(upbeat music)
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
celebrated its three-year anniversary on Broadway,
just a couple of months back.
The cast, led by Ashley Loren, she plays Satine.
Here's Paul Wontorek.
- Thanks Tamsen.
Longtime Satine standby, Ashley Loren,
has stepped center stage in the Tony-winning hit musical.
I sat down with Broadway's Sparkling Diamond
at the Civilian Hotel to hear all
about her incredible journey to the trapeze swing.
(sultry jazz music)
You're Satine in Moulin Rouge.
- I am. I am.
- Iconic.
I mean, that's an iconic role from the movie
- Truly.
- And now it's become Broadway legend.
- What an honor. What an honor.
My journey with Moulin Rouge has been interesting
because I actually, I mean, my journey
with Broadway's Moulin Rouge,
but I also played Satine in a show in Vegas.
- I know this, we have to talk about it.
- Yeah, my journey with Satine has been incredible
and ever-evolving and I'm still learning so much.
And it's really a beautiful,
I'm just so grateful to be able to do this
on the greatest stage in the world.
(upbeat powerful music)
♪ Touch of her skin feeling silky smooth ♪
♪ Color of cafe au lait ♪
- [Paul] But let's talk about that.
Before Moulin Rouge became a Broadway reality,
you were doing a show in Vegas that was, sort of,
a tribute to Baz Luhrmann films,
which are obviously so soundtrack heavy.
- Yes.
- [Paul] All his films.
- Yes.
- [Paul] So talk about that.
- Yes. Yes.
I'm from New Jersey and I moved to LA
because I was touring with Carly Rae Jepsen at the time.
- [Paul] Nice.
- [Ashley] And so I was living my best life in LA,
"Call Me Maybe," maybe.
I actually went on a trip to Vegas
and I've always loved Moulin Rouge
has always been one of my favorites.
So when I went with some friends and I saw
that they were doing this show called Baz Star Crossed Love,
which was essentially Moulin Rouge, the Great Gatsby
and Romeo and Juliet.
- [Paul] Nice.
- Told as, you know, like a great epic love story
of vignettes using the songs from Baz Lurhmann's movies.
And I was like, "Well that I need to see."
Yeah, so I saw this beautiful show and I was like,
"Oh, I would love to be in that one day."
Auditions came around shortly after that.
Carly wasn't on tour at that point in time
and I was like, "Well, I don't mind.
Let me on me audition for this."
I love Satine.
I would love to be Satine.
So that was my first, sort of,
dipping my toes into the world.
- And the songs and a lot of the songs
that you're now singing on Broadway.
- Yes, it's been a journey with Satine
and I fall more in love with her every day.
- What do you love about Satine?
And Satine on stage is different than Satine in the movie,
I would say.
- I think so too, but I also think that the beauty
of my journey with her is just figuring out, you know,
how art imitates life and the humanity within her,
in all of those tales.
Because, you know, in Vegas, we told a version of her story.
In the movie, Baz told a version of her story.
And it's beautiful because every time someone comes
into the show to breathe life into Satine,
they tell a version of their story of her.
But I'm really enjoying finding new things
about her every day.
Her authenticity, how much of that
she has been allowed to be
or how much she's been able to explore
and the versions of that and her journey with love.
Just all of those things that, you know,
I think we all have thought about a lot
in post-pandemic world.
- Yeah.
- So it's really beautiful and I'm so enjoying every day.
I'm so grateful to be able to do it.
- I've been talking a lot to Broadway standbys and
understudies and swings.
- Yes.
- What's it been like being in that role?
- Yeah.
- You know, it's always been a part
of the Broadway industry.
- Yes.
- But suddenly there's more of an understanding
about the bigger picture of how you put a show on.
- And I think it's so important and it's about time.
I mean, Broadway is a team sport.
- Yeah.
- You can't do any of this without everyone.
What keeps a show alive, is the ones
that step up to the plate, sometimes last minute.
I mean, I remember I've been on mid-show before, you know,
and that's something that is non-stop,
happening almost every day.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
Between swings and I was lucky enough, I covered one role.
It's a pretty substantial role.
But, you know, we have swings who cover 10 roles
and we have swings who have done split tracks, cut tracks,
multiple tracks every day just to like,
you're trying to figure it out in real time.
Dance captains that put together the mathematics
of that are otherworldly.
- Um-hm.
- It's just such a skill set and such a talent
that Broadway would not exist without the offstage coverage.
It just wouldn't.
And it certainly wouldn't be sustainable.
It never was.
And certainly now.
I'm so happy that attention is finally being brought
to these incredible aliens that (laughing)
have come to rescue.
- Yeah.
- Broadway, because that's what they are.
They are heroes.
- Yeah, so, is it safe to assume that young Ashley
in New Jersey had more of the the pop dreams
than the Broadway Dreams?
- Young Ashley had a little bit of everything.
I was a sick child.
I have Lyme disease and I was diagnosed when I was a kid.
So, theater was actually my first, I always loved to sing.
Singing was my world.
Theater was my first, sort of, escape.
And I learned pretty early on that it was an escape
for audience members and for the person on stage, sometimes.
And the give and take of that and, you know,
how reciprocal that is and how that is so healing
and that if you're an artist, you're also a healer.
So because of that, I started in theater as a kid
and my reasoning was because it was like I was able
to be someone that wasn't me for a while.
Just like a little break.
And then I started writing songs
because another outlet, you know?
- Sure.
- And I started doing, you know, segueing into the pop world
when I was in middle school.
I ended up getting signed right after high school.
I was signed to Def Jam under Universal Music Group
and I was working on my album
and just things happen as they do,
life happens and an opportunity came for me to do
some demo vocals for Frank Wildhorn
and these new musicals that he was writing,
which is so full circle for me,
because my Broadway debut was in Jekyll and Hyde,
the revival.
- [Paul] Yeah, I know, yeah.
- [Ashley] And Jekyll and Hyde was the first show
that I saw as a kid that I was like, "Oh."
- [Paul] Wow.
- That's the kind of thing I want to sing.
Yeah, so I think it all started out in theater
and storytelling and healing and art and escapism.
And then now, it's just sort of mutated
into all of these other things.
(upbeat music)