Moulin Rouge! The Musical at Piccadilly Theatre, London. Photo credit Marc Brenner.First up, this is a jukebox musical to smash all jukebox musicals, with literally in excess of 70 multi-genre numbers either performed individually, as duets, or mashed-up with other pop songs performed by the whole cast. One minute we’re listening to a reflective Satine (Tanisha Spring) singing Katy Perry’s Firework, next the Duke (Ben Richards) our monied villain who wants power over everything, is regaling us with a Rolling Stones mash-up of Sympathy For the Devil and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Elton John’s Your Song provides a suitably intimate duet for Satine and her young infatuated suitor Christian (Dom Simpson) who gets another especially shining moment with Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy sung as a duet with Toulouse-Lautrec (Ian Carlyle). Cee Lo Green’s Crazy is blended with Adele’s Rolling In the Deep. Elephant Love Medley takes things up several notches by blitzing through over 20 songs (including one line from Love is a Battlefield), but my favourite interlude of the night was a company version of Sia’s Chandelier delivered as they succumb to the hallucinogenic effects of absinthe. This is bohemian Paris at is raucous and rowdiest.
The story too, is a bit of a mash-up. Part La Boheme/Rent, part panto/cabaret with a soupçon of circus spectacular thrown in for good measure. The Moulin Rouge cabaret venue is on its uppers and owner Harold Zidler (Matt Rixon) needs his diamond leading lady Satine to accept the Duke as her lover, so that he may be persuaded to invest in the establishment and thereby guarantee its future.
The Piccadilly Theatre’s auditorium is bedecked in red decor and lighting as befits such a venue and the stage sets with their constantly moving façades and even more colourful costumes, maintain a dizzying visual spectacle from start to finish.
If you’re looking for a thoughtful meditation on the arts, this may not be the show for you. The dance numbers have barely finished before another kicks-off and the comedy and villainy rarely rises above slapstick and pastiche. One thing is certain however, for so long as the coach parties keep coming, the cast will continue to give their all to ensure their punters are shown a good time.
