Review: MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at ASU Gammage

BroadwayWorld Guest Contributor, David Appleford, offers his take on the Tony Award-winning MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL! on stage at ASU Gammage through August 3rd. 

Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge! came at you in a rush of technicolor, non-stop frantic editing, and a frenzied energy that never quit. To stage that kind of operatic chaos in a theater takes courage. MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL!, with its 10 Tony Awards, takes the challenge with gusto, if not always with grace.

Playing now at ASU Gammage until August 3, as directed by Alex Timbers, this stage adaptation bathes its audience in sensory overload from the moment you enter the auditorium. Derek McLane’s eye-popping scenic design of opulent scarlet drapery cascading like curtains in a Twin Peaks dream greets you as you enter.

The show’s setup is considerably better and more theatrical than the film. At the turn of the 20th century, in the twilight-glow of Paris’s Montmartre district, a place where the champagne never stops bubbling, the show bursts open with Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, followed by a rush of cancan kicks. The famed cabaret, presided over by the exuberant Harold Zidler (played with relish by Robert Petkoff, who, by sheer force of energy, demands attention), is a glittering escape, promising its audience that “all your dreams come true,” even as those dreams blur into illusion. As Harold states, “Moulin Rouge is more than a nightclub, it’s a state of mind!”

Into this swirling world of sight and sound arrives Christian (Jay Armstrong Johnson), a wide-eyed composer, not from England as in the film, but from Lima, Ohio, drawn by a yearning for both art and love. He falls in line with two kindred spirits: the passionate Toulouse-Lautrec (Jahi Kearse) and the kinetic Argentinean Santiago (Danny Burgos), both self-proclaimed bohemians determined to stage a revolutionary play where songs speak louder than dialogue.

Christian brings melody, poetry, and that most dangerous of things, a romantic soul. When he meets Satine (Arianna Rosario), the star courtesan of the Moulin Rouge, their connection is instantaneous. But in a world run by spectacle, love is a fragile thing, and the arrival of the calculating, power-drenched Duke of Monroth (David Harris) threatens to pull the curtain down before the story can fully play out.

Set during the Belle Époque in the bohemian underworld of Paris, the musical tightens the storytelling in places and upends it in others. Satine, now more mature than her movie counterpart, is less the dreamer and more the realist; she understands the stakes of the club’s survival and what she must do to keep it afloat.  Her choices carry more weight. There’s more control in her character, but, curiously, a little less soul.

The film’s Bollywood-inspired "Spectacular Spectacular" becomes the more muted “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Not the Queen song, but a story-within-a-story. Some elements are reimagined with success: Christian’s descent into despair plays more intensely with his drunkenness driving his decisions. The Duke of Monroth is still a villain, but he’s also a seductive symbol of safety, and Satine is not entirely immune.

There’s real beauty in moments of intimacy here. Christian and Satine's clandestine love is felt in a duet that beams with nervous electricity. Their rendition of the Elephant Love Medley is playful and touchingly sincere. You believe them when they sing, and for a moment, the dazzle dims enough to let us actually care, something the movie never quite achieved.

But it’s in the music that the show courts both its most brazen triumphs and its biggest missteps. This is a jukebox musical that dives headlong with its head spinning. Where the original film’s score offered daring mashups, the stage version adds a whole new list of hits, from Adele to A-Ha, Beyoncé to Lorde, from Rick Astley to Katy Perry. Sometimes the results are raucously fun; at other times, it feels like wandering into a particularly expensive karaoke night.

When Satine belts out Katy Perry’s Firework during a moment of emotional collapse, the poignancy is lost. You don’t feel so much moved as the show might intend, more mildly bewildered. The mashups, Seven Nation Army with Toxic, Diamonds Are Forever with Single Ladies, create a kind of overstimulated pastiche that works best when the stakes are low and spectacle is the point. But when we’re meant to feel something, the medleys sometimes short-circuit the emotion.

The performances, thankfully, keep the pulse beating. Rosario is a shimmering, controlled Satine, while Armstrong Johnson brings wide-eyed earnestness and vocal strength to Christian.

Ultimately, for all its sparkle, MOULIN ROUGE! walks a tricky line between exuberant liberation and something more cautious. In the film, Satine’s work as a courtesan was framed with defiance and confidence. Here, she’s given an odd air of shame with an internalized distaste that feels more a 1950s morality tale than Belle Époque boldness. It’s an awkward tonal shift, and one the show never quite reconciles.

Still, for all its clashing parts, like an overstuffed jewelry box where diamonds, pearls, and plastic trinkets jangle together, MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL’s visuals are hard to resist, and that’s what most audiences will respond to. It sparkles wonderfully even when it confuses.

In this stage production of MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL there’s simply no restraint. You go for the excess, the dazzle, and at ASU Gammage, that’s exactly what you get.

ASU Gammage -- https://www.asugammage.com/ -- 1200 S. Forest Avenue, Tempe, AZ -- 480-965-3434

Photo credit to Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade: The cast of the North American Tour of MOULIN ROUGE!