Review: MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL, Edinburgh Playhouse

Scottish audiences are lucky enough to be the first to see the world tour of Moulin Rouge as it opens at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Running from 22 April to 14 June 2025 the venue hosts this spectacular show based on the much-loved 2001 movie musical.

Singer-songwriter Christian (Nate Landskroner) has travelled from Ohio to Paris with hopes of finding fame and fortune as an artist. He stumbles upon a gang of scruffy bohemians who take him to the Moulin Rouge with a view to staging his songs as part of a show there. 

The sparkling diamond of the Moulin Rouge is Satine (Verity Thompson) the main star of their nightly show. Satine had a tough upbringing, forced into prostitution by her father at 13 and was 'saved' by Harold Zidler (Cameron Blakely) who runs the venue and was able to showcase her talents. The Moulin Rouge is under threat and Zidler's only way out is to sell both the building and its star to the Duke of Monroth (James Bryers).

Satine is happy to go along with the pretence that she loves the Duke in order to save her show family from returning to squalor but she falls in love with the penniless artist and embarks on a secret affair that puts everyone at risk.

If you know and love the film the music is largely the same with a bit of modernisation. There's mashup after mashup of popular songs from across the decades and they are performed with high energy and incredible choreography from Sonya Tayeh. 

The lavish set designs and stunning costumes make this production a sight to behold and a great book by John Logan ensures a heartfelt storyline to go with it. The production hasn't been scaled down at all for this tour and the Edinburgh Playhouse has been transformed- complete with windmill and elephant! Transferring such a dazzling movie musical to the stage is no mean feat and the designers have excelled themselves with this true spectacle. 

The cast are sensational and strike a delicate balance between the more emotional scenes and the poptastic extravaganza elements of the show. For a tragedy about a doomed romance, Moulin Rouge is surprisingly uplifting and this world tour is absolutely not to be missed!

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