Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Hollywood Pantages Theatre
Through September 4
The dumbing down of American musical theater continues apace with Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which throws the past 50 years of popular music into a moronic Mixmaster and performs the stitched-together “songs” with the regrettable aesthetic of a cut-rate Vegas revue or a taste-free ‘70s TV variety show. It’s doubly unfortunate, because the source material, Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film, had originality, charm and visual panache to spare, but you would never guess that from this dreadful adaptation. The new production at the Pantages isn’t entirely without merit – a couple of the performers are clearly talented and the lighting design is impressive – but ultimately it’s three hours of your time that would be infinitely better spent elsewhere.
In 1899 Paris, the fabulous Moulin Rouge theater is known for its sexy cabaret shows. Satine (Courtney Reed) is the seductive star, and Harold (Austin Durant) is the charismatic master of ceremonies, the man who puts the “can can can!” into the Can-Can. Young impoverished songwriter Christian (Conor Ryan), working on putting together a show with his friends, meets and is smitten with Satine. She reciprocates his feelings, but is in a difficult situation, needing to romance the Duke (David Harris) to spare the MR from ruin. But surely the motto of the Bohemians – truth, love, freedom and beauty – will prevail?
Reed is good in all aspects of her performance as Satine – singing, dancing, acting – but not enough to take things to the next level. Ryan is professional but seems to be straining in some of the musical numbers, and his character as written comes off as more whiny than romantic. Durant tries valiantly but can’t quite step out of the shadow of Jim Broadbent’s iconic performance in the film, but Harris succeeds at bringing a cool sense of aristocratic menace to the proceedings. Finally, André Ward impresses as Toulouse-Lautrec, his strong singing voice and energetic acting evoking a sense of righteous anger and emotion that is badly lacking in the rest of the show.
Director Alex Timbers keeps all the musical and terpsichorean balls aloft but fails to deliver on a creative level, with both the visual style and staging appearing frantically busy but uninspired. The usually reliable playwright John Logan’s book for the show is exceedingly basic, exhibiting none of his usual nuance or flair. Justin Townsend’s lighting design, however, is varied and dazzling, and provides about half of the excitement for the entire production.
I’m not sure who to blame for the production’s greatest aesthetic crime, as there are at least four people credited for music direction/supervision/coordination, but the idea to create songs out of pre-existing songs is a ghastly one, an act of musical cannibalism which drags this show down into heretofore unsuspected abysses. Musicals have featured medleys forever, but at least a usual medley includes most of the given song before it moves on. That’s too long for Moulin Rouge! In many of the numbers, each song will have a couple of lines before they move on to another and then another in the theatrical equivalent of the old TV show, Name That Tune. The disco version of “Burning Down the House” and the degradation done to some Rolling Stones tunes should never be seen or heard again.
The fact that this show won ten Tony awards is appalling but not surprising – the Tony awards are not exactly a reliable gauge for theatrical quality, and haven’t been for a very long time. What’s more surprising – and sad – is that the opening night audience seemed to love it. What was initially bewildering to me was that the audience would roar at the opening notes of numbers that weren’t in the film. And then I realized that these weren’t roars of affection for beloved musical numbers but instead roars of recognition, the audience clapping itself on the back for recognizing the beginning of a Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or Rick Astley (!) song, a process not that far removed from kindergartners cheering another round of “Wheels on the Bus.”
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a depressing experience, the theatrical equivalent of an ardent idiot yelling into your face for three hours. It’s a nadir for musical theater in this country, I can’t can’t can’t recommend it.
Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Tues.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun. 1 and 6:30 p.m.; through September 4. www.BroadwayInHollywood.com. Running time: approximately two hours and forty-five minutes, including a fifteen minute intermission.
