An actor who shared the Broadway stage with Boy George in Moulin Rouge! has spoken negatively about the singer’s performance.
The Culture Club vocalist portrayed Harold Zidler in the stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 musical movie last year. He recently attracted attention after revealing that his controversial song supporting Israel, ‘We Will Dance Again’, was produced with generative AI.
Patrick Clanton, who appeared alongside Boy George in the production, expressed his opinion through Instagram. After reposting an article about the AI created track, he wrote: “Y’know, I used to defend his performance in our show, but fuck it. He was a terrible performer and I was embarrassed to be in the show with him. Boy, Bye!”
Clanton later added: “Whenever people would ask about him I’d just say ‘He was really nice!’ But as Sondheim taught us, ‘Nice is different than good.’” His closing remark comes from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods. EW later published screenshots of the message.
‘We Will Dance Again’ supports Israel’s military operations in Gaza. It begins with the words “You say genocide, I say war” and refers to artists supporting Palestine as “sheep”. Discussing the track on Threads, Boy George wrote: “As imperfect as it is! The song was created using AI. I call it ‘AI for good’. Truthfully, I would struggle to write this with a human!”
A United Nations Commission determined last year that Israel had carried out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The organisation stated last month that genocidal actions were continuing through assaults aimed at children. Amnesty International has also concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has consistently rejected allegations of genocide and war crimes, arguing that its campaign is an act of self defence launched in response to October 7. The country also dismissed the UN conclusions as “distorted and false” and a “libellous sham”.
Boy George competed for San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest in May but failed to qualify for the final.
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