit.

Yes, Rosie's an impossible out-of-control bitch-on-wheels. But for all her insanity, her heart is in the right place. Whatever her faults, she's put her $$$$ towards backing a BRAND NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL. Not a revival. Not a cut and paste show.

Updated On: 11/5/03 at 12:35 PM

[robyn525600]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 1:05pm

Either way, something needs to be done to save this show because the way it is now, it will not run for long.

[PGrant]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 1:08pm

I saw the show last night and really loved it. Still, while you're in previews, I would like to suggest a few cuts, ideas.

Overall, I had wished that the musical arrangements could have been more evocative of the 80s. For example, the number that opens up the second act is excellent while the number that opens up the show pales in comparison. Why? Well maybe because it is harmonically more rooted in the music hall tradition, and that's fine, but a different arrangement would make it more exciting. It seemed more obligatory than generating the sense of excitement/suspense that I was hoping for.

Admittedly the show is ballad-heavy, especially in the second act where every main character has their "show stopper" solo, all in a row (with the exception of "Ich Bin Kunst", more on that to follow). If a verse was trimmed from each of these (with the exception of "Il Adore" which is perfect and very moving) you could pick up the pace considerably, probably trimming close to 15 min. off the running time (we got out of there a little after 10:45) and, I feel, would help out the show for the American audiences.

Speaking of "Il Adore"', the use of video projection was brilliant. It makes me think that more of this, in the first act and in the larger production numbers, on screens that flew down over the super-structure would be very welcome in conveying a sense of the 80s: chronilogically correct events of the times, etc. etc.

"Ich Bin Kunst", while off to a great start, fell flat at the end. When the costumed characters entered I felt that a different choreography could have put them to better use. The costumes alone, while stunning, didn't give the ending of the number the punch that I feel was intended, and a little more punch was needed. You could feel it in the audience. A pumped up musical arrangement toward the end wouldn't hurt either. I'm not speaking of Leigh Bowery's coda where the platform recedes upstage, but just before that. Also, this is one number that breaks up the sameness of the ballad-after-ballad format mentioned above.

All in all, it is a great show and I wish you all a tremendous success on Broadway.

All the best,
Patrick Grant

[sheekala]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 1:11pm

Nice post Patrick, yopu'll be quoted asap in the new e-mail blast! Seriously ,I agree with much of what you just suggested.

[Al Dente]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 6:09pm

Wait a second, you mean Rosie had the chance to get rid of the incompetent Chris Renshaw and caved to the bloated Boy George? Well, I guess we all make choices and we all have to suffer the consequences. Replacing Renshaw could have *possibly* saved this show, or at the very least, kept it from being a laughing stock. I've said all along, Renshaws the main culprit in all that's wrong with Taboo.

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 6:19pm

Well I think that the community of theatre lovers should rise up against Reidel - he is such a nasty negative force that loves the downfall of shows more than success and will spread nasty rumours and conjecture to get his way...

I am all for fair apppraisals of what people have seen on stage and if this version of Taboo sucks then it sucks..... but some of the so called theatre lovers that post to boards are not much better than Reidel either !!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/5/03 at 6:24pm

I can't even take Reidel seriously, he's just a contrarian, one of those people who will say anything to get people talking about him because that's what's important to him.

Frickin' Niles Crane Wannabe.

[Horsey]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 2:42am

WHO GIVES A RAT'S A*S?

[alterego]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 8:16am

I can't help but think what was a nice little hit in London in a 300(? )seat theatre has been blown way out proportion. Perhaps Rosie O'Donnell should have brought over that production , put it into somewhere like the Minetta Lane Theatre where it might have found an audience. For all the money that has been spent on it, is it a better show? Has anyone here seen it in London and on Broadway?

[sheekala]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 8:29am

When word came she was bringing it to the US, I thought, what a great show to put into the Variety Arts Theater, it's near NYU and has a downtown location that would be perfect. Having it in a Broadway house is just foolish, I wonder how many other small shows would of had success if they opened in smaller houses? In the long run I think the current LSOH would of been better for the long haul if it opened in a smaller venue.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 8:35am

I thought the same thing, Sheekala. But you know what, Rosie's a fan of Broadway the way a lot of people who post here are fans of Broadway. They're barely aware of things that aren't ON Broadway, shows in Off-Broadway houses barely register in their consciousness. It's almost as if Broadway represents the varsity team and they aren't willing to do any time in the junior varsity. And I wish Rosie had, before doing a cannonball in the deep end of the pool as she did with this show.

[Al Dente]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 9:04am

The show Taboo reminded me so much of, the now defunct, Radiant Baby. The two are almost identical, in theme, stageing, costumes in their use of pop music, etc... Baby even had a more than competent director at it's helm. I recall it not even selling enough tickets to complete it's intended run. That's all I'm saying.

[sheekala]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 9:44am

Yeah,Al the flaws are pretty powerful at the moment, I honestly think the whole thing would of been better of if Boy himself was not a part of it, his character is a distraction at the moment.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 10:03am

Well, the folks who thought the timing of the trial and the TABOO opening might give good copy were right. After hearing how Rosie insulted a cancer survivor, the public at large -- forget the theater community -- might actively boycott her show. Rosie's celebrity was supposed to help sell tickets; it may keep customers away in droves. The feedback this a.m. on the cancer remark was the strongest vitriol yet. Can she come back from that?

All the posts here make damned good points -- but has this show reached the point of no return? Where it's simply impossible to walk in, see it, and evaluate it with any objectivity?

If you look at this as the publicists do ... this media story needs a twist -- and TABOO becoming a surprise hit feels like the only one that's not predictable. Me, I'd welcome any outcome to circumvent Reidel's "I told ya!" gloating over disaster.

Updated On: 11/6/03 at 10:03 AM

[Al Dente]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 1:17pm

If more people realized what Reidel's agenda is, they'd stop reading/worrying about a thing he said. His sole reason for existence is the quest for Fame. It makes him pitiful above anything else. But I digress.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/6/03 at 2:44pm

Point about Reidel and his agenda is well taken. Some kids grow up wanting to be Margo, or Eve ... or even Ms Caswell. Some want to be Addison de Witt. But to end up a mere Addison wannabe, backed by the Murdoch machine ... Ugh.

[alterego]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 8:20am

Taboo in it's original staging is just about to head out on a provincial tour in the UK.