Moulin Rouge Comes to Broadway

Instead of watching the Super Bowl like most of America, I spent my February 8 risking frostbite on my fingers in New York City to see Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway. 

During select weeks and times in January and February, there’s a special on buy one, get one free tickets called Broadway Week. And when I heard Meg Donnelly – known for her unforgettable roles as Taylor Otto in ABC’s American Housewife, Addison in Disney’s Zombies franchise, and Mary Campbell in the Supernatural prequel series, The Winchesters – was starring in Moulin Rouge at the Al Hirschfeld theater, I just had to go. 

Moulin Rouge! The Musical was adapted from the 2001 film, Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman, which was also adapted from the 1952 film with the same name. The 2001 film is an avant-garde spectacle combining a 19th century French nightclub with music by Nirvana, Madonna, and other contemporary artists. And the play was no different. 

With an elaborately ornate set in a century-old theater and fantastic seats, I was drawn into the beautiful love story of a 19th century French courtesan, Satine, and Christian, a young, destitute American composer, set in a lively, offbeat nightclub called the Moulin Rouge.

When Satine learns the club is going to shut down unless they can get more funding, she is pressured by her boss, Harold Zidler – played by Bob the Drag Queen, A.K.A Caldwell Tidicue – to seduce the Duke of Monroth into a relationship in order to secure his financial involvement in the Moulin Rouge. A misunderstanding leads to the Duke also funding Christian’s new play, starring Satine and directed by their friend, Toulouse, which follows a woman romantically involved with a wealthy man while navigating an affair with an impoverished writer. 

However, my interest came in bursts throughout the play as I tried to figure out how much I actually enjoyed it. Both the play and original movie took fantastic choreography and created a postmodern expression of questionable entertainment through mashups and remixes of the original film’s score and 1980s-2010s hits. 

Most notably, Satine (Donnelly) has an emotional and compelling monologue early in the performance that led into a solo of “Firework” by Katy Perry, which didn’t seem to have a place in 1899 France. While the song worked for the plot, it also took me out of the story.  

While the music seemed out of place for the setting, it didn’t take away from the great acting from the lead roles and the intense and poignant scenes towards the end of the play, accompanied by symbolic lighting, imagery, and set design. It made me wonder if anyone else in the audience grasped the symbolism of putting Satine and the Duke in what looked like a painting by George Seurat, the artist known for “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” while they discussed their future. 

The play suggested that Satine is getting a little too old to be an entertainer and should think about settling down, which is odd to say to a 25-year-old actress, especially one who looks her age. The comment made me think of the scene in Barbie (2023), where Barbie cries about not being pretty enough with the irony that her actress, Margot Robbie, is the wrong person to make that point. 

One of the best parts of the play was the set for Satine’s dressing room – also known as the Elephant Room – which was just as versatile, functional, and elaborate as the film made it out to be. The giant heart-shaped open window, with the L’Amoure sign in the distance, while entirely impractical, made me want a stand on a balcony overlooking Paris. 

The feel of a private nightclub was made all the more possible by the small theater. Even my grandmother and I in the back row of the orchestra felt immersed in the grandiosity and the excitement of the energy housed within the four walls of the Moulin Rouge. 

Even cooler was that audience members could pay around $300 a ticket to sit inside the stage around two tables, making them actual guests of the nightclub as the actors danced inches from them. Despite their professionalism and on-the-mark training, I’d be afraid of getting kicked in the face or the actor falling through the hole in the floor. But it still seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be that close to talented celebrities and no one got hurt. 

And, despite my hesitance, the show was very well received by the audience, particularly through unnecessary crying during a dramatized emotional scene towards the end and screams for an encore. 

The cast responded and performed another elaborate and upbeat song as a call back to the beginning of the play. 

“Let’s see Bad Bunny do that. They should’ve hired me for the halftime show,” said Tidicue, after a particularly difficult choreography during the encore.

Overall, the play was phenomenal and Meg Donnelly stole the show. Her beauty, charm, and acting experience really came through as she delivered each line. I wouldn’t be surprised if Broadway started casting her as the lead in their upcoming shows. 

My rating: