Moulin Rouge

Stolen from the BWW message boards:

ACT 1

Lady marmalade/ rhythm of the night -Zidler and company

Never gonna give u up - Christian

Royals/ We Are Young - Christian, Toulouse-Lautrec and company

Diamonds are forever/ Diamonds are girls best friend/ Material girl/ Single ladies/ - Satine and company

Shut up and dance / Raise your glass - Satine, Christian, Zidler

Firework - Satine

Your Song - Christian

Spectacular Spectacular (completely changed the story, only keep the “so exciting... so delighting ... part) - Christian, Satine, Zidler and Company

You Can’t Always Get what You Want / Gimme Shelter- the Duke, Satine

Nature Boy - Toulouse-Lautrec, Christian

Elephant Love Medley (added Take On Me, Evertime We Touch, Everlasting love, What’s love gotta do with it, ...) - Christian, Satine

ACT 2

Bad Romance/ Toxic/ Sweet Dreams - Company

Come What May - Christian, Satine

Only Girl - the Duke and Company

Shake It Out - Zidler, Satine and Company

Chandelier - Zidler and Company

Roxanne - Christian

Crazy/ Rolling in the deep - Christian,
Satine

Your Song (Reprise) - Satine

Come What May (Reprise) - Christian and Company

Encore: Lady Marmalade, Hey Ya!, Crazy, Galop Infernal.

As in the Rick Astley song? Dear lord...

Just made the mistake of reading comments on there. Definitely disappointing. Especially given the production team seem to have got the visuals spot on. The movie has the makings of a great stage musical but looks like they are trying to mess with it too much and put a new stamp on it. Hopefully they learn as it progresses.

The big alarm bell for me is messing with Roxanne. That could have been lifted from the movie and stuck on stage and received a standing ovation every night, so if they have messed that up (as comments on BWW suggest) it’s a bad sign for the rest of it.

Just saw the second preview tonight.

Off with a very rocky start when we were evacuated due to a fire alert, then told to come back in, and then no no, you have to go back out, and then again come back in. Needless to say, the entire operations part of the theatre is very rough and it's evident, and the ushers don't know where to direct the patrons to (and just like some Broadway theatres, there are sections that only have odd numbers, and others have even numbers).

The show itself works for the most part. It's a sensory overload monster, and yes, of course it's style over substance. We've seen the movie, and if it's substance we are looking for, you really don't know Broadway or should be re-directed to other musicals. It's a jukebox megamusical kids and people want to have fun and have their eyes bedazzled, and it delivers.

The unit set is pretty much what we've seen in production shots. Red, opulent and rich. It remains mostly the basis of the entire show, and is used well. The lighting is slick and has great variety. There are smaller sets within the set, namely Satin's dressing room in the elephant and Christian's studio. Satin's room is a bit of a let down. It's one dimensional, and the piece and furniture in it look amateur. What it needed is some more perspective and character. Christian's studio is a bit better, and utilizes different pieces that are flown in to form the scenery. And that's my biggest gripe with the scenic elements of the show. For a show that is based on a movie that is so dynamic, and quick, I would have wanted these scenes to be less static and to give us fantastical theatre magicl. For all the work that has done, the visual part of the show lacks the stagecraft that I would have expected from Moulin Rouge. Satin's room only came to life at the end of the Love Medley, when it spun around and revealed the rooftop. What I wanted was a lot more scenes that would dissolve, assemble and reassemble in front of our eyes. For the most part, especially in the more emotional songs and ballads that don't have any big movement and choreography, the staging is a let down. Parking and barking or just running from one end of the stage to another does not work.

This is where the choreography is used to great effect to compensate. The ensemble are unbelievably strong and insanely talented,, and the dancing is pretty thrilling and sometimes absolutely aggressive.

Karen Olivo is luminous, and I don't know how and where she'll find the stamina to sustain this with the pressures of opening a show on Broadway. This will need unbelievable commitment from her. She really has to deploy all she has throughout the show, and she does marvelously. Aaron Tveit, as I thought, was broad, generic and really uninteresting and unoriginal. For a bohemian, he's pretty square and clean cut. He has vocal range, I'll give him that, and that works for the pop songs. Otherwise, he's mainly bland and only comes to life towards the end when his jealously drives him insane. His two sidekicks are excellent (sorry -it's very late, can't pull up their names now). Tam Mutu is greatly underused, and Danny Burstein is pretty good though he gives us Cabaret Emcee especially at the beginning. For those who said that he doesn't have much material or that much to do, I disagree. He's very prominent.

The songs, old and new, are plentiful and I don't recall all of them now. The audience seemed to be delighted at how they are shoe-horned in new scenes. I honestly do not know most of the new songs from the pop catalogue, but I recognized Firework, Rolling in the Deep, Crazy and Chandelier. Bad Romance is the Act II opening, and it was pretty damn thrilling. The Show Must Go On, my favorite song from the film, is eliminated, which is a shame, considering that this show is about the show going on. It's frustrating that Satin says, "after all, the show must go on" but we never get the song.

In great shape for a second preview for such a big, movement-based show. When everyone settles in a bit, it'll be as perfect as it can get.

Okay, I'm going to bed

What’s the Colonial like? Looks beautiful in be pictures I’ve seen. I’ve only been to the Shubert and my mother went to the Opera House when we were in Boston last year

What is the minor change?

I saw the first preview. 
I wanted to love it, but I just liked it. The set/lighting/choreography/cast are incredible. The only things I didn't enjoy were some changes to the story. I don't think the book is particularly strong right now, but I'm sure they're going to iron it out. I just felt like we don't see Christian and Satine together enough, and I also thought that the show within the show feels like a bit of an afterthought. I'd love for them to do an epic opening number to the show they're putting on (though to be fair, the new theme of 'Spectacular, Spectacular' doesn't lend itself to that) and then transition to the pivotal scene between the leads, as to me the ending falls flat as it is a little bit (and I don't see the point of reprising Come What May at the end by Christian. I get the idea, but I think the ending needs more emotion - I didn't tear up and I want to next time I see it).

I just had to google Offenbach's Gallop. It's already done in the new version of Spectacular! Spectacular! and the standard Can Can is done at the show's opening.

I had my third (and unfortunately final) outing last night, and I have to say that I loved every minute. My first two viewings were from a far right hand seat in the stalls. While the view from that seat was good, there's nothing like seeing it from smack in the centre. So many details that I haven't seen before. Even Satine's dressing room that I was moaning about looked better.

There's just something about them probably rehearsing it and having several performances under their belt that just made it all land. There were so many people around me sniffing at the end - and everyone was just so into it.

Honestly, this is the most exciting show I've seen in ages. And I've said it once, but the Act II opening with Bad Romance/Toxic/Sweet Dreams is just out of this world. Some of the chorus boys will do very well after this show, and yo can tell this is a career game changer for them - most notably Kyle Brown, Max Clayton and Brandon Rodriguez. They are heavily featured in all the big numbers and are very strong.

Some of the changes:
-When Ziegler is about to introduce Satine, Christian stands up instead. There's just a tiny timing alteration that was done to make the transition sharper. In previous performances it almost seemed like Christian would stand in for Satine and that drew a few laughs.
-At the end when Satine is dying, the Duke was watching from his box and leaves it before she's completely gone. The Duke is no longer in the box throughout any of the scenes.
-I could swear that Lautrec didn't sing a reprise of Come What May in previous performances, but I'm not sure.

I'm sad I'm leaving Boston and not seeing this again and again, but I am so glad that I did. This will be big.

I hope it goes into the Imperial. I've never been to the WG, but if they really want to go immersive the Imperial is the only one with an actual lobby. In Comet, they had the entire foyer and corridor leading to the auditorium converted into part of the set. They didn't do this with MR in Boston (perhaps because the Colonial itself is gorgeous and grand).

How about Sutton Foster as Satine

I hear rumours of it coming to London

Honestly, all it takes it five seconds on this board, and you'll hear rumours of EVERY show coming to London. It makes it very hard to plan a US trip when you want to focus on seeing things that *aren't* rumoured to be coming to London...

So is. it worse than Frozen?