Baz Luhrman’s wild, crazy movie musical MOULIN ROUGE was a big screen explosion of color, dazzle and pop-music favorites, in what was dubbed a jukebox musical. The romantic fantasy movie was highly theatrical as well as cinematic, and when it finally was adapted into a Broadway musical, it was a hit, The only question: what took them so long?
“Moulin Rouge!” bursts on the Fabulous Fox stage, in a touring production that can only be called “Spectacular, Spectacular” (the name of the stage show the stars are creating in the movie). Like the movie, it is also a pop song hit packed show that races around the stage with a frenetic pace, much like the film version. Which means if you enjoyed Baz Luhrman’s colorful creation, you’ll enjoy this one as well.
Even before the dazzling red and gold curtain goes up, there are performers on the stage, posing like dancers or patrons of the Belle Epoque Paris entertainment emporium called the Moulin Rouge. It is the perfect preview to put the audience in the mood, and on opening night, the crowd buzzed with barely-contained excitement by the time the curtain did go up.
The show opens with the can-can, of course, and a medley of pop hits that included songs in the original film as well as some newer ones. The master of ceremonies is Harold Zidler (a splendid Robert Petkoff), the nattily-dressed, slightly-portly and highly-entertaining owner of the Moulin Rouge. After a wild can-can floor show, featuring dancers Nini (excellent Sarah Bowden), Arabia (Nicci Claspell), and performers LaChocolat (Renee Marie Titus), Baby Doll (Max Heitmann) and more, the star of the Moulin Rouge, Satine (Gabrielle McClinton) makes her entrance on a trapeze. Shortly before that moment, Zidler was promising a potential backer, the wealthy Duke of Monroth (Andrew Brewer) an evening alone with his courtesan/singer/dancer star, in her private, elephant-shaped dressing room. As Zidler tries to point out the duke, whose funds could save the financially-struggling Moulin Rouge, to Satine, another man hoping to meet her, a penniless but handsome song-writer named Christian (Christian Douglas), keeps popping into view just as she looks that direction. Of course she thinks this handsome fellow is the Duke.
Actually, Christian has just arrived in Paris without a sou but full of hope, and immediately meet a pair of bohemian denizens of Montmartre, artist/playwright Toulouse-Lautrec (Nick Rashad Burroughs) and Argentinian acrobat Santiago (Danny Burgos) who are working on a musical about the principals of the Bohemian life – Truth, Beauty, Truth and Love – and a bit of revolution of the downtrodden poor versus the ruling rich. When they hear Christian sing in his beautiful voice and discover his knack for song-writing (starting with a full-throated rendition of “The Sound Of Music”), they know they found the one to pitch their play to Satine in hopes of persuading her to star in the show, and Zidler to produce it.
OK, complete fantasy here, but that is part of the fun of this show and the movie that inspired it. The plot is a combination of the classic Hollywood “putting on a show” musical and the story of the opera, “La Boheme,” which has been the basis of countless tales, including “Rent.” What sets “Moulin Rouge!” apart is its big, bold circus-like visuals and its mash-up of pop hits, often in crazy medleys with lyrics turned to the plot of this show.
The best voice in the show, by far, belongs to Christian Douglas as songwriter Christian, who belts out song after song with thrilling power and bell-clear tones that make the toes tingle. Douglas is clearly a star in the making, who is also an outstanding, athletic dancer and strong actor. The next best voices belong to Robert Petkoff as Zidler and Sarah Bowden as dancer Nini, in the shadow of star Satine, who also show star potential. One of the surprises of the show was Andrew Brewer as the villainous Duke, who makes a splendid bad guy even though he is actually as handsome as protagonist Christian, which actually works better than the nerdy Duke in the film, with Brewers strong voice and impressive acting chops. As Satine, Gabrielle McClinton does well enough but her voice does not measure up to Christian Douglas’ golden pipes in their duets.
The pace of hit songs crammed into this show is breath-taking and the pace of the musical is frenetic, even more so than in the movie. In addition to nearly all the hits in the film, the stage version crams in a dizzying number of more recent hits, memorably “Rolling in the Deep.” There are plentiful song and dance numbers, and singing is at the forefront in nearly every scene, but the mash-up medley of songs is head-spinning, leaving the audience exhausted if they try to identify them all. We hear just enough of one song to identify it, and then the medley is off to two, three, four more. In the movie, Satine and Christian would trade lines in hit song, like Elton John’s “Your Song,” but here they are more often trading lines through two songs. It is can make one breathless to try to keep up with all the songs, even in one number. It’s jukebox musical on steroids.
Of course, the staging is lush and spectacular, one of the best aspects of the show. There are real sets instead of the heavy use of projections seen in many recent shows, and the physical nature of them adds an extra layer of delight. There is plenty of sparkle, sequins abound and colors are lush and jewel-toned. There is also generous use of streamers and confetti on stage and blow out into the audience, more than any show this writer has seen as the Fox.
If you loves Baz Luhrman’s the colorful, fantasy, jukebox musical movie, this highly-entertaining, even more song-packed stage version of “Moulin Rouge!” is something you do to want to miss.
“Moulin Rouge” is on stage at the Fabulous Fox through May 12.
© Cate Marquis
