STAGE MOULIN ROUGE!
★★★★
Piccadilly Theatre, London moulinrougemusical.co.uk
Welcome poets, showgirls and dastardly dukes to Belle Epoque Paris where all that matters is the bohemian credo of “Truth, beauty, freedom and love” – as long as the consumption (or absinthe) doesn’t get you first.
Across town, Eddie Redmayne’s similarly immersive Cabaret opts for muted noir but this show unashamedly revels in excess. Giant elephants and windmills loom overhead while glittering crystal chandeliers dazzle amid rouge velvet draping. The lighting, sets and sumptuous upholstery are drenched in red as the corsetted courtesans pose and preen on balconies and catwalks while we take our seats.
Based on Baz Luhrman’s gloriously OTT 2001 tearjerker with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, dazzling staging slickly whips us from lavish boudoirs to the backstreets of Montmartre before a sensational rotating set reveals a rooftop view of Paris, complete with the Eiffel Tower.
These are backdrops to the desperately doomed affair between a naive writer and the courtesan who dreams of a new life. Liisi Lafontaine delivers quiet strength and powerhouse vocals as Satine who is “The Sparkling Diamond” of the Moulin Rouge. Jamie Bogyo, in an impressive professional debut, brings a tremendously affecting vulnerability to Christian. Vocally, he has a lovely light tenor, but it doesn’t always suit a score that is overwhelmingly geared towards bombast. Both stars shine individually but, for a show about love, they lack crucial chemistry.
Clive Carter is a blast as outrageous maestro Harold Zidler, louchely leading an excellent supporting cast that storms through the jukebox soundtrack.
The film famously threw in everything from Elton John’s Your Song to The Police’s Roxanne via The Sound Of Music. Twenty years later, a mixed bag of additions include Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance as a thrillingly torrid tango stomper, although Beyonce’s Single Ladies would have been best left alone.
A strong Second Act finally finds some real emotion before a megamix curtain call had us all on our feet.
As a spectacle, it’s truly spectacular, but as a love story, it didn’t quite break my heart.