Boy George’s Moulin Rouge Co-Star Calls Him ‘Terrible Performer’ After Releasing Zionist, Pro-Israel Song

Boy George has been called out by his Moulin Rouge co-star, Patrick Clanton, following the release of the former’s new pro-Israel song.

via: EW

Do you really want to hurt Boy George?

By the sound of his comments on his Instagram Stories, Patrick Clanton does (emotionally, at least).

The Broadway vet shared a pair of posts on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday slamming the “Karma Chameleon” singer, who performed alongside him during a stint in the Moulin Rouge stage musical, which is set to close at the end of August.

“Y’know, I used to defend his performance in our show, but f--- it,” Clanton wrote. “He was a terrible performer and I was [embarrassed] to be in the show with him. Boy, Bye!”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Boy George for comment.

“Whenever people would ask about him I’d just say ‘He was really nice!’” Clanton wrote in a follow-up post. “But as Sondheim taught us, ‘Nice is different than good.’”

That last line is a reference to Stephen Sondheim’s lyric from “I Know Things Now,” a song performed by Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods after it’s heavily implied that she had a sexual encounter with the Big Bad Wolf.

Clanton was responding to an AV Club article reporting that Boy George recently released a pro-Israel song “We Will Dance Again” that was created with AI.

“I call it ‘AI for good,’” he wrote on Threads. “Truthfully, I would struggle to write this with a human!”

Boy George portrayed Harold Zidler, the cabaret host portrayed by Jim Broadbent in the original movie, for a three-month stint in 2024 and again for a two-month run in 2025. Danny Burstein originated the role when the show began in Boston, and Zidler has since been portrayed by the likes of Tituss Burgess, Wayne Brady, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Clanton served as a standby for the role as well as for Toulouse-Lautrec, the painter/playwright portrayed by John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann’s film. He recently shared an Instagram post reflecting on the difficulties of working as a standby performer in a show on its last legs.

“Being a stand-by/understudy/swing is a tough job,” he wrote. “Besides the obvious challenges, one aspect that doesn’t get talked about is the fact that you never know when your ‘final’ show will be. Yes, the show is closing on August 30th, but I will more than likely have already performed my final show weeks before that.”

He continued, “So from now until August 30th, I’m treating every show as if it’s my last. I’ve got a few more scheduled dates that I’m on, so if you’ve been meaning to see me in the show over the last four years, this will likely be your last chance. ♥️”