Taboo - Good or Not??- Page 2

[starlyricist]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 3:07am

no...*grumbles*. i was planning on seeing it this week. no chance of that now. urgh. makes me want to cry thinking about it.

[PrivateUniverse]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 3:12am

I actually got to see Taboo for the first and only time the week that it closed. I thought it was great fun despite it's many flaws. Raul, Euan and Jeffrey gave amazing performances and I thought the music was so lovely. I wish I could have had one more time to see it on stage.

And I agree Sammygal about Raul. His performance in The Normal Heart is the most moving performance I've ever seen on a stage. I have never cried like I did with that show.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 3:15am

Star. Sorry, it was an unexpected closing and I was upset too. I'm glad I got to see it though b/c it was so moving. You should read the play. Larry Kramer is really good.

PrivateUniverse, I'm glad you enjoyed Taboo. Euan was SO amazing. His voice hits any key! Raul was super and so was Jeff. The whole cast just made me so giddy and happy.
TNH was SO good. I'm sad it closed so soon. Everyone who saw it was moved. Never a dry eye in the house.

[Sunfish]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 3:15am

I can be considered a "loyal fan" but an unlikely one. I could not have named one Boy George tune before seeing the show, and am so far out of the expected demographic that it is laughable. I doubted I would like it, but saw it because I vaguely knew a couple of ensemble players and figured it would at least be colorful, and hey, people *were* talking about it! I was STUNNED! It was gorgeous. The score was, as other have said, fabulous. I strongly suggest you get the OBC CD...it can easily stand on it's own. The musical performances, and the arrangements, are extremely beautiful and powerful. There is a great amount of talent in the cast.

Personally, I didn't feel the book was the disaster others say it is....it was essentially two parallel stories, of George and Leigh Bowery, and if there was not much physical interaction between them (I have read that at least one significant scene was scrapped because George as Leigh wasn't able to perform it as well as it needed to be done) I still felt that their mutual pursuits of fame, fall from grace, and eventual reconciliation with "what is important in life" (and death) provided more than enough connection between them. I found it highly moving.

I honestly feel if the media had not focused on Rosie's legal problems whenever speaking of the show and if Rosie had marketed it differently, with an early release of the cast recording and aggressive work towards positive word of mouth with discount programs early on, it would have built an audience and would still be running. Updated On: 7/6/04 at 03:15 AM

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 3:19am

*claps for Sunfish*

indeed.
Taboo gave everyone something special.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 4:33pm

I loved TABOO. I didn't think George was bad in the scenes that were cut in Previews. I actually would have left a couple of them in. Plus I got to see tremendous performances by Euan, Raul, etc.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 4:49pm

I love Taboo. I never got to see it, but I have the OBCR, and I haven't stopped listening to it. Besides the fact that Raul Esparza's in it, Taboo is and will always be great. "Petrified" is an incredible song, as is "Come On in from the Outside", along with many others.

[robbiej]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 5:00pm

Am I really the only person on this site that thought it was a bit of a trainwreck???

Promising score. Fun costumes. Talented cast. But heavens! Not very well put together.

And never forget the lesson that DRUGS ARE BAD, KIDS!!!

[midtowngym]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 5:11pm

robbiej--them's FIGHTING words! No, not a trainwreck, but i will admit to an automobile fender bender...

[robbiej]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 5:16pm

Granted, it certainly wasn't CARRIE...and there were more inept musicals this season. But I couldn't, in good conscience, say it was 'good'.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 5:17pm

I watched the DVD of the London production and I had a couple of problems with bringing the show to the US. It mainly concerns the rise of the New Romantics in the UK during the 80s. This was a very specific and notable period in British pop culture, but not at all in the US, so it was going to be a hard sell over here from the beginning. Boy George is commonly known in the US for his gender-beding look and for a couple of hit songs, but he was not as big an icon here as in the UK. Leigh Bowery is only known by a very very small group in the US of mostly 20th century pop art cult fans or modern art history and fashion freaks. He was much more known in the UK, at least by reputation if not by his work.

Therefore, the show would have to accomplish two things:

1. Educate the audience as to who these people are and why they are important enough to spend $100 of our money and 2-3 hours of our time.

2. Magnify the universal core of the characters that allows the audience to identify them and empathize with at least one of them so that we can emotionally embrace the story.

Now, I never saw the Broadway production, but the London show did neither of these things. I learned that the New Romantic movement claimed to have something to do with "art", but it wasn't clear how it tied into the drugs and cross-dressing. It seemed that it was something of a second Bohemian movement, but without the idealism of basing its principles on emotional morality as a direct response of the intellectual coldness of society. And personally, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. They were all either mean or stupid and did little to try and better the situations they bitched about. I had the same feeling (yet worse) when I saw Closer to Heaven, the Pet Shop Boys musical that paraded similar characters in a similar story, but set in the present. Add to that, an unfocused story that cannot decide whose story is being told or for what reason and a rather anticlimactic, tepid, and abrupt ending and I felt the show needed a triple bypass in order to attempt a commercial tourist Broadway audience. Apparently, the surgery was not a success.

[J.]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 5:19pm

What were the more inept musicals this season?

[Cyndy]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 6:58pm

I saw TABOO three times and really enjoyed it. Like Sunfish (hi ya!!) I'm probably not your "typical" TABOO target audience either. I loved the score, the performances (both the originals and the understudies for Leigh, Philip, and Big Sue), and I had no problem with the book. I guess I was pleasantly surprised with this show and wish it had had a longer run.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 7:05pm

Mister Matt, I get where you're coming from.
I saw the production many many times and I felt like I understood the characters, got where they were and even though I'm not an ex-pop star doing drugs, I understood what it felt like to want to be loved and want attention.
I also saw they were all outcasts and weren't always accepted and I think people who are "weird" like m'self could look at that and be like "they understand."
I think there were universal themes if you looked at it and there was a real heart to it.
Everytime I saw it, I felt at home. That was enough to keep me coming back for more. and SUPER GRACIOUS CAST!

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:39pm

Does anyone else see Taboo sort of as Rocky Horror? Rocky Horror did well in London, bombed on Broadway and then developed a cult following. Hopefully we will see a revival of Taboo that was as good as the Rocky Horror revival.

[Sunfish]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:43pm

>>>And never forget the lesson that DRUGS ARE BAD, KIDS!!! <<<

hey robbiej, cute quip, but since seeing the show I've read Boy George's autobiography and it is harrowing. In this case, drugs were very bad indeed. It's not a made up story, the guy lived it.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:48pm

bwayboy88, I agree! There are a bunch of us "cult followers" and soon it shall be back I say! And with fixing, all shall love :)

[Sunfish]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:49pm

SammyGal...

>>>Mister Matt, I get where you're coming from.
I saw the production many many times and I felt like I understood the characters, got where they were and even though I'm not an ex-pop star doing drugs, I understood what it felt like to want to be loved and want attention.<<<

The London storyline is substantially different from the Broadway one, so methinks we're talking apples and oranges. I think most of us are talking about the Broadway production here, though. I also felt the Universal Themes were there in the Broadway production.

Updated On: 7/6/04 at 11:49 PM

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:51pm

yea I read his autobio too. Drugs took him down, made his relationship and band fail. Its sad to see what it did to the real Marilyn as well. Dangerous stuff.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:53pm

i'd like to see that happen, BwayBoy....i think the material deserves it. The show stands out in my memory for two really great moments, which may be the same two that RobbieJ hated, but that's why Baskin Robbins has so many flavors. The first moment was the quintet in Act Two (i don't own the CD so i don't have the song list in front of me) and the second was when Bowery's wife (the AMAZING Sarah Uriate Berry) pulled the hospital curtain across the proscenium, and real-life video of the show's visuals and shared-lead characterization inspiration were projected. The song was gorgeous, she brought it home with honesty while singing the **** out of it, and it made me want to know more about the "New Romantics", a movement i pretty much ignored as being fatuous. i shouldn't have been that dismissive, as in many ways it prefigured Performance Art. i also loved the moment where the disco ball on the junk heap "re-animated" and the general look of the pre-show, thanks to that same disco ball and the very interesting lighting---another example of a metaphor we thought we knew everything about somewhat re-invented in an interesting way. i didn't get to see Liz McCartney (a big disappointment as i think she is a powerhouse) but the Big Sue i did see delivered a power ballad like gangbusters (in Act Two as well, hhhhhmmm perhaps Act One was a bit slow as i look back). But so many shows have a great first act and tread water in act two, this one really built into the most powerful things toward the conclusion. i do think Busch can write a good book, but i'm not sure Rosie's taste (if the tabloids can be believed) was objective enough to get said book delivered as intended or as it needed to be. One viewing of ALLERGIST'S WIFE or a chapter or two of Busch's novels will tell you his voice is an interesting one, and well-suited for musicals.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:53pm

I didn't know George had an autobiography! I realy want to read it now... what's it called?

[Sunfish]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:54pm

Actually, poor George was destroying his relationship and band long before the drugs showed up. With a goodly amount of help from his partner. Both of them utterly unstable emotionally. Thank god we didn't see the punching portrayed in Marcus!!

[Sunfish]

Posted: 7/6/04 at 11:58pm

luv the Emcee, Boy George's autobiography is called "Take it Like a Man" and was printed in 1995.

[SammyGal]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 12:00am

It's called "Take It Like A Man"
He's releasing a sequel next year. He'll be talking about Taboo on broadway in it!

You see a little of the aggression right before they broke up when Marcus threatened to punch him and screams "why are you doing this to me?" Then they broke up and he sang "I See Through You"

AND TxTwoStep, I agree and agree some more!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 12:01am

Thanks Sunfish and Sammy!

Updated On: 7/7/04 at 12:01 AM