Moulin Rouge The Musical Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 30th April 2025 Review
Moulin Rouge The Musical is at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh until 14 June, but if you want to catch up with this show then it is probably best to book your tickets as quickly as possible as they are selling fast.
The show is of course based on the hugely popular Baz Luhrmann film of the same name from 2001 which featured Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in the lead roles of star-crossed lovers – Satine, Moulin Rouge’s star performer, and English poet/hopeful songwriter Christian. Like the film, the stage show is a jukebox musical homage to operas, especially, Puccini’s La bohème, and popular songs from the 20th century with a heavy emphasis on contemporary chart hits.
Like the original film, the stage show, which had its premiere in 2018, relies heavily upon the audience being familiar with the music. For some of the big songs from this show such as “Your Song” (Elton John) and Roxanne (The Police) this is probably easy for people to do, but this show also uses lines from songs in spoken dialogue, sometimes even just one line, and I wonder how many people below a certain age will be that familiar with the opening lines of “Sympathy For The Devil” (Rolling Stones). Cross-referencing all of the songs from the film and the stage musical does seem to have become a bit of an online passion for many people though, as there are more than a few websites devoted to this. For a successful stage production like this though, I would have liked to have seen more than a few original songs such as “Come What May” and “So Exciting (The Pitch Song)”.
It is obvious from the opening moments of this show that Moulin Rouge is a big budget production – the stage set and costumes tell you this, and Derek McLane (scenic designer), Catherine Zuber (costume designer), Justin Townsend (lighting designer), and Peter Hylenski (sound designer) have created here a fantasy world for all the people of Moulin Rouge to live out their and the audience’s fantasies in. A quick read through the printed programme for this show also leaves no doubt as to the sheer scale of talent, both on and off stage, involved in this production.
I have to admit here that I usually am not a huge fan of jukebox musicals, but Moulin Rouge is one of the exceptions as the songs, and sometimes just a single line from a lyric, are used so carefully here. Taking the original song and often giving it a new arrangement which is sympathetic to the new narrative adds an unexpected twist to something familiar, and here on stage John Logan (book) and Alex Timbers (Director) have managed to retain a lot of the feel of the original film which I like a lot. Some very good choreography by Sonya Tayeh also blends successfully period and contemporary dance styles and, for me, this is often classic Bob Fosse style brought up to date.
The film and the stage show are of course two very different things and it is impossible to re-create the former on stage in all elements and, for me, that does mean that this one lacks a little bit of the emotional inter-play between characters that this story really requires. Having said that though, this is not a film with the luxury of extra scenes and close up cinematography, this is a musical and the sheer spectacle of the stage show, the costumes, the choreography and the vocal performances are what this audience have to have on stage and respond to, and this show does “big budget stage musical” in style with slick costume and set changes too.
Taking the lead role of Satine is Verity Thompson and this is obviously an opportunity that she is going to make the most of, although I would have liked to have seen more emotionally dramatic moments for Satine. This, however, is a stage musical and the ability to deliver the song and dance numbers in this show well has to take first place here and this audience were overall hugely receptive to Verity Thompson’s performance of Satine.
Nate Landskroner in the role of Christian is a good choice to perform opposite Verity Thompson’s Satine in this story of star-crossed lovers and puts in a good performance here in all of his scenes. There are some nice character performances too from Cameron Blakely (Harold Zidler), Kurt Kansley (Toulouse-Lautrec), and Johnny Galeandro (Santiago). As always though, James Bryers as the villain of this story, The Duke, gets some of the best lines and he was clearly enjoying his almost vaudevillian role here.
A big part of the feel of this production has to go to the Playhouse Theatre itself as a show like this really needs a classic auditorium like this one to complete the illusion of being in a period building and watching the show on stage. A nice use of that classic Shakespearian ploy of a stage show within a stage show here too.
It costs a lot of money to bring any show to the stage these days and even more to tour it, and a big production like this has enormous production and operational costs. At least with this show, audiences can clearly see where some of their ticket price money has been spent. Moulin Rouge is at its heart simply entertainment, a night out for anyone who wants to forget any troubles or woes that they might have and just enjoy the show spectacle on stage in front of them.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The show is of course based on the hugely popular Baz Luhrmann film of the same name from 2001 which featured Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in the lead roles of star-crossed lovers – Satine, Moulin Rouge’s star performer, and English poet/hopeful songwriter Christian. Like the film, the stage show is a jukebox musical homage to operas, especially, Puccini’s La bohème, and popular songs from the 20th century with a heavy emphasis on contemporary chart hits.
Like the original film, the stage show, which had its premiere in 2018, relies heavily upon the audience being familiar with the music. For some of the big songs from this show such as “Your Song” (Elton John) and Roxanne (The Police) this is probably easy for people to do, but this show also uses lines from songs in spoken dialogue, sometimes even just one line, and I wonder how many people below a certain age will be that familiar with the opening lines of “Sympathy For The Devil” (Rolling Stones). Cross-referencing all of the songs from the film and the stage musical does seem to have become a bit of an online passion for many people though, as there are more than a few websites devoted to this. For a successful stage production like this though, I would have liked to have seen more than a few original songs such as “Come What May” and “So Exciting (The Pitch Song)”.
It is obvious from the opening moments of this show that Moulin Rouge is a big budget production – the stage set and costumes tell you this, and Derek McLane (scenic designer), Catherine Zuber (costume designer), Justin Townsend (lighting designer), and Peter Hylenski (sound designer) have created here a fantasy world for all the people of Moulin Rouge to live out their and the audience’s fantasies in. A quick read through the printed programme for this show also leaves no doubt as to the sheer scale of talent, both on and off stage, involved in this production.
I have to admit here that I usually am not a huge fan of jukebox musicals, but Moulin Rouge is one of the exceptions as the songs, and sometimes just a single line from a lyric, are used so carefully here. Taking the original song and often giving it a new arrangement which is sympathetic to the new narrative adds an unexpected twist to something familiar, and here on stage John Logan (book) and Alex Timbers (Director) have managed to retain a lot of the feel of the original film which I like a lot. Some very good choreography by Sonya Tayeh also blends successfully period and contemporary dance styles and, for me, this is often classic Bob Fosse style brought up to date.
The film and the stage show are of course two very different things and it is impossible to re-create the former on stage in all elements and, for me, that does mean that this one lacks a little bit of the emotional inter-play between characters that this story really requires. Having said that though, this is not a film with the luxury of extra scenes and close up cinematography, this is a musical and the sheer spectacle of the stage show, the costumes, the choreography and the vocal performances are what this audience have to have on stage and respond to, and this show does “big budget stage musical” in style with slick costume and set changes too.
Taking the lead role of Satine is Verity Thompson and this is obviously an opportunity that she is going to make the most of, although I would have liked to have seen more emotionally dramatic moments for Satine. This, however, is a stage musical and the ability to deliver the song and dance numbers in this show well has to take first place here and this audience were overall hugely receptive to Verity Thompson’s performance of Satine.
Nate Landskroner in the role of Christian is a good choice to perform opposite Verity Thompson’s Satine in this story of star-crossed lovers and puts in a good performance here in all of his scenes. There are some nice character performances too from Cameron Blakely (Harold Zidler), Kurt Kansley (Toulouse-Lautrec), and Johnny Galeandro (Santiago). As always though, James Bryers as the villain of this story, The Duke, gets some of the best lines and he was clearly enjoying his almost vaudevillian role here.
A big part of the feel of this production has to go to the Playhouse Theatre itself as a show like this really needs a classic auditorium like this one to complete the illusion of being in a period building and watching the show on stage. A nice use of that classic Shakespearian ploy of a stage show within a stage show here too.
It costs a lot of money to bring any show to the stage these days and even more to tour it, and a big production like this has enormous production and operational costs. At least with this show, audiences can clearly see where some of their ticket price money has been spent. Moulin Rouge is at its heart simply entertainment, a night out for anyone who wants to forget any troubles or woes that they might have and just enjoy the show spectacle on stage in front of them.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com