Review: Moulin Rouge! The Musical at Sunderland Empire
Sequins, spectacle and a staggering number of pop hits power a hugely entertaining night on Wearside
The jukebox juggernaut Moulin Rouge! has landed in Sunderland this month, fabulously transforming the Empire Theatre into the famous Parisian nightclub until 27 June.
And while subtlety is very much left at the stage door, this dazzling touring production largely delivers exactly what you’d want from Moulin Rouge!: spectacle, excess and a relentless barrage of pop bangers wrapped in velvet, sequins and absinthe.
The award-winning stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film features a slightly tweaked story and, more importantly, an updated playlist which folds songs by Fun, Rihanna, Gnarls Barkley and Regina Spektor into the already hit-heavy score.
It is, at times, gloriously ridiculous.
The story revolves around a love triangle featuring showstopping headliner Satine (Verity Thompson), idealistic songwriter Christian (Nate Landskroner) and aristocrat The Duke (James Bryers), whose wealth could be the salvation of the struggling cabaret club.
Satine must choose between security and freedom: a future as The Duke’s prized possession or one last shot at stardom through a new musical built around Christian’s love songs.
But if we’re honest, nobody is really here for the tuberculosis-flecked love triangle.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is unquestionably at its best when it stops worrying about plot and lets the cast rip through its absurdly entertaining musical mash-ups. If there’s a Now That’s What I Call Love Songs compilation somewhere, the track listing would serve as a pretty good bingo card for the show.
The flipside of stuffing the production with some of the greatest love songs ever written is that Christian’s own compositions suffer by comparison. Come What May is a perfectly serviceable musical theatre number, but after he wins Satine over with Elton John’s Your Song, it feels like a noticeable downgrade.
The romance itself also hits the odd bum note. Relationships are sometimes rushed between musical set pieces, leaving emotional beats with little room to breathe. And it doesn’t reflect especially well on Christian that he appears to be the only person in the theatre unable to notice Satine’s increasingly obvious battle with tuberculosis.
Still, narrative shortcomings matter less when the show looks and sounds this good.
The production quality is outstanding throughout. The choreography is among the strongest I’ve seen at the Empire in recent years, and when the ensemble is operating at full tilt, it becomes a genuinely thrilling spectacle.
Both 70-minute halves fly by - no small feat for a production this technically ambitious.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical may not always convince as a great love story. But as a night of unapologetic theatrical escapism, however, it’s spectacular.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is at the Sunderland Empire until June 27.