If you're a long time reader of my blog you'll know all about my love for London. We tend to go once a year or so and those trips are something I look forward to every time. We went in March for 2 nights and had a great time seeing the sights, visiting some of our favourite places like Borough Market and this time we even did a little bakery crawl to find some of the places we've been wanting to try for ages. Of course while we were there we had to see a show or two. I'm still a big fan of all things musical theatre and for our first night we decided on a show we hadn't seen before, Moulin Rouge.
Moulin Rouge is currently at the Piccadilly Theatre and as far as I'm aware it's currently booking up until September 2024. Despite knowing a bit about Moulin Rouge and having a feeling we'd enjoy the show regardless as I'd already heard some of the soundtrack, we didn't actually watch the movie until a few weeks before we went. I'm glad we did as it meant we had a better understanding of the story and we both ended up really enjoying it! If you're not aware of it though, Moulin Rouge is set in 1980s Paris and it follows Christian, a writer, who has travelled to join the Bohemian revolution. It's here he visits the city's biggest night club, Moulin Rouge, and he meets and falls in love with its star performer, Satine. At the Piccadilly Theatre you'll find the film come to life on stage in a spectacular way.
'A celebration of truth, beauty, freedom and - above all - love.'
As with any musical we've been to see, I was blown away by the cast. We visited on a Monday evening which meant we had the alternate Satine played by Angela Marie Hurst. She was incredible and a had a beautiful voice. She partnered up perfectly with Dom Simpson who plays Christian. He was probably the standout performance of the night for me, partly due to the way he sang one of his big hits of the night El Tango De Roxanne but he was also funny and just fitted the character perfectly. The whole cast are great and I'm not sure how they do that show so many times a week, it seems so full on to perform! A few other special mentions though have to be Matt Rixon as Harold Zidler who holds the whole show together and also Ben Richards as The Duke who I recognised from Footballers Wives which I was bizarrely rewatching a few months ago.Another thing I loved about the show was the soundtrack. It's classed as a Jukebox musical so similar to shows like & Juliet, it uses songs that aren't all original to the film and it has integrated some more current music to the plot which is really fun. I really enjoyed the Elephant Love Medley in particular which features snippets of In The Name of Love, Everlasting Love, Don't Speak and Fidelity, just to name a few!
The last thing to mention is the theatre itself. Piccadilly Theatre has transformed into something sensational and as soon as you walk in to find your seats, you're transported to what feels genuinely like the Moulin Rouge. There's so much to look at and I enjoyed having some time to just take it all in as it was unlike any staging I'd seen before. The set up is incredible, music plays the whole time you're waiting for the show to start and the cast even enter the stage early and are near you dancing and performing so it feels like the show starts before it actually does!
This is a show I'd love to see again one day so hopefully it stays in the West End for years to come. I'd love to know if you've seen the Moulin Rouge musical or if there's any other shows you recommend?
