Somewhat Spectacular Spectacular | Moulin Rouge, The Piccadilly Theatre.

You do know it’s ‘Moulin Rouge’ the musical and not just a re-enactment of the film’?

My companion asked as we sat over a pre-train drink that Saturday night.

I didn’t and I hadn’t given the idea much thought, I’d just thought I’d been lucky to find some late availability tickets on a day that otherwise would have had little activity to recommend it.

A night at an extravagant West End show seemed a much more exciting option than an evening spent on the sofa.

Moulin Rouge is playing at the Piccadilly Theatre, a stone’s throw from Shaftsbury Avenue and in the heart of theatreland. The interior has been tarted up (an apt description in this instance,) to resemble a late 19th century Parisian nightclub of somewhat ill repute. The audience were clearly in search of a good time, and with even more ‘refreshments’ being consumed than I’d seen at ‘ABBA Voyage,’ I was sure they’d find it.

The show follows the same characters and basic plot as the film.

Toulouse Lautrec for some reason now appears to be a communist playwright, Christian, the hero, American and the role of the Duke is now expanded into a leading part.

Tickets are expensive, but you can see that you’re getting your monies worth. A cast list long enough to need its own phone book, constantly changing scenery and hidden somewhere from view a competent full orchestra mean you won’t feel so bad about the months of subsequent penury.

The show (high) kick’s off just like the film with Lady Marmalade, but the score quickly diverges. Some of the most iconic tunes from the movie are either completely absent or cut down to a few bars. In their place, new more contemporary melodies have been shipped in, Satine, rather than warbling on about how ‘Someday I’ll fly away,’ now talks about her alternative life as Katie Perry’s ‘Firework,’

Much of this is effective with Sia’s ‘Chandelier’ providing the soundtrack for the Absinthe scene and Lorde’s ‘Royals,’ one of the standouts in the first act. Some, though, seems more hurried, particularly ‘Bad Romance,’ in second act.

For me the major problem was that the two principal leads Christian and Satine, just didn’t seem to have much chemistry. Rather than a grand passion in Paris, it felt more wet weekend in Bognor and so didn’t quite work.

You can’t however think too badly of a show that ends the first half with a large-scale model of the Eiffel Tower being wheeled on stage, and the second half with the audience being encouraged to get up and dance. Never mind that the plot was thin enough to model for Chanel, or that there are no original numbers, this is a blow out party show and probably for now the best one going.

www.moulinrougemusical.co.uk

16 Denman Street, London, W1D 7DY