Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Based on the 20th Century Studios Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann) runs through September 24, 2023 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are currently available via the Kennedy Center website at the box office, or by calling 202-467-4600.
The real purpose of a review is to discern whether one should shell out one’s hard-earned money to see the show. The answer with Moulin Rouge! is “yes, one should.” Yet, one should also watch or rewatch the 2001 movie that it is based on. They are similar and yet very different, and the movie may be far better at telling this tale, even if this stage version is an ersatz chocolate box of musical delights.
Moulin Rouge! won 10 Tony Awards in 2021 including Best Musical and Best Director for Alex Timbers. The book by John Logan is based on the highly stylized Baz Luhrmann film: while remaining largely faithful to Luhrmann’s movie, Logan’s version yields reduced emotional stakes, yet maximizes opportunity for sensuous dance, song, and opulent spectacle in this grandmaster of the romantic mash-up/jukebox musical, a contemporary pop music hybrid of La Traviata and La Bohème.
The setting is the Parisian suburb of late 19th century Montmartre, yet as in Luhrmann’s film, the songs are all contemporary pop/rock from the modern era (except for Offenbach’s “Galop Infernal”, or the Can-Can). Key songs from Luhrmann’s original soundtrack are still present, such as the classics “Nature Boy” “Lady Marmalade” and Elton John’s “Your Song,” but many of the selections chosen for inclusion in the stage musical are by artists such as Adele, Pink, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé and were released many years after the 2001 film starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. Currently boasting verses from 70 popular songs and 160 composers, the premise of Moulin Rouge is that pop music is to our age what the arias of grand opera were to an earlier time.
Leading the cast of players is Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as Satine, the “sparkling diamond” and star of the Moulin Rouge burlesque palace. As a prime example of the interrelated lyric mashup motif, she enters the musical on a trapeze singing the Shirley Bassey classic “Diamonds Are Forever,” morphs to sampling Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”, Madonna’s “Material Girl” and Beyoncé’s chart-topping “Single Ladies”: all verses establishing her persona as the courtesan who values independence and stable assets over romantic love. Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer does a worthy job of making the role her own, not an easy task.
Satine’s backstory of physical and sexual abuse is recounted by Harold Zidler, the owner of the Moulin Rouge, played with charm and verve by Austin Durant, who was part of the original Broadway cast as a replacement and standby for the same role. His role is part emcee and part cheerleader for the nightclub. Durant is perhaps one of the strongest members of this tour: he never failed to make the most of a moment. Zidler plans to use Satine to entrap the rich Duke of Monroth, played by Andrew Brewer. However, Satine mistakes Christian, played by John Cardoza, for the duke and the two get along so well, they begin an ill-advised love affair that threatens both their lives and the future of the Moulin Rouge.
Christian is a gifted, but unproven composer of music, who has been befriended by the great artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (at this performance, understudy Denzel Tsopnang) and his dark and brooding Argentine friend, dancer and gigolo Santiago (Gabe Martînez). The three of them become fast friends and they plot to get help for Christian’s fledgling career by having his songs performed at the Moulin Rouge. One hitch: The budget comes from the haughty, possessive Duke of Monroth (Andrew Brewer), whose price is none other than Satine and the Moulin Rouge.
Cardoza, as Christian, possesses a lovely tenor voice that helps propel the chemistry between Christian and Satine in their several scenes together, most of which are purportedly set to take place in a room that serves as a love nest for her affairs. The trajectory of their love affair under the duke’s backstage manipulations seems destined to fail, but Christian holds out hope that true love will prevail. Cardoza’s performance as a singer was superb, and even better, he can act! The character of Christian is difficult to play on stage and Cardoza managed to bring us along on a mostly believable journey.
The sinuous and high-impact choreography by Sonya Hayeh is often thrilling. The costumes (Catherine Zuber) and scenic design (Derek McLane) are evocative and eclectic, sliding deftly from the baroque theater world to the grimy streets of Montmartre to the elegance of Champs-Élysées (the latter of which is accompanied by OutKast’s “So Fresh, So Clean”). Justin Townsend’s lighting design is also impressive, from green fairy haze to the hellish red hues of “Roxanne.” A lonely shaft of light turns Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” into a sparse, desperate ballad.
It is difficult for me to explain why the movie is not just a jukebox musical, yet the stage show is. Perhaps it is the way the songs are used. The movie adapted the songs to help move the storyline forward in true American Musical style, yet in the stage show frequently verses and lyrics are just interpolated to add yet another mash-up smile. The stage show’s musical numbers are still amazing, even if they are often the cause of audience laughter when the next pop tune is recognized, sometimes to the detriment of the storytelling.
Indeed, the emotional and physical stakes are far higher in the movie and a major difference between the two can be summed up in the opening and closing songs of each: The movie opens and closes with the melancholic “Nature Boy” while the stage show opens and closes with the carnivalesque “Lady Marmalade.” The movie maintains a focus on the romantic bohemian dream of Love tragically lost, reminding us several times during the story of how it will end, and still somehow, I always tear up. The stage show insists that somehow the ending is not that sad, that what we’d actually rather remember is a sensational party and song and dance spectacle.
While the characters may search for truth, beauty, freedom and love in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, the beauty and glory of the music, song and dance is what fuels this work and, ultimately, it is all about the journey rather than that of the destination.
Running Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
Moulin Rouge plays through September 24th 2023 in The Opera House of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at (202) 467-4600 or purchase them online.
