"Freedom, beauty, truth, and love!"
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return..."
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return..."
— Toulouse-Lautrec, after Nat King Cole
A Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of the 2001 movie of the same name.
Set in Montmartre during the Belle Epoque, the musical focuses on the Moulin Rouge nightclub — "where all your dreams come true" — owned by Harold Zidler. Christian, a young composer from Ohio, arrives with his newfound Bohemian friends, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and tango dancer Santiago, where he becomes enamoured by the cabaret's star, Satine.
After initial reluctance, Satine eventually falls for Christian, but their relationship is complicated by the presence of the wealthy Duke de Monroth, to whom Satine has been "promised" in exchange for backing the Moulin's new show, forcing the young lovers to keep their romance a secret.
Much like the movie, the musical is a Jukebox Musical containing popular contemporary music. It expands the soundtrack of the original film and includes music that had been written in the years since the film's premiere. The musical's book is by John Logan.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical was first announced in 2016, followed later by a workshop in 2017. It debuted at the Colonial Theatre in Boston on July 10th, 2018, and debuted on Broadway in 2019, starring much of the main cast from the workshop and the Boston production.
This musical provides examples of:
- Abled in the Adaptation: Santiago is not narcoleptic, as his counterpart (The Argentinian) was in the movie.
- Aborted Arc: After serving as the main antagonist for 9/10ths of the show, the Duke disappears completely when Satine rejects him on the opening night of the musical. Despite the Duke's threats to destroy the show, Satine, Zidler, and the Moulin Rouge if things didn't go his way, the show ends without him ever reappearing or making good on his threats.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- In the original film Christian drinks absinthe and hallucinates a green fairy early on, inspiring him to help with the revolutionary bohemian musical. Here the absinthe is given to him by Zidler in the second act to help him get over Satine in the show-only number "Chandelier".
- "Nature Boy" goes from a song Toulouse occasionally sings to hammer the theme of the film to a full number he sings to encourage Christian to pursue Satine.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Nini is nicer, admitting she's jealous but giving Satine advice and not revealing the secret.
- Zidler doesn't withhold the truth of Satine's illness from her — instead, she's the one who tells him she's dying of consumption after finding out from the doctor, and he tries to convince her to sit out the final performance. Additionally, he doesn't order her to break Christian's heart — it's the Duke who does so, and Zidler tries to help Christian forget Satine (albeit by getting him drunk on absinthe) after she dumps him.
- Christian doesn't viciously slut-shame Satine in front of the audience on the opening night of the play (he instead goes to commit suicide), and his anger at seeing Satine and the Duke together doesn't stem from just pure jealousy about them sleeping together, but instead from the fact that Satine is compromising "every beautiful thing" about herself to be with him, and that the Duke treats her like a possession.
- Adaptational Nationality: Christian was English in the movie, but here, he's American - specifically from Ohio (probably Pragmatic Adaptation to accommodate that he is more often than not played by an American actor, thus keeping them from having to attempt an English accent).
- Adaptational Personality Change: Whilst no less nasty, the Duke is practical-minded and charismatic as opposed to the whining and snivelling portrayal in the movie.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- The stage show's soundtrack excises several songs from the film including "Like a Virgin", "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "The Show Must Go On". Other musical pieces and mashups denote the story beats initially filled by these songs.
- "El Tango de Roxanne" was originally a duet by the Argentinian and Christian. Here, it's Christian's musical number; the other characters occasionally join in with dialogue.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Satine in the original film is a redhead, but is depicted on stage as having dark brown hair, with whichever actress is playing her wearing a brunette wig.
- Adaptation Expansion: Alongside songs from the film, the musical also adds ones written in the intervening years.
- Adapted Out: The gang of four Bohemians is reduced to just Toulouse-Lautrec and the Argentinian in the stage show; the latter gets more stagetime to compensate.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Satine tells Christian he means nothing to her in order to save him from being murdered at the hands of the Duke.
- Childhood Friends: Toulouse is a childhood playmate of Satine. Seeing her become a High-Class Call Girl through the years they've known each other is why he's initially cynical about Christian pursuing her.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: What the Duke has in store for Christian if Satine does not end her affair with him. He promises to have Christian's "handsome face beaten to a bloody pulp" and his throat slit "from ear to ear".
- Darker and Edgier: As well as the Duke being more manipulative and less snively, where Christian just decided to return to ‘pay his bill’ in the film, here he returns to the Moulin Rouge during the first performance with the intention of killing himself. There's also more implications of the main couple Loving a Shadow, Satine openly calling Christian out on it, and she herself just wanting to be saved from a life on the street.
- Delicate and Sickly: Invoked. While improvising the plot for Bohemian Rhapsody, Toulouse says their story's ingenue is "rather sick with some obscure malaise", and the others quickly come up with a dashing love interest for her who evidently doesn't mind said illness.
- Distant Duet: Christian and Satine reeling from their breakup with the song "Crazy Rolling" — Satine in the Moulin Rouge preparing for the show, and Christian on the streets of Montmartre.
- Driven to Suicide: After Satine’s rejection, Christian returns to the Moulin Rouge intending to kill himself onstage.
- Foreshadowing: During "So Exciting! (The Pitch Song)" Satine's character is said to be "sick from some obscure malaise". Guess who turns out to be suffering from tuberculosis, although this isn't too much of a surprise given the popularity of the movie. Christian in the same scene also says "in the end, should someone die?", hinting at both Satine's death and Christian's suicide attempt.
- Gilded Cage: The Duke offers to marry Santine and promises her a title and everything she wants - dresses, a house, servants but she can no longer act or perform. Doubles as a Be Careful What You Wish For moment.
- Irrelevant Act Opener: The opening number of Act II "Backstage Romance" chronicles Santiago and Nini's affair all set against a rehearsal for a montage in the Show Within a Show. The affair doesn't have much bearing on the plot and hardly gets mentioned after the number, doesn't make it any less entertaining though.
- "I Want" Song: The film originally included Satine singing "One Day I'll Fly Away" as her "I Want" Song, but the stage production swaps it for "Firework" by Katy Perry. It's performed immediately after a conversation with Zidler where Satine admits that she can't continue to rely on her good looks and her performances to support herself and the club. The song illustrates Satine's desperate, fading hope of climbing the social ladder and achieving better circumstances for herself and her fellow performers.If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow
Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road... - Lampshade Hanging: After the interval, Christian addresses the audience to remember the madness of their first love affair, as the later events will make more sense then.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: The villainous Duke is conspicuously finer-dressed than the Parisian underbelly, and for bonus points the trope namer features in his Rolling Stones medley.
- Named by the Adaptation: The unnamed Argentinian from the movie is named Santiago here.
- Not Good with Rejection: Christian's reaction to Satine breaking up with him is to go back to the Moulin Rouge and attempt to shoot himself in front of her.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: As in the film, Satine is torn between true love with penniless songwriter Christian and wealth and security with the Duke.
- Rule of Three: The one scene we see from the Show Within a Show is performed three times:
- The first is a fairly uneventful rehearsal.
- The second rehearsal of the scene is where Christian has an outburst at the Duke and nearly ruins the show.
- The third is when it is actually performed for an audience and Christian and Satine reaffirm their love.
- Show Within a Show: Bohemian Rhapsody, about a poor sailor in love with a young woman betrothed to a local gangster, replaces the Bollywood-esque Spectacular Spectacular! of the movie.
- Team Mom: Satine appears to take on this role to the other performers, trying to maintain their morale in the face of their concern about the club’s future.
- The Big Damn Kiss: At the end of Christian and Satine's duet of "Your Song" in her dressing room, the end of "Elephant Love Medley", and after Satine and the ensemble sing the chorus of "Your Song" in the "Your Song(reprise)".
- Villain Love Song: The Duke sings “Sympathy for the Duke” to seduce Satine and “Only Girl in a Material World” which also counts as a Villain Song as the Duke forces Satine to devote her life to him while telling her how she means the world to him.
