There are musicals where you leave the hall humming after the final applause, where one melody remains in your head afterwards. Such a musical is Moulin Rouge! no. In this production, based on the 2001 film by Australian director Baz Luhrmann, dozens of hits fight for precedence.
Musical
Moulin Rouge! Musicalby Stage Entertainment. Seen: Beatrix Theater, Utrecht 19/9. More dates: stage-entertainment.nl
In the performance, a Parisian nightclub has financial problems. The owner (Carlo Boszhard) orders one of ‘his’ courtesans, Satine (Keoma Aidhen), to seduce a rich duke (Nino Ruiter). Due to a misunderstanding, it is composer Christian (Martijn Noort) who is taken in. The two fall hopelessly in love, while Satine still has to flirt with the millionaire. The affair takes place against a background of drinking and eroticism. The bourgeoisie flaunts its wealth; the bohemians, to which Christian belongs, enjoy the free life. This is the setting for a musical full of grand show numbers.
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Moulin Rouge! is a relatively new creation (on Broadway since 2019) and you can hear that in the setlist, which consists of pop songs from the past fifty years. In the Dutch version, too, the hits are sung in English. The repertoire shoots from Madonna to The Police, from Adele to The Rolling Stones and Édith Piaf. This sometimes even happens within one song: a collection of hits is then stitched together into a mix around one theme. A strong example of this is the last song before the break: a duet in which Christian and Satine declare their love for each other with fragments of ‘Take on me’, ‘Love is a battlefield’ and ‘Heroes’, among others. The rapid alternation of songs does not always work well: sometimes it makes the songs very fragmentary and the musical braiding is more gimmicky than catchy.
In addition to the back-and-forth soundtrack, the visual spectacle is striking. Moulin Rouge! up. The decor is impressive, with a mill and a gigantic elephant head on either side. The nightclub feeling shimmers from the stage between burgundy draperies, chandeliers and an enormous amount of lights. Here the ensemble whirls in an equally eclectic mix of dance styles such as burlesque, jazz, tango and cancan. The choreographies look a bit messy at first, but gradually become tighter, culminating in the rousing ‘Backstage Romance’.
Predictable
Moulin Rouge! is a hysterical trip, but not such a party in terms of content. The story is predictable and some scenes serve purely as a vehicle for the next series of songs. The performance therefore sometimes feels rushed. Before you have processed one moment, the next one thunders over it.
What doesn’t help is that Keoma Aidhen – who plays Satine – only really gets going after her first solo (‘Firework’ by Katy Perry). She hardly shows off her vocals in the earlier songs. Fortunately, she has Martijn Noort opposite her. He is a sparkling Christian with a strong voice, hits every note and has a pleasantly clear acting style. Noort calmly takes his audience by the hand through the turbulent musical violence of Moulin Rouge!
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