The News Boy George Fabulous

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 30: Boy George attends Prick Up Your Ears press night at Comedy Theatre on September 30, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Sylvia Linares/FilmMagic)

Matt Lucas plays Kenneth Halliwell alongside Chris New as playwright Joe Orton and Gwen Taylor as Mrs Corden, in Daniel Kramer’s production of Prick Up Your Ears, a new play by Simon Bent inspired exclusively by the John Lahr biography and the diaries of Joe Orton.

1962. Halliwell and Orton - RADA graduates, aspiring writers, and sometime lovers - plot their rightful place at the center of London’s literary scene whilst engaged in a secret crusade to 'improve' the local library books, and acting out their own versions of popular radio dramas... But Joe is about to become the most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, whilst Ken is reduced to sharing Joe’s success with their neighbour Mrs Corden over tea and battenburg.

This darkly funny and moving play imagines the sensational story behind Joe and Ken’s domestic life, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.

Boy George will return to the West End this winter – to the theatre from which he launched his cult hit musical Taboo nearly eight years ago – with his new live concert. Boy George in Concert Up Close and Personal runs at the Leicester Square Theatre for ten nights only from 20 to 30 December 2009.

As part of Culture Club, Boy George was one of Britain's biggest stars in the 1980s, and it was from that decade that he took his inspiration for Taboo, which premiered on 29 January 2002 (previews from 11 January) at Leicester Square, then called The Venue. The theatre space was specially created for the production in the crypt of a church. After the show closed, following a 15-month run, the venue remained; it has since been rebranded and renovated and was relaunched last year as the Leicester Square Theatre.

Taboo told the story of a young photographer named Billy who launched himself onto the Eighties club scene in London and meeting along the way many of the era’s most notorious personalities, including Leigh Bowery, Marilyn, Steve Strange, Philip Sallon and George himself.

While Taboo included snippets of some Culture Club classics, George wrote an original score with all-new songs including "Ode to Attention Seekers", "Stranger in this World", "Love Is a Question Mark", "Guttersnipe", "Touched by the Hand of Cool", "Out of Fashion" and "Pie in the Sky". Post-opening, George went on to join the cast and made his stage acting debut playing performance artist Leigh Bowery, a part he reprised when Taboo transferred to Broadway, where it was Tony nominated.

His musical writing debut was one of many of Boy George’s reinventions since his Culture Club heyday. While his personal life has sometimes propelled him back into the headlines, he has had professional successes as a DJ, artist, photographer and fashion designer as well as a singer-songwriter. In 2008, he returned to singing live after a ten-year absence.

In Boy George in Concert Up Close and Personal, he sings his biggest Culture Club hits as well as songs from his solo career, new pieces and cover versions. The dates at the 400-seat Leicester Square Theatre precede a 2010 European tour.

http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831254388456/Concert%20Returns%20Boy%20George%20to%20Taboo%20Birthplace.html

Boy George has praised New York newcomers The Drums, telling NME.COM they remind him of The Smiths and The Cure.

Watch a video interview with Boy George by scrolling down now.

Speaking after the band's debut UK gig (and first gig outside of New York) at The Flowerpot in Camden on Friday night (September 18), Boy George said he had come down deliberately to catch their set.

"I thought they were really joyous," he told NME.COM after the performance. "It's reminiscent of a lot of things – The Smiths, The Cure, A Flock Of Seagulls even, there was one track that sounded a bit like that.

"And I think they look really English, that's the funny thing. They look like they're from London. They actually look like four rentboys, but I probably shouldn't be saying that!"

Boy George went on to praise the band's singer Jonathan Pierce, hailing him as a "fantastic performer".

Head over to the NME Radar blog to watch footage from The Drums' gig at The Flowerpot as well as an interview with the band.

http://www.nme.com/news/boy-george/47417

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