Baz Luhrmann Talks Olympics MOULIN ROUGE Performance and Thoughts on the Broadway-Bound Production
By: Stephi Wild Feb. 24, 2018
In an interview with Variety, Baz Luhrmann shared his thoughts on the recent buzz around Moulin Rouge. The show has gotten hype recently after skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir performed to songs from the show on the Olympics.
Watch the performance below!
"I can tell you that when I woke up and the "Moulin Rouge" album was No. 13 on the iTunes chart - and I don't know if it had even been on the charts in 10 years - I was as surprised as everybody else," Luhrmann commented on the show's overnight resurrection following the airing of the Olympics performance.
Luhrmann spoke on the performance, saying that it felt more like the skaters inhabited the characters, more than just danced to the music.
"With Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, the Canadian skaters, it feels like he is singing Ewan McGregor's lines to his partner," he said. "It feels like they're having a relationship. And it's kind of gone into another place by [the Olympics allowing songs with] lyrics."
Luhrmann assures that he is not involved with the upcoming production of Moulin Rouge that is premiering in Boston before moving to Broadway.
"I'm not doing the live stage musical," he said. "Because I'm kind of at the center of it, but I've moved on myself, it's a bit like a child who's gone off to college. You know, I hear from it occasionally."
"I can tell you, I'm like a distant uncle," he joked. "I drop in occasionally and give them great encouragement."
"I feel much better about saying, 'Alex [Timbers], you take it and interpret it as you see it.' Alex is kind of a fan, and his team are fans, and they're young. It's so much better if they do that, and it's such a joy to see them go off with it. The original parent getting in the way of the process is probably not that helpful."
Read more here.
As previously announced, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann, will play a world pre-Broadway engagement at Boston's Emerson Colonial Theatre next Summer.
Directed by Alex Timbers, performances of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, with a book by John Logan, begin at the newly refurbished Emerson Colonial Theatre late June, 2018. Reviving a great theatrical tradition, Boston's newly restored The Emerson Colonial Theatre (106 Boylston Street) will officially re-open its doors with the highly anticipated pre-Broadway World Premiere engagement of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Aaron Tveit and Karen Olivo are attached to the current developmental lab of Moulin Rouge, playing Christian and Satine. Casting for the pre-Broadway run has not yet been announced.
Set in Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France, Moulin Rouge! The Musical tells the fictional story of a young poet/writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress Satine, while evoking the authentic atmosphere of the famous dance hall during the Belle Epoque at the turn of the 20th Century.
Released by Twentieth Century Fox, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. At the 74th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won two.
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