There’s nothing subtle about ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’

Dazzling Kennedy Center production makes for exhilarating summer escape

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

There’s nothing subtle about “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” The set, the score, the book, the Vegas meets fin de siècle costumes are all undeniably extra but that’s what makes it tick. Now at the Kennedy Center, the jukebox musical is plying its over-the-top charms on D.C.

At a recent matinee, having left the hot sun of the terrace for the cool confines of the Opera House, I felt transported. Always cavernous and ornate, the theater was now aglow in bright pinkish red, the stage an explosion of concentric hearts, book-ended by a huge red windmill and an enormous blue elephant, and backed by a tapestry filled with fleurs de lis and yet more windmills. Onstage, corseted dancers, female and male, lured the audience into their snare while a pair of sword swallowers provocatively displayed their skills before the foot lights.

It’s 1899 Paris and the Moulin Rouge nightclub is busy. A louche haven where titled men pick favorites from the demimonde, the popular boîte is helmed by emcee/impresario/owner Harold Zidler (the terrific Austin Durant). Artfully addressing his audience, he calls up to the balcony, “I want to make love to each and every one of you,” but his real focus is on the deep pocketed swells closer to the stage. The Moulin Rouge is going bust and without securing an investor STAT, Zidler can’t keep club going, Champagne flowing, and cute chorus boys knocking at his door. Nearing rock concert volume, the show opens with four vivacious showgirls exploding into “Lady Marmalade” accompanied by an uber versatile, medium-sized pit orchestra. But then, the mood abruptly changes when Christian (Christian Douglas covering for out actor John Cardoza), an aspiring American songwriter, recounts his journey. He’s left the strictures of Lima, Ohio, for Paris’ freewheeling Montmartre quarter where he joins France’s children of the revolution in celebrating the bohemian principles of truth, beauty, freedom, and, primarily, love.

There he rapidly befriends Latin dancer/gigolo Santiago (Gabe Martínez) and the delightfully antiestablishment painter Toulouse-Lautrec played by Nick Rashad-Boroughs. The trio endeavor to produce a show and will somehow convince Moulin Rouge headliner Satine (Nicci Claspell covering for Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer) to play the lead. It’s a longshot, but why not?

Meanwhile Zidler has other plans for streetwise pal Satine involving the nefarious

Duke of Monroth played by the handsome but insufficiently repellant Andrew Brewer. Monroth introduces himself to Satine with a mash up of “Sympathy for the Devil” and other Rolling Stones songs. Zidler suggest the rich nobleman might be the payday they both desperately need.

After a bungled introduction in which Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke, a passion ignites between the unlikely pair and a difficult relationship ensues. (Not incidentally, both Claspell and Douglas are glorious singers and able actors, neither of whom faltered on a line or lyric. Again, understudies save the day.)

Based on Baz Luhrmann’s innovative 2001 celluloid success “Moulin Rouge,” an ill-fated romance that put movie musicals back on the map for some time, the 2019 Broadway hit tells the same story, and also employs a mashup of mostly chart-topping tunes. Similar to the film, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” rather brilliantly uses contemporary music (Madonna, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston, Katy Perry, Queen, Nat King Cole, and many more) to put across a turn of the 20th century Belle Epoque narrative; these anachronistic renditions are clever, sometimes dark, and always wonderfully unexpected.

Director Alex Timbers assembled a brilliant design team: set designer Derek McLane, costume designer Catherine Zuber, and quite significantly lighting designer Justin Townsend. Beyond the divine excess of the scarlet, glowing club, they create a world of Belle Epoque fantasy including a pastel-hued Champs-Élysées and an artsy silvery-skied Montmartre.

John Logan’s book borrows from various operas, romantic novels, and some classic movies including “Cabaret” and gay director George Cukor’s 1936 “Camille” starring Garbo as the courtesan and an arrestingly pretty Robert Taylor as the bogus baron who steals her heart.

Other contributions of note include Justin Levine’s music supervision, orchestrations, and arrangement, as well as Sonya Tayeh’s innovative, athletic choreography, especially an erotic number featuring Santiago (Martínez) and blonde cabaret siren Nini (scene stealer Libby Lloyd).

Diverting and visually dazzling, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” makes for an exhilarating late summer escape.