Elton: My best night out in years

Sir Elton John recalled his darker days of fame following the West End premiere of a brutally realistic musical comedy about homosexual awakening, drugs and London's clubland.

He declared Closer To Heaven, featuring music by his close friends the Pet Shop Boys, "the best night out I've had in years".

He added: "The comfortable world of the West End musical has been blown apart."

Standing alongside boyfriend David Furnish at the compact Arts Theatre in Great Newport Street last night, the 53-year-old star, whose past battles with alcohol and cocaine are well documented, said: "This production examines a very real world of homosexuality and drugs. But it is about more than that, it's about searching for yourself. I identify a lot with what was going on, definitely. I empathise a lot with all that stuff because I've been there. This isn't just a niche gay musical, it's for anyone who has ever felt isolated.

"This has never been done before in the West End. It is just so lifelike. We can all forget about My Fair Lady now. This has got to move to a much larger venue sooner rather than later."

It was a night of triumph for pop duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who wrote such hits as West End Girls and It's A Sin while shifting 30 million albums during their Eighties heyday. Their first theatrical foray drew a standing ovation from an audience littered with stars including Sir Ian McKellen, Lord Lloyd-Webber and Boy George.

Lord Lloyd-Webber conceded: "It's better than a lot of musicals I have seen. I think young audiences are looking around for other things."

Written by Liverpudlian playwright Jonathan Harvey , Closer To Heaven focuses on a bisexual love triangle involving a sexy young stud who falls in love with both the club's manager's feisty daughter and a drug dealing rent boy.

It opens with a high-energy dance routine which sets the tone for a smouldering sexual trip which culminates in simulated gay intercourse. The material is a million miles from the suburban supremacism of Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.