By the new millennium, live-action movie musicals were practically dead, considered a Technicolor vestige of Hollywood’s Golden Age. That was until Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann delivered “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001, sparking a genre resurgence with “Chicago” (2002), “Dreamgirls” (2006), “Les Miserables” (2012), “La La Land” (2016), “The Greatest Showman” (2017), “In the Heights” (2021) and “West Side Story” (2021).
After reviving the beloved genre in Hollywood, it next dominated Broadway with “Moulin Rouge: The Musical” (2019), which was sadly sidelined by the pandemic but still won a whopping 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, before returning to Broadway in 2021 and launching a North American tour in 2022.
This month, that acclaimed stage version arrives at the Kennedy Center now through Sept. 24.
“I had never seen anything like it before in my life, just the way those whip pans and cuts were happening, I had never seen a film move like that before,” actor Austin Durant told WTOP. “It just generates this crazy frenetic energy that’s absolutely intoxicating. It’s like watching a live-action cartoon in some respects. That energy is an interesting challenge to translate onto the stage, but I think this production does it pretty well.”
Set in turn-of-the-century Paris, France, “Moulin Rouge!” follows a young composer named Christian, who falls in love with Satine, the sparkling cabaret star of the famous nightclub, the Moulin Rouge. Durant plays the club’s owner Harold Zidler, who also serves as the emcee for the live audience like Joel Grey in “Cabaret.”
“Harold Zidler is the owner, impresario, ringmaster,” Durant said. “He welcomes the audience to the evening and he’s this larger-than-life personality. It’s a lot of fun to play, sort of a dream for a character actor like me. Jim Broadbent’s performance in (the film) is one of those roles that has lived rent-free in my brain for years. I’ve drawn on it for other characters I’ve played and never thought I’d get to play the man himself.”
Like the movie, the stage musical strings together pop hits in its “Elephant Love Medley,” as well as original numbers from the film like “Come What May,” originally sung by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Of course, the show opens and closes with “Lady Marmalade,” which was originally a ’70s R&B hit by Labelle that was famously covered by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa, Pink and Missy Elliott on the movie soundtrack.
“For fans of the movie, all those numbers that they really loved, most of them are still there, then there’s going to be some updated music,” Durant said. “People who aren’t familiar with the piece are totally surprised that they’re coming in and hearing Beyoncé, Sia and Whitney Houston, all this contemporary pop music. It really is a surprise and a delight for a lot of people. … You can’t have ‘Moulin Rouge’ without (Elton John’s) ‘Your Song.'”
Visually, it’s a feast for the eyes with lavish sets and costumes, fitting for a film that wrapped Lurhmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy” of “Strictly Ballroom” (1992), “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) and “Moulin Rouge!” (2001), which opened with red curtains parting on a stage. If you saw his latest flick “Elvis” (2022), you know his flashy style.
“The set design is absolutely stunning,” Durant said. “The costumes are this parade of color and texture. They really have done an incredible job capturing that turn-of-the-century fashion mixed with this Alexander McQueen high-fashion look. It’s really stunning in terms of design. The lighting is what ties everything together. It’s being at a rock concert like the Pink Floyd laser light show at the planetarium. It’s nuts.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
