Review: “Moulin Rouge!” Is a Spectacular Spectacular

Before saying anything about the new “Moulin Rouge!” musical, I must first address the elephant in the room, or should I say elephants, since there are two: both a literal giant elephant in one of the balcony boxes of the newly-renovated Al Hirschfield Theatre and a metaphorical elephant, the musical’s beloved source material, Baz Luhrmann’s iconic 2001 film. Although many adoring fans take the film quite seriously, at its core it is a glorified, glittering jukebox movie musical, full of funny anachronisms and mostly flat characters. It is important to keep this in mind and to not take the musical too seriously, since it certainly doesn’t.

Much like the movie, the stage adaptation tells the story of Christian (Aaron Tveit), a young writer in 1899 Paris, and Satine (Karen Olivo), a tubercular courtesan and cabaret performer at the legendary Monmatre club the Moulin Rouge — you know, the one with the windmill? Which, as it happens, is in the other balcony box across from the elephant.

Much like the Studio 54 revival of “Cabaret,” and “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” here the set, and the theatre itself, has been designed to take us directly into the Moulin Rouge club, led by Danny Burstein as Ziedler (a Frenchified version of the MC from “Cabaret”). The gorgeous immersive space by Derek Mclane is luxuriously draped in red velvet, bedecked with sparkling chandeliers, and sensuously framed in heart-shaped proscenia. As you enter the theatre, you are bathed in red light (thanks to designer Justin Townsend, brilliant as ever) and several sexy actors in corsets and lingerie (Catherine Zuber’s clearly has a great time designing all this silk, sparkle, and lace) slowly strut the stage, dance in cages, swallow swords, and smoke cigarettes.

But perhaps what is most noteworthy about the preshow is not what is happening on stage, but what is going on in the aisles. For the entire time the house is open, the aisles are filled with people taking pictures, selfies, and videos. The show is made for social media, and it fully embraces its millennial audience in more ways than one.