Boy George is working on a “new version” of Taboo.
The musical tells a love story set against the artistic backdrop of the New Romantic period in 1980s England, and it weaves in autobiographical elements from the lives of the Culture Club frontman and the late performance artist-and-fashion designer Leigh Bowery – who died of AIDS in December 1994 aged 33.
Boy George, 64, exclusively told BANG Showbiz at Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s exhibition launch at The Design Museum, London, on Wednesday (17.09.25): “I’m actually working on a new version of Taboo right now, that is the next big thing I’m doing in October.
“I’m doing a new workshop with new writers, and we’re going to redo it.”
Taboo – of which its title came from a weekly event of the same name that Bowery created at the Maximum nightclub in London’s Leicester Square from 1985 to 1986 – received a three-week workshop before it opened at The Venue in the West End in January 2002 and ended in April 2003.
The show – which was nominated for four Olivier Awards – went on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre in November 2003 before it was revived again at the Brixton Club House in London, from September 2012 until March 2013.
Boy George – who played Bowery in the Broadway version of Taboo in 2003 – became one of the most famous faces at the short-lived Covent Garden, London, nightspot The Blitz Club.
It was an important landmark in youth culture, and where the New Romantic Scene began.
Boy George – real name George O’Dowd – worked as the cloakroom assistant in the club, which was co-founded by Rusty Egan, 67, and the late Steve Strange.
However, Boy George found the job “frustrating”.
He explained to BANG Showbiz: “The thing about being in the cloakroom was like – obviously, I was put there to keep me in my place, and it was annoying because it was a job, but then you couldn’t leave it very often, and it was frustrating.
“I liked the fact that everyone had to come and see me when they arrived, but then there was the big gap where I was doing nothing.
“So, I was always leaving my post and getting in trouble.”
Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s opens at The Design Museum on September 20, 2025, and runs until March 29, 2026.