The West End premiere of Moulin Rouge! has received mixed reviews from London theater critics. The musical began previews November 13 at the Piccadilly Theatre, but the pandemic forced the delay of its opening until last night. The creative team behind the show includes John Logan (book), Alex Timbers (direction), Sonya Tayeh (choreography), Justin Levine (music supervision, orchestrations, arrangements, additional lyrics), Derek McLane (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Justin Townsend (lights), Peter Hylenski (sound), David Brian Brown (hair, wigs), and Sarah Cimino (make-up).
The cast features Liisi LaFontaine (Satine), Jamie Bogyo (Christian), Clive Carter (Harold Zidler), Jason Pennycooke (Toulouse-Lautrec), Simon Bailey (The Duke), Elia Lo Tauro (Santiago), Sophie Carmen Jones (Nini), Zoe Birkett (Arabia), Johnny Bishop (Baby Doll), and Timmika Ramsay (La Chocolat). Below are Bogyo and LaFontaine performing the show’s signature song “Come What May.”
Evening Standard (Nick Curtis): What a shame. This long-awaited, much-delayed Broadway adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s high-camp 2001 film musical has razzle-dazzle style but precious little substance. The big numbers are ravishing, but the central relationship … is consumptively thin. … It’s not the fault of LaFontaine and Bogyo. … Logan’s adaptation robs Satine of her acting ambitions, sanitises the film’s feverish tone, throttles back on the slapstick, and simplifies the ending. … It seems frankly lazy to piggyback on an established and popular entertainment property, gussy up its best bits, and make its flaws somehow worse. 3 out of 5 stars.
Guardian (Kate Wyver): It’s never going to be easy staging Baz Luhrmann’s iconic musical … [but] this production gives it a good go. There is a lot to love. … The show’s downfall comes with its attempts to bring the music up to date. The 2002 musical is famous for its jukebox choices, blending genres, styles and cultures. For the stage, the creators have added in a chaotic new playlist of flatly popular songs. … Much about the show is sensational. Thick, luscious layers of fabric are draped around the theatre, and the auditorium is bathed in a sexy red light. There are pyrotechnics, glitter cannons, and ebullient ensemble dances. … The cast do a wonderful job at animating the frenetic cabaret. 3 out of 5 stars.
London Theatre (Suzy Evans): This, mon chérie, is an all-new, all-adrenaline rush of a show that leverages the movie’s magic and adds the secret ingredient: theatrical magic. … The leading lovers, played by Liisi LaFontaine and Jamie Bogyo, deliver a youthful energy that belies their characters’ weary struggles, and each is charming and well-sung. However, the standouts of the evening are in the supporting cast and the ensemble. … Watching a powerful show where despite trials onstage and off, the power and perseverance of the human spirit is what overcomes, is healing. And as soon as those snaps click into place at the top of “Lady Marmalade,” you know you’re safe to go along for the ride. Lemme hear y’all flow, sistas. 4 out of 5 stars.
London Theatre 1 (Chris Omaweng): The stage often becomes very busy, with all the glitz and glamour that one might expect from a grandly staged West End musical. The storyline, however, comes to a complete standstill. … The production is banking on a feast, or indeed an assault, on one’s senses being sufficient to see one through until such time as the narrative resumes. … It’s escapism of the highest order, playing to the gallery as it does with little (if any) subtlety. The plot may be rather insubstantial but at the end of the day, it’s fun, and just the tonic after all those difficult months in which the theatres were closed. … Don’t go expecting depth, nuance or a profound storyline. 4 out of 5 stars.
Theatre Weekly (Greg Stewart): This West End production of Moulin Rouge! certainly looks the part but fails to deliver in several key aspects. … The story of Christian and Satine, the composer and cabaret star who must conduct their love affair in secret to save the Moulin Rouge from certain closure, plays second (or even third) fiddle to an almost overwhelming onslaught of pop tunes. … Moulin Rouge! will make for a fantastic night out for most audiences, mainly because there’s just so much to catch your eye, and plenty of recognisable songs. A fantastically staged musical that’s more about the spectacle than the substance. 3 out of 5 stars.
Time Out London (Andrzej Lukowski): Timbers’s dementedly maximalist “remix” of Baz Luhrmann’s smash 2001 film is pure sensory overload. Frequently I found myself cackling hysterically at it, on my own, for no particularly good reason, other than how much it all is. … Moulin Rouge! is now bulked into a veritable behemoth of millennial pop bangers. … Beneath the songs we’re stuck with a generic plod through the romance. … LaFontaine and Bogyo are good, but … they’re just walking plot devices, killing time between songs. It’s a very fun night out … but for all its tongue-in-cheek chutzpah, when the music stops you’re not left with much. 3 out of 5 stars.