--Eighteen years after dazzling movie audiences, Moulin Rouge the musical has
landed on Broadway and is just the spectacular spectacular
we all deserve. We're here at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre to meet the stars of
the new show that revels in truth, beauty, freedom and love.
--This is more than a nightclub. The Moulin Rouge
is a state of mind.
[music]
--Hey guys! Look, they made a musical out of Moulin Rouge! and you're the stars!
--What? What's happening? --Look what they did in here you guys.
--How did they do this? --When you're
in this theater, it's such a otherworldly experience.
--It is. When you just walk in
the theater, it is unlike anything you've ever seen before.
--It's exciting being
here, and then there's a good show too.
--Who knew! Or at least I've heard it's a fantastic.
--From day one, did you imagine this? --From the very first meetings, we were like
let's make the envelope the club. The movie doesn't start there, but the
theatrical experience has to. Making a big, bold decision like that from the
beginning was really sort of liberating for the rest of the artistic process.
--You say Moulin Rouge, what you want it to be.
I feel like the team have literally given
you that one more. So, that's fun. --Are you numb to all this fabulousness
yet?
--Absolutely not. --Not for a second.
I still walk in and I sort of I sort of gape, my
eyes blink, that that they let us do this so fully, so completely.
--I think the way that film is unique to cinema, our show
is unique to theatre because nobody's
ever seen—it's definitely, New York has never seen anything like this before.
--I am a super fan of Moulin Rouge! the movie, so I was really nervous that you
guys were gonna mess it up. And you didn't . It's incredible.
Were you also super fans of the film when it when it came out
and over the years? --Absolutely a fan. I
had a like a huge poster in my dining room of that iconic dip and kiss.
--Dining room? That's a good spot for it. --Right? Don't you think?
--Sure why not? --Good colors.
--It would have been weird if it was in the bedroom right?
--Too obvious
--Yeah.
--When I first saw the film, it blew my mind because
this conceit, you know, how pop music was
being used. And suddenly lyrics I thought
I knew, I was hearing for the first time again. --We wanted audiences coming to the
theater in 2019 to have that same experience, so we felt excited and
obligated to update the score with music from the intervening 18 years. But not
only that, we actually have Hoagy Carmichael. So we go even further back
you know? So, we're bouncing between periods
as well.
--I'm an old soul, and so I wasn't just interested in the idea of putting newer
music in. I really wanted to expand the timeline of the show's catalog. And it
spans over a century of popular music. --It's such an excessive piece of art. To
be able to dance to all of this music, it wants all of the access and wants all of
that high-octane, fiery type of swiftness to it. It's been a candy shop of fun ways
of building and creating —and especially with this incredible company.
--We looked
at this as an original musical, like we were writing South Pacific. And we
spotted character songs, and we spotted comedy songs, we spotted dance numbers, in
terms of what the story and the characters needed. And that was thrilling.
--And sometimes, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga
were the perfect choices for certain moments. --Exactly.
--Yes! --Exciting for
all of us. --The other thing that that we
felt very early on that to be a song in
the show, it had to have a certain vibe. It had to be cool. It had to have a Moulin
Rouge energy to it or vibe to it. So it couldn't be square.
--Your film
predecessors give iconic performances. --They did.
--How daunting is that?
--[laughs] --It's always a
challenge, but it's always a gift as well because there's something that's come
before that you want to cherish and take care of, but at the same time you want to
make it your own. And I think luckily for us, the script is
subtly different enough where we were able to just kind of look at it as its
own, as its own piece instead of just trying to do exactly what the movie did.
--I could look at it as daunting or just a lovely
challenge. --Yeah, we'll just look at it the
other way. --Yeah.
[laughs]
--Positive side. Like, oh my god. We get to play Satine and Christian!
--Who gets? We get to do it! --Somehow, we get to
--Why?! --You come down
in the swing and everything.
--Crazy. What is my life?
--What about the story of Christian and
Satine do you think people really respond to? Because at the end of the day
it's a romance.
--It is. That's that's basically the heart of our show, you know?
It's a very beautiful love story of two people you would never see together in a
way. And then they come together in unlikely circumstances and their love is
so pure it transcends time. And that's basically at the heart of our show— and
then all this crazy fun on top of it.
--It's a story about love and about daring
greatly and about pursuing passion above all obstacles.
--Christian and Satine, they're
like they're like a jewel. And they show you just turn them in different facets
of what love is. It can be foolish. It could be headstrong. It could be bitter.
It can be angry. It could be all those things. So in
you know two hours, the audience actually
experienced that couple going through every kind of love you know? And I found
that very fulfilling. You know it's exhausting by the end of
the show for me because I'm so emotional about it.
--What are the audience's like? I
mean they walk into this theater with a lot of
--They're crazy. --Expectations
--Yeah, they lose
their minds. From the first moment they walk in through the doors.
Everyone, along with everyone on on the stage, is shot out of a literal cannon
and see ya at the end folks.
--The cage is open and the beasts come out. Very sexy
beasts. --You're one of the
--I could be. --Hey sister soul sister
--That's right. --That happens.
--Those snaps start and then the audience, the roar...
It's like saddle up. --From the moment one when
the Lady Em's are looking you in the face and Herald Ziegler's addressing you,
you know where you are. You're in Paris and like you're home and
here's the story that for the next two and a half hours.
--It really invites you
in, as you can see in the theater. It embraces you and welcomes you. It's a
very all-encompassing experience where once you walk in, you know exactly where
you are. And all walks of life are welcome.
--Put your screen away for a
little bit, come inside, and feel it for real.
If you sit close enough, you can get
sweat on you. Sing along with us.
Come have a good time. --I look out sometimes and I see
people with their mouths just completely open like...
And I think that that's kind of fantastic. And
then by the end, they're weeping they jump up in their seats.
--Oh, is it sad?
It's a little sad.
--No. --Hopefully they
take the ride, and I think they do based
on the screaming and screaming during the show. And sometimes we've had
a couple of you know standing ovations in the middle of the show.
--We welcome that.
--Yeah absolutely. Yes, have your live your best life, have your best
reaction --At Moulin Rouge
--At Moulin Rouge. --On Broadway.
--Yeah.
[music]