Darius doesn't give a damn about Gone With The Wind critics

Apr 27 2008 By Billy Sloan Showbiz Editor

Darius Soldiers On

SCOTS pop star Darius Danesh has vowed to soldier on in the crisis-hit new stage musical Gone With The Wind.

The show - based on the 1939 movie starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh - was slaughtered by the critics.

One said the "bum numbing" three-and-a-half-hour epic lasted longer than the American Civil War portrayed in the story.

The 27-year-old Pop Idol reject plays leading man Rhett Butler opposite unknown US actress Jill Paice as Scarlett O'Hara.

Reviewers savaged the s4.5million show which opened in London's West End last week.

But Darius has been a hit with audiences, getting standing ovations.

The star-studded first night at the New London Theatre was attended by Joan Collins, Sir David Frost, Twiggy, Barbara Windsor and Ben Elton.

Reported audience walkouts led to substantial cuts in the musical.

The music by Margaret Martin - an expert on child care - was panned.

Critic Charles Spencer said: "It felt as if I'd spent years watching Gone With The Wind and I'd not just missed the Beijing Olympics...but also the London games for 2012."

Last night a spokesman for Darius said: "He's determined to carry on.

"I've seen the musical six times and he gets a standing ovation at the end.

"They're saying this guy is a talent and is changing into something people didn't expect.

"We'd like better reviews but, from a personal point of view, it's a leap forward for him."

WHAT THEY SAID..

REVIEWS of the Gone With The Wind musical have been decidedly mixed.

Most theatre critics have said the production goes on too long and many have slated Darius's portrayal of Rhett Butler.

Legendary London Evening Standard critic Nicholas de Jongh said: "Connoisseurs of big, bad musicals must rush to catch Gone With the Wind in case it's quickly blown away on gales of ridicule.

"Is a small, well-placed tornado too much to ask for?"

In The Times, Benedict Nightingale said he was "hankering for Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh who breezed and dazzled their way through the film."

The Guardian's Michael Billington found the whole exercise "extravagantly pointless".

But the Daily Mail's critic, Quentin Letts, gave Darius praise...of sorts.

He wrote: "Mr Danesh has a husky bass voice and is dashing, even if, with his mutton chop whiskers and long legs, he resembles a Victorian villain from a Monty Python sketch."