Review: 'Moulin Rouge: The Musical!' Is Too Much of an Over-the-Top Spectacle

Baz Luhrman's 2001, Oscar-winning film "Moulin Rouge" was known for its extravagance. On that score, the new Broadway musical based on it certainly measures up.

There's confetti (twice), fireworks, a turning windmill, a swing that drops from the ceiling, and a giant sculpture of an elephant that surveys the audience from what were formerly box seats. There are also cancan dancers, sword swallowers, and snippets from over 70 pop songs.

What there isn't is a plot that really resonates, or that feels like more than just an excuse for a lot of fishnet stockings.

But that's certainly not the fault of the actors, who turn in fine-voiced, powerful performances. The charismatic Karen Olivo is Satine, a world-weary music hall performer (at the Moulin Rouge night club in Paris, naturellement) who is tasked with seducing a Duke so he invests in the theater. Aaron Tveit is Christian, an innocent young songwriter who is captivated by her and instantly falls into doomed love.

There's a bit of "La Bohème" here — Satine gets tuberculosis — but there's also a mishmash of a subplot about two bohemian revolutionaries who want to bring truth to theater. Sahr Ngaujah ("Fela") turns in a ferocious performance by one of them, but he can't save the story alone.

That said, if you think of "Moulin Rouge" as a jukebox musical, or a revue — or heck, an insane party — then it mostly succeeds (and would succeed even more strongly if it shaved an hour off its two-and-a-half-hour running time). Many of the songs are more contemporary than the ones in Luhrman's film, for example there's Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," Katy Perry's "Firework" and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies." That there are so many of them — often strung into overlong medlies or inserted as dialogue — often feels overwhelming, and keeps the audience from having the catharsis that a good pop song provides. 

The one part that really works is Derek McLane's set. It is extraordinary. There are overlapping valentine's hearts that frame the action in one scene, and a three-dimensional recreation of the roofs of Paris in another. And then there's that elephant. That campy, lush spectacle of a set basically screams, "Don't take me seriously!" And if you don't, then "Moulin Rouge" is a lot of fun.

"Moulin Rouge," directed by Alex Timbers at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.