Taboo

[th]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 1:54pm

Will this show ever tour?

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 2:09pm

I really hope it does! But I'm not sure they'll do that because they're not sure if it will make $$ anywhere.
Tis a shame cause I can tell you it was one of the most influential shows for me.
It's touring in London though so if you ever have a chance to go there, it's ending in late July I think.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 3:09pm

I saw we start a petition for a Taboo movie! It worked for Rocky Horror, why not Taboo?

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:07pm

Let's DO IT! :)

It has a cult following, if it goes crazy, then it can become RHPS-like! Where's Marc? He'll know how to start this!

[newyorkuniq]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:15pm

I am a big fan of the Taboo London recording. Not the NYC one so much.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:23pm

really ? I found the Broadway one to be better but it's all opinions and it's all Taboo!
:)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:33pm

Never happen. Simple fact of show business -- shows that run for three months and lose their entire $10 milion investments don't then go out on tour to continue losing even more money. If a show about the gay underground London club scene of the 80's couldn't find an audience in New York City, it would do even worse (if that's possible) out on the road.

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:35pm

I've had the London recording for months, but I got the Broadway one two weeks ago and I'm addicted!

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 4:36pm

It DID find an audience. We all miss it. It had its mini-cult following. It didn't find nice critics. *cough Riedel cough* People listen to word of mouth and Taboo isn't Wicked.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:12pm

Rosie listened to her business managers. It had nothing whatsoever to do with critics -- Bombay Dreams is running with very healthy profits every week and it got terrible reviews across the board. The fact is it never found enough of an audience to sustain it. It's not a show that appealed to families and to tourists, which, like it or not, are the bread and butter of Broadway (that ad with Leigh Bowery cruising at a urinal didn't help matters much either). The fact is that the show NEVER broke even in any given week. Not once (in fact ticket sales were so bad, she was going into her pocket weekly to the tune of $100K to make up for the shortfall). Even afer Rosie made an appeal saying if the fans of the show could get the box office up to 70% attendance, it STILL didn't happen and she had to close it. Critics don't close shows -- and Riedel's a columnist not a critic -- poor box office closes shows.

Part of it was Rosie's fault for (novice producer mistakes) not doing a direct mail campaign and not offering discounts during previews to help build word-of-mouth -- both are standard marketing tactics, but she thought she could somehow sell the show on the internet. Dumb idea. Instead of doing what Rocky Horror, Rent and other youth-oriented shows did and really all but give away tickets to the under-40 crowd to help build momentum, she kept every ticket at $100 (there was a student discount, but that wasn't enough) and as a result the mezz was mostly empty most nights (they were doing 40-50% attendance some weeks), when she could have had it full every night with Boy George fans and 80's music fans. By the time the reviews came out, which were actually not all that bad for the most part -- everyone praised Boy George's score, the costumes, Esparza and the rest of the cast; most of the negative comments were directed at the staging and the book, both of which were quite weak -- there wasn't enough strong word-of-mouth out there to help build the audience and the show started just hemorrhaging money. By the time she did finally start offering discounts a month or so before closing, it was already too late. Even Rosie acknowledges she screwed up marketing the show and that it deserved a better fate than it got.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:17pm

Not to mention that everytime the show was plugged with a TV spot, she was teh one out there, sometimes with Boy George in fantastical make-up at side, yapping about it.... Would have done better if she had stayed out and let Euan do the talking and sing anumber or two.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:19pm

Euan would have brought in the $$.
He brought me back week after week.
le sigh. <3

[JakeB]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:22pm

The Taboo UK tour I saw did very good business. It was very funny (the show, not the capacity).

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:24pm

I was dying to see the tour but I think I'm going to England at the end of the summer
How was Stephen Ashfield?

[JakeB]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:27pm

Everyone was good - it was a very polished show.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:30pm

Good to hear, Good Good. :)
Taboo!love<333

[EVGIRL]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:38pm

In this week's Time Out, there is a piece on Charles Busch. He is quoted as saying, "I will never again get closer to a musical than Row C center". LOL. A little bitter there, Charles. Rumor has it that his original book was changed so much during rehearsals that he really hated what they ended up with. Apparently, he doesn't like writing musicals because the book writer is the low man on the totem pole. The tone of the musical is more determined by the score writers, but when something goes wrong the book writer is blamed. It seems to me if he had that attitude toward musicals he shouldn't have agreed to do the book in the first place. I also agree with everything Margo said above about the marketing mistakes that Rosie made. I think the ad and press campaign focused way too much on Leigh Bowery at least early on. There are still Boy George and Culture Club fans out there; there are hardly any Leigh Bowery fans.

I stil think it could tour in gay friendly cities like San Francisco, Boston and DC, in smaller edgier venues with a more focused book (maybe reducing the Leigh storyline and focusing more on George and his boyfriend), but I don't know who would be willing to take a risk and fund it. Updated On: 7/10/04 at 05:38 PM

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:41pm

good point EVGirl. I heard they changed the book a ton too but he didn't seemed phased by it till after the show didn't do well. Can't blame him for feeling blah about it.

It should tour in those areas. Where's Rosie?! haha

[EVGIRL]

Posted: 7/10/04 at 5:54pm

I'm not sure if he changed his mind about it after it didn't do well, or whether he felt blah about it all the time, but didn't say anything at the time. It's not very good policy to say to the media you're not happy about something when you're trying to promote something, given the fact Taboo was getting plenty of bad notices from the media already.

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 11:31am

Just to let you know that the UK Taboo tour (based on the London version) closed on Saturday night after eight months on the road. The last night was packed with fans dressed up a la Rocky Horror and was the best performance of the show I've ever seen (so was the matinee, but for completely different reasons!). I think that this could have been a cult show but unless a movie is made, it's unlikely to get any kind of audience now I don't even know which is the 'official' version . . .

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 11:38am

awww that's great to hear the tour was awesome!!

I doubt it will get movie status but it def. has it's fans in London and America so maybe something can be done.

[ken8631]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 3:40pm

Another major mistake was not creating and releasing the CD MUCH earlier - the music was excellent! It would have brought more people in also. And not offering early discounts to spread how good the show was by word-of-mouth was a very poor decision. A half empty house is not good when you could have almost filled the house with discount tickets - those people bring in more people and so on.... Very poor marketing for a great show with graet music and talent. It's a shame.

[EVGIRL]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 4:43pm

I read that Rosie owns the rights to Taboo everywhere but in the UK. So the UK tour version can only be done in the UK. So to tour in the U.S. they need Rosie's approval of the script. I enjoyed the London version more for a lot of differnent reasons, but I'm not sure if the London version would have worked on Broadway, although it would have done great Off-Broadway or in alternative theatres around the U.S.

[taboo17]

Posted: 7/14/04 at 2:45pm

I spoke with the Taboo documentarian at Scott Nevins *presents* Euan Morton at Therapy a couple of weeks ago. She told me that the U.S. Taboo documentary premiere would be during Rosie's cruise. The release date is planned for September 2004.

I read the Andrew Gans article from 07/13/04, Divas Talks "At Sea": Rosie's Variety Hour. It says "O'Donnell returned to the stage to announce that the documentary about the making of Taboo would be shown at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night in the Norwegian Dawn's Cinema room".

Tonight I will be there in spirit. Can't wait until September .....

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/18/04 at 12:05pm

EVERYONE GO HERE: http://www.btinternet.com/~s.essom/taboopetition.htm

SIGN THE PETITION TO KEEP TABOO ALIVE!

I think we need a revival all ready!

REVIVAL REVIVAL REVIVAL!

hehe...