NYC Theater: Moulin Rouge The Musical Review - High Energy, Provocative, Rollicking Good Time

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Category: Theatre, Music

Published on Wednesday, 19 April 2023 13:13

Written by Janet Walker

Moulin Rouge!, the high-voltage bohemian musical currently at the Al Hirschfield Theater, brings to the stage provocative performances, colorful and seductive costumes, and features a contemporary soundtrack with a story that is as old as time.

The allure of awakening the hidden seems possible and is highlighted before the curtain rises. As the theater fills, theatergoers are transported in time to the world-famous Moulin Rouge, a Parisian nightclub in the 1899s, where one's darkest hidden desires can be realized.

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The stage beckons, and throughout the theater props and performers present alluring carnal temptations, pulling the mind into mischievous dark places and capture the gaze as they entertain before the show begins.

When the show begins the ringmaster begins by announcing this, The Moulin Rouge, is the place where your innermost fantasies are free to express themselves. With that the high energy musical begins with the anthem of women's sexual freedom "Lady Marmalade" and kicks the show into overdrive.

As it does depict Paris, at the turn of the century, it is a nightclub whose star, Satine, played in the performance I attended by Ashley Loren, is the singer. The nightclub is losing money and the manager makes a deal with the Duke of Monroth, played by Declan Bennett, that Satine will marry him if he funds the next production and essentially keeps the nightclub afloat.

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However, Satine meets and falls in love with Christian, played by Derek Klena, which sets up the story of love or money, which is best. Satine's decision will affect everyone? Can she leave her one true love? Will she marry the duke so the club, and everyone who works at the club will remain employed? Knowing that life without work can break the spirit and for the women will force them into prostitution, Satine as the play continues, we see does what is necessary. However, she is hiding one secret from everyone.

Harold Zidler, played by Eric Anderson, the owner of the Molin Rouge, billed the club as a place where the very rich could slum in a fashionable neighborhood and where the women catered to tempting the patrons with the newest dance the French can-can, a high kicking, skirt lifting, teasing voyeurism for the very wealthy men of Paris.

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Throughout the production, the audience is transported to 1899 Paris, when at the turn of the century, the ladies, like Satine, were tolerated but never accepted into society. We understand the story of pretention, of love, heartache, and as the Moulin Rouge is a nightclub, the ensemble scenes of impressive dance numbers.

With a musical score that weaves in many memorable tunes, The Moulin Rouge is a toe-tapping sing along beginning with "Lady Marmalade," the audience is able to relate to the moment through both the performance and the tunes that include "Bad Romance," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Burning down the House," "Brick House," "Jungle Boogies," "Gimmie Shelter," "What's Love Got to Do With it?" "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "You Spin me Round," plus many more in the nearly three-hour performance.

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Looking for a Broadway show that provides a mesmerizing, high-energy and bewitching good time? Look no further than Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Currently on Broadway Moulin Rouge is more than entertaining: Moulin Rouge! The Musical is an experience. Awesome, tantalizing and kicking it up for audience. See it if you can.

For more information: Moulin Rouge: The Musical