‘Moulin Rouge’ Review: Raise a Glass
The zesty mashup musical "Moulin Rouge!" delivers winking romantic comedy, set off by dazzling sets, costumes, and dancing.
For a jukebox musical stage adaptation of a jukebox movie musical inspired by an opera based on a novel, Moulin Rouge! The Musical (★★★★☆) stands as its own spectacular spectacle, while staying vividly true to its myriad origins.
Currently repped by a vivacious touring production of Alex Timbers’ Tony-winning — and still running — Broadway hit, the show most vividly recreates the maximalist visual and musical style of Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-winning 2001 film (a personal favorite).
Derek McLane’s multi-layered scenic design, dipped everywhere in red and tantalizingly lit by Justin Townsend, stirs a lush, tactile fantasy of the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret in Belle Époque Paris.
And from the first sight of two scantily-clad sword swallowers beckoning us inside the club, to every last high-kicking chorine on the can-can line, Catherine Zuber’s costumes accentuate that atmosphere and inform each character.
The colorful corseted frocks and bohemian-chic duds also boldly accentuate the performers’ lines and curves dancing Sonya Tayeh’s sultry choreography. Tayeh earned a 2020 Tony Award for her electrifying work in Moulin Rouge!, as did McLane for the sets, Townsend for the lighting, Zuber for the costumes, and Timbers for directing — among 10 total Tony wins, including Best Musical.
Those theatrical thrills have made the trip to the Kennedy Center Opera House, where Timbers’ direction still creates intimate moments against the large-scale backdrops of McLane’s sweeping City of Love sets, and the high-energy, song-a-minute soundtrack.
One of the film’s most fabulous features, the collection of pop and rock covers used to tell the star-crossed love story of dreamy writer Christian (John Cardoza) and worldly Moulin Rouge star Satine (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer) still packs the one-two punch of universal familiarity and proven musicality.
It’s nearly impossible to keep up with every classic hit and love song reeled off over the course of two packed acts, especially during the medleys, but the highlights remain the same. Sent by bohemian pals Toulouse-Lautrec (Denzel Tsopnang, standing in for Nick Rashad Burroughs on press night) and Santiago the Argentinian (Gabe Martínez) to enlist Satine’s talents for their new original production, Christian, newly arrived in Paris, woos her with “Your Song,” tenderly rendered by Cardoza.
When it’s time for Christian and Satine, who spark up an affair, to conceal their liaison in a secret song, “Come What May,” composed by David Baerwald and Kevin Gilbert, becomes their mating call. And more than once in the evening, the libertines of the Moulin Rouge tempt their audience with the iconic 2001 pop princess version of “Lady Marmalade.”
Ushering in the fresh beats and air of two decades of pop music since Luhrmann’s movie, the show also puts more recent bops to work — expressing Satine’s longing to break free with Katy Perry’s “Firework,” and Christian and company’s wild, absinthe-fueled night of revelry with Sia’s high-flying “Chandelier.” The show spins through hooks and choruses at a dizzying rate, at times engaging the audience in an unspoken but laugh-out-loud game of Name That Tune that can overshadow the intended mood of the ultimately tragic tale.
Cardoza and Gonzalez-Nacer are in no danger of being overshadowed vocally. Both are powerhouses, though he finds more nuance and sincerity in depicting their romance at every stage.
His pleading “Roxanne” is stunning. Her credibility lies more in embodying Satine’s role as the club’s Sparkling Diamond, a shrewd performer who can feign amorous fealty to the narcissistic Duke of Monroth (Andrew Brewer), the one character who disappoints in how he’s been reimagined from the film. Brewer does not give the slimeball realness that’s called for.
While Moulin Rouge leans into its camp comedy tendencies — deliciously so, in the case of Austin Durant’s louche, gay impresario Harold Zidler — it replaces one of the film’s funniest, campiest numbers, “Like a Virgin,” with a reworked Rihanna tune that feels forced rather than fresh.
It’s a labored moment in a night otherwise so exciting and delighting that it lives up to the declaration made at the top of the show: Moulin Rouge is not just a place, but a state of mind, where believers in truth, beauty, freedom, and love dance the can-can to Lady Gaga and Adele.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical runs through September 24, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $45 to $199. Call 202-467-4600, or visit www.kennedy-center.org.
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