Moulin Rouge NYC 2020

Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Moulin Rouge! Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film extravaganza is updated and revised for Broadway as a major hit with an accompanying cast album nominated at this year's Grammy Awards.

wonder | wander | women were wary this new remake would not be able to live up to that crazy lovely movie! Or manage to translate cinematic shimmery illusions into the grit and greasepaint of live theater.

What about the score of fresh pop music, the romantic hysteria between its stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, the raw and ragged bohemian cast, and its dazzling production design - scenery, choreography, and cinematography?

We need never fear! As soon as the show started, much beloved music - old and new - blasts open our imagination with recollected wild memories as we trip through the spectacular spectacular stage recreating the extreme joys and sorrows of being in love - lusty and idealized.

Music orchestrator and arranger, Justin Levine, dazzled with clever ways to insert more and more songs. Familiar favorites to recall and heighten emotions, timed impeccably at just the right moments.

Song changes had to be done not only because in the last 18 years new pop music came along since the movie's release, but narrative alterations to the musical version were included too.

Some songs were replaced because they could not be licensed for the film. Some songs received greater usage on stage.

The goal was not just to update the song catalog but also to expand on the different genres for the score. Spanning about 100 years of popular music, R&B, soul music, hip-hop to showcase nearly 20 years of current music. 

It took a lot of hard work and some artistic alterations to get it to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and into the studio for the cast recording but in the end this latest incarnation of Moulin Rouge is a true sparkling diamond.