To purchase the Original Broadway Cast Recording of TABOO, click on the image above.

It’s Double Take December at Musical Cyberspace! Every musical pretty much has something one likes and something one doesn’t in it. This month I’ll be listing one of each for a range of musicals, a different one each day.

Taboo

Something I Like: It was a super show until Charles Busch got his hands on it. I like the earlier, unadulterated Mark Davies version better, is what I mean. I adore how committed Rosie O’Donnell is to Broadway musicals and I am glad she put her weight behind this one, losing $10 million in the process, but this show – one that had a beating heart and a great deal to commend it – was a mess by the time it got onto Broadway. At least the Boy George-Kevan Frost score is a centralfeature in both versions.

Something I Don’t Like: Charles Busch and his revisions. He doesn’t seem to understand what the show is about or how the various narrative strands tie together. With such a split in the very (re-)conception of the show, it’s little wonder that none of the elements of the Broadway production came together successfully.

Feel free to share your “double take” on Taboo in the comment box!