{"id":22660,"date":"2026-07-31T03:06:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22660"},"modified":"2026-07-31T03:06:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:06:30","slug":"boy-george-pulls-out-of-jesus-christ-superstar-at-london-palladium-days-before-first-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22660","title":{"rendered":"Boy George pulls out of \u2018Jesus Christ Superstar\u2019 at London Palladium days before first show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/boy-george\">Boy George<\/a> has withdrawn from a production of <i>Jesus Christ Superstar<\/i>\u00a0at the London Palladium, days before he was due to make his first appearance.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/culture-club\">Culture Club<\/a> frontman had been scheduled to play King Herod from August 3 to 15 as part of a rotating cast in the role. Richard Armitage, who is currently playing Herod, is reportedly set to cover George\u2019s dates.<\/p>\n<p>George\u2019s manager Paul Kemsley announced his departure on social media today (July 30), writing: \u201cAfter careful consideration, I have decided, in my capacity as Boy George\u2019s manager, that he will no longer be appearing in <em>Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em> at the London Palladium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision has been made with the utmost respect for the producers, the creative team and the entire company. We are grateful for the professionalism and understanding they have shown throughout and sincerely wish everyone involved every success with the production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He went on to\u00a0apologise\u00a0to those who had bought tickets to see George, adding: \u201cGeorge has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEqually,\u00a0I believe it\u00a0is my responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interests of my artist while also showing respect to others. In this instance,\u00a0I felt it\u00a0was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: the manager of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BoyGeorge?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BoyGeorge<\/a> Paul Kemsley says the singer is being pulled out of his performance in Jesus Christ Superstar. <br \/>His message alludes to George\u2019s \u2018personal convictions\u2019. <br \/>It doesn\u2019t say but it appears this may be connected to George\u2019s pro Jewish song that he\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nfsDzy8UnN\">pic.twitter.com\/nfsDzy8UnN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nicolelampert\/status\/2082901159493132365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Kemsley did not give an explicit reason for the decision. The announcement does, however, come days after George\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/boy-george-shares-pro-israel-song-we-will-dance-again-3959314\">shared the controversial pro-Israel song \u2018We Will Dance Again\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The reggae track opens with the line \u201c<i>You say genocide, I say war<\/i>\u201d,\u00a0rejecting the description of Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza as genocide. He\u00a0also\u00a0uses the song to\u00a0criticise\u00a0musicians who have\u00a0publicly supported\u00a0Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>George later\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/boy-george-says-he-used-ai-to-create-his-controversial-new-pro-israel-reggae-song-we-will-dance-again-3959572\">confirmed that he used AI to create the song<\/a>, calling it \u201cAI for good\u201d and saying: \u201cTruthfully, I would struggle to write this with a human!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The release prompted criticism from Martyn Ware, founder of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/the-human-league\">The Human League <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/heaven-17\">Heaven 17<\/a>, who described it as an \u201covertly pro-genocide, anti-Palestinian piece of musical propaganda\u201d.\u00a0Patrick Clanton, who appeared alongside George in the Broadway production of \u2018Moulin Rouge!\u2019,\u00a0also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/moulin-rouge-actor-says-he-was-embarrassed-to-co-star-with-terrible-actor-boy-george-3959631\">said he was \u201cembarrassed\u201d to have worked with him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2025\/09\/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Nations-appointed\u00a0Commission<\/a>\u00a0concluded\u00a0last\u00a0September that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. A further report published last month said Israeli authorities were continuing to commit genocidal acts, including through the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/documents\/mde15\/018\/2011\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amnesty International<\/a>\u00a0has also concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has repeatedly denied committing genocide or war crimes, maintaining that its military campaign is an act of self-defence following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. It rejected the UN findings as \u201cdistorted and false\u201d and a \u201clibellous sham\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Boy George: &quot;There&amp;apos;s been this loss of respect for the artistry of songwriting&quot; | Brit Awards 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sXYN3ZOwTqE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Boy George has voiced support for Jewish communities on several occasions in recent years. In May, he shared\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/boy-george-shares-solidarity-with-jewish-people-at-london-anti-semitism-march-3944886\">a message of solidarity with Jewish people at an anti-Semitism march in London<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to be thanked for doing what is right,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI have so many beautiful Jewish friends, and I know some of you will be there today. But even if I don\u2019t know you, I send you my love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Culture Club recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/culture-club-announce-the-singles-uk-arena-tour-with-abc-and-haircut-100-buy-tickets-3946831\">announced \u2018The Singles\u2019 UK arena tour <\/a>with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/abc\">ABC <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/haircut-100\">Haircut 100<\/a>, which is due to take place this December.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boy George has withdrawn from a production of Jesus Christ Superstar\u00a0at the London Palladium, days before he was due to make his first appearance. The\u00a0Culture Club frontman had been scheduled to play King Herod from August 3 to 15 as part of a rotating cast in the role. Richard Armitage, who is currently playing Herod,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/boy_george_new.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}