Even way up in the dress circle, the set of Moulin Rouge looks amazing before the show even starts. Drapes, lights, and chandeliers extend out into the theatre. It sets up a show that never fades in its one thousand per cent commitment to absolute earnest, opulent batshittery, supported by high production values and an incredibly talented and rigorous cast.
Jamie Bogyo stars as Christian, a naïve and passionate composer with a Disney prince haircut who comes to the Moulin Rouge in search of Satine, its star, played with beautiful fragility and passion by understudy Tanisha Spring. He is immediately besotted with her, but their love for each other is complicated by Satine’s need to maintain a relationship with wealthy benefactor the Duke of Monroth, who has agreed to stage Christian and his friends’ musical play, hopefully saving the struggling Moulin Rouge into the bargain. Also, Satine has a dodgy cough, but Covid is a hundred and twenty years away, so she has tuberculosis. The staging is luxurious and atmospheric, and immersive without feeling crowded. The songs add to the high drama, despite occasionally provoking a laugh of recognition from the audience when they start. They work best in the faster-paced mash-ups, exemplified by the magnificent opening number, chaperoned by the pitch-perfect Craig Ryder as Moulin Rouge owner Harold Zidler. It’s less successful when Satine sings the full version of ‘Firework,’ later on, which suffers a little bit from Glee syndrome – musical theatre actors over-enunciating the lyrics of popular songs, only highlighting their shallowness – despite Spring’s lovely voice. While not being as glitzy as other numbers, ‘Backstage Romance,’ at the start of the second half really sticks out; initially melodramatic and minimally staged, it rises to incorporate the whole ensemble in a spectacular number with amazing dancing, and which uses the stage lighting to full effect.
Sadly – and crucially for the plot – an effective treatment for tuberculosis is 150 years away, meaning a poor prognosis for Satine. She multitasks, trying to please the overbearing Duke, ostensibly reject a spiralling Christian while secretly being in love with him, and save the Moulin Rouge, but it proves to be a full plate and sets up a dramatic dénouement. Christian’s descent into desperation leads to a fantastic absinthe-fuelled sequence, with excellent staging and special effects. As the second half progressed, the show was almost overwhelmed by the plot’s 100% commitment to minimal communication between the main characters to enable maximum drama, but was anchored by Spring and Boygo’s convincing and heartfelt performances as their characters’ troubles overwhelmed them. The final reprise with the full company is as vibrant and bonkers as the best of musical theatre.
Moulin Rouge is booking at London’s Picadilly Theatre until the 7th September 2024.
NB: The ticket cost is high, even for seats in the dress circle. You could pay a large amount of money and be almost onstage at a little table, but it was actually beneficial to be further back; like Dreamgirls, the show is designed as a spectacle where the whole stage is visible at once. The staging and the costumes are fantastic, especially the opening number corsets and the tutus, tailcoats and top hats that the male dancers wear in the final reprise. But however much you can see where your money’s going though, it is a lot, and the daily release of cheaper rush tickets limits them to those with last-minute availability.