Taboo

There’s lots of good news about the ongoing and deserved success of Taboo.

First and foremost, Euan Morton is still giving his uncanny vocal and physical impersonation of Boy George, only a lot younger and a bit cuter. Around him, there are several excellent newcomers to the cast, including an extremely attractive Declan Bennett as Billy from Bromley, whose rites of passage the show charts, and Lyn Paul who brings real grit and a gutsy brassiness to the role of his devoted mum. Then there’s John Partridge, newly installed as a more aggressively edgy, more realistically human Marilyn.

But the caricature kicks in with more of a vengeance in the underwritten, over-costumed role of Leigh Bowery, especially as now newly being played by Julian Clary. “I am art, you are parody,” goes his big song, ‘Ich Bin Kunst’, but in fact that’s reversed here: the show may be art, but he is all parody. Even in heavily costumed disguise, Clary never sheds Clary, bringing his own persona of audience put-down and disdain to the role, straying damagingly off-script and draining the role of its ephemeral strangeness.

Never mind. The show is robust enough to withstand the intrusion, and remains in terrific shape. It contains one of the best indigenous scores for a British musical in years, and a young, enthusiastic audience continue to pack the room to the rafters. The National’s mostly misguided Transformation season (which recently sought to attract more youthful audiences there) could have learnt from this.

– Mark Shenton

Note: The following review dates from May 2002 and a previous cast change of this production.

The central character of Boy George’s Taboo is Boy George and, for a limited time, the production now features Boy George himself, though he’s not playing Boy George! Real-life and the hall of mirrors that the theatre can reflect, refract and distort as required, takes on an even more bizarre piquancy when you realise you’re watching a heavily autobiographical show of which the principal subject is not merely in attendance but in alternate guises onstage, at once being brilliantly impersonated by another actor while at the same time himself brilliantly impersonating another real-life character. It’s quite some trip.

Boy George has taken over from Matt Lucas in the cameo role of the late Leigh Bowery, the outrageous club personality, self-styled performance artist and artistic muse (to, amongst others, Lucian Freud who famously painted him in the nude – a sight we’re spared here). Mark Davies‘ script only provides a mere cartoon sketch of Bowery’s massive life force (a lot of what he got up to in public would not be fit for a ‘family’ musical, let alone for me to elucidate on a ‘family’ website). Happily, the chosen role means that the sight of Boy George – disguised by a variety of costumes that Bowery patented and used a lot of paint to achieve – doesn’t disrupt the balance of the show.

Euan Morton, meanwhile, remains as the uncanny version of the youthful Boy. Though a few stone lighter, Morton’s physical similarity to the pop icon is remarkable; he also sings gorgeously and captures that extraordinary vulnerability, at once touching and knowing, that makes the real-life George so likeable. Also terrific is Paul Baker, remaining in his hilarious narrative turn as club host Philip Sallon.

If you’ve seen Taboo before, be aware: since it first premiered in January, the show has been quite substantially revised. Albeit even less historically accurate, the plot, boasting a new love triangle, does now possess a more satisfying dramatic arc as it follows the rites of passage of the fictitious Billy (the excellent Luke Evans) as he escapes Bromley and becomes immersed in the 1980s London club culture. Taking over as Billy’s mother, Lyn Paul – one-time member of pop group the New Seekers – gives a clichéd character a wounded but tough sensitivity.

While Taboo may not yet rival Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats in its likely long-term popularity, it does presage the arrival of a major voice in musicals. Though Boy George invests his life and now even himself in it, the show’s real star quality derives from the original songs he’s written for it. All are theatrical in the best sense, revealing character, emotion and plot to do exactly what they’re supposed to do – tell the story.

– Mark Shenton

Note: The following review dates from January 2002 when the production first opened at The Venue.

If there’s any justice in the West End, Taboo will be a monster hit. Is that statement a tad over the top? Probably. Do I still mean every word of it? Without a doubt.

A bit of background for the uninitiated: Taboo is the musical debut by former Culture Club singer Boy George. Set in the decadent 1980s club scene (Taboo was the name of one of the era’s most infamous clubs), it’s a fictional story – about wannabe photographer Billy (Luke Evans) from Bromley who moves to London and falls in love with wannabe fashion designer Kim (Dianne Pilkington) – against which we also see the career trajectories of New Romantic icons Philip Sallon, Steve Strange, Leigh Bowery, Marilyn and George himself.

The problems with Taboo mainly concern Mark Davies’ book. Billy and Kim’s romance builds and collapses quickly and unconvincingly and is frankly rather ho-hum. So, too, is the sub-plot involving Billy’s emancipated mum (Gemma Craven). These and other sideline stories create an overly long feel, especially in the sombre, tie-up-all-the-loose-ends second act (where a final, completely unnecessary scene involving Hare Krishna’s is the story’s biggest let-down). In terms of timing, it doesn’t help either that there are so many songs even all the bit characters get their “big numbers”.

That said, it’s hard to begrudge any of these musical asides because – and here’s Taboo‘s real strength – George’s songs are fantastic. Combining poignancy with humour, clever lyrics and tunes you simply can’t get out of your head, they dwarf any of the pop hits he produced in his 1980s heyday. I have so many personal favourites from the score, there isn’t space to mention them all, but I’ll throw in “Ode to Attention Seekers”, “Guttersnipe”, “Touched by the Hand of Cool” and “Pie in the Sky” for good measure.

Taboo is also boosted by an enthusiastic company who, under Christopher Renshaw‘s buoyant direction, pack a punch vocally and visually. Particular stand-out performances come from Paul Baker as a wickedly witty and weathered Philip Sallon, Matt Lucas as the larger-than-life Leigh Bowery, Mark McGee as kittenish Marilyn, and Euan Morton as a true Boy George doppelganger, with the voice of an angel.

Top marks too to Mike Nicholls‘ costumes, which are outrageous in the best possible sense, and to designer Tim Goodchild‘s remarkable transformation of a church hall into a cosy (if overheated) new venue.

Despite its flaws, Taboo is colourful, vibrant and wonderfully infectious fun. If you’re like me, by the end of the evening, you’ll yearn to return to an era you thought you were glad to see the back of. And you’ll also be saving up for the show CD (on the cards for a spring release) – because these new Boy George songs are ones you’ll want to hear again and again.

– Terri Paddock