Friday, February 28, 2020

AT MOULIN ROUGE


There was a show. A very strange, enchanted show.  During my long hibernation, I took it easy and decompressed for the most part. With excemption to another famous, fabulous three hour lunch with our lovely Anne Marie and her hubby Arteejee,  Daddy Warbucks for Christmas got me tickets for us to go see the Moulin Rouge, which was a nice treat.
The musical version of the iconic Baz Luhrmann film has hit the Great White Way. There are few musical films as iconic as Moulin Rouge!, which took the world by storm when it opened at the start of the century starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. After initial tryouts the musical version of the film has officially opened on Broadway in 2019, with a West End run announced for 2021.  And the reviews seem to be pretty favorable. Entering the red light-coated Al Hirschfeld Theatre, with the stage flanked on either side with a giant red windmill and a large elephant’s head, you’re immediately asked to immerse yourself in the dreamlike, fantastical world of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 romantic tragedy Moulin Rouge. The whole theatre was pretty much the set, and the next best thing to actually being at the real thing.  As its musical adaptation blazes forth with a whiplash-inducing 70 songs, flashy can-can dancers and bohemian ideals, the fantasy is forced to be grounded in reality, but doesn't lose any of the film’s  spectacular-ness in the process.
Before the curtains open, the show begins very suddenly with two women swallowing swords. Like Cabaret, Moulin Rouge! thankfully refuses to let you forget that its setting is maybe its most important character. Even the Playbill offers a history of the storied Paris cabaret club’s 130 year history. The framing of the musical is the first thing that sets it apart from its film counterpart: where Luhrmann framed the story with foreboding sadness led by the mystical song “Nature Boy,” the stage show looks to the bacchanalian chaos of cabaret.

The adaptation, with a tidy, problem-solving book by John Logan, female-and-trans-empowering choreography by Sonya Tayeh, and farce-with-a-heart maximalist staging by Alex Timbers which looked incredible, Moulin Rouge! sparkles like a million falling sequins, tickles like a chorus boy’s feathers, and burns like a shot of absinthe engulfing your brain.Logan’s tweaks to the original screenplay are neat and necessary. Now the male ingénue, a virginal writer lured to the City of Light by the promise of Art and Love, is an American: Christian, played by my newest crush du jour.....Aaron Tveit, made me MELT.


Our hero quickly falls in with bohemian painters and composers such as Toulouse-Lautrec, who Sahr Ngaujah played very salty and fun,  and Santiago, played by Ricky Rojas, spoofing the film’s Latin clichés. These outlandish artistes bundle Christian off to the hottest nightclub in town, the Moulin Rouge, where the lad promptly falls in love with the house diva, Satine, and the rest follows suit. I found the play to be honest much more enjoyable then the film as it didn't have all the jerky and quick moving camera movements. And say want you want, but I found the play very satisfying and the music  numbers are the highlight. Not to mention my new found love for that hunky singer Aaron. His voice made me melt.

26 comments:

  1. Oh. My. Gay. God.
    This is EVERYTHING. Really. Such a treat. Just like Aaron. Yum.
    Glad to have you back, Maddie...

    XOXO

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    1. You better brace yourself....i may be doing a two week stint in Chi Town!!!!

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  2. I STILL think daddy warbucks should have taken you to paris to see the real thing.

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    1. I guess i didn't put out enough this year!!!!! My cock can't reach to those far destinations he's in!!!!!!!

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  3. My gosh, what a spectacle. And that’s just Aaron 😉. That set looks amazing. I’m glad it lived up to your expectations. And I’m with Anne Marie, now you’ve got to get that trip to gay Paris!

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    1. I better start grabbing those ankles!

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  4. Looks and sounds like so much fun, and isn't that we are here for fun.

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  5. Wow. Maybe something for us to see next year in London! And, yes, Aaron Tveit. What a voice. But is he a hunk? I hadn’t noticed...

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  6. I love Aaron Tveit; hot and can sing? Sold!
    It sounds like a great show, hell, a great experience!

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  7. The inside of the theatre looks fantastic! That's the way to make people feel as if they are in the space of the story. Great review for us, too. Thank you for that! Hugs!

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  8. Glad you got to go! Good reporting
    and pictures. xoxo :-)

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  9. Theatre shots are quite impressive....great c’est designer!!!!...and Aaron is a hottie!!! ....glad you had the chance to partake!!!

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    1. I would have moved right in with allowed to!

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  10. I didn't enjoy the movie at all. The whole thing was kind of jarring to me. The play sounds like something I would enjoy, however. Maybe if/when it comes to San Francisco I will partake.
    In the meantime, we have tickets to see Hamilton in April, courtesy of our son and daughter-in-law. I do love live theater!

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    1. I agree, the movie was jarring with the camera cutting in and around so quick.

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  11. William and I saw this too and agreed much better than the movie. And the theater looked amazing...like you were in the actual Moulin Rouge. I had no idea Aaron sang so well. His sang with Satine got me teary eyed.

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  12. The film Moulin Rouge is definitely one of our "house favourites" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, and we will probably go and see the musical when it arrives here next year. However, having read the review in Rolling Stone from which you've quoted in this post, I feel less-than-enamoured that they have decided to drop Nature Boy and the sublime One Day I'll Fly Away from the production - and it would appear they've got rid of the Roxanne Tango [my favourite scene in the movie], too?! Hmmmm...

    I know little of Mr Tveit, but her certainly is cute - you didn't mention "The Duke" Tam Mutu, though. We've seen him on stage before and he is rather "doable" too, as well as being a great singer.

    Anyhoo - glad you enjoyed the "spectacular, spectacular", sweetie! I'll be sure to post my thoughts on it if we do go along next year.

    Jx

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  13. Never been a fan of the movie, or this play, which i thought I'd enjoy. I think Deedles summed it. I find it too jarring, busy and to much visual. But Aaron is a joy for an actor.

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  14. OHHHH GURL, I would love to see this.

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  15. I have read some really good things about this musical...and some really bad reviews too.

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  16. the theater looks rather like your boudoir doesn't it?

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    1. All except the windmill..which means something entirely.

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Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!