Moulin Rouge! The Musical Reviews

Christine from Essex, England

DISAPPOINTED

I love the film so my expectations might have been a bit high but having said that the casting of the characters was not great. I just couldn’t get believe in them. The songs had been updated to more recent songs and for me it would have been better to leave them original to the film. Waited a long time to see this due to COVID so can’t help feeling disappointed

Lauren from London, England

WOULDN'T GO AGAIN...

So I'm a huge fan of musicals, I see most shows in London and I admit I expected a lot when you hear about the budget and obvious reference to the original movie. But honestly, it felt pretty lacking in everything. The ensemble are stunning, and the man in the can-can seats was very much enjoying his view of a woman's crotch but it just all felt a bit cheap. The lead roles were hugely lacking in charisma, they had no chemistry with each other and Christian looks mildly uninterested by the death of his lover. It was a very odd ending, the ending is sad and everyone goes to show knowing this, but it felt very over the top and false, I don't think a single tear in the audience was shed at the ending at all. Stunning costumes, amazing sets, music was bizarre and karaoke-esque. It's not one I would pay the £100 a ticket to see again, put it that way...

Julie from London, England

TOO MODERN FOR ITS SUBJECT MATTER

Really found this hard to watch, nonsense songs like Toxic by Britney Spears mashed up with Adele, Beyoncé, Elton and the Sound of Music, then a blast of diamonds are forever, Shirley Bassey and chandelier by.Sia. Odd mash up of songs just to fill time, nothing Parisian or of it’s time included in the production. Was laughter at the bizarre quality by the end. No can-can bar all of 30 seconds at the end. Truly disappointed. Unless you enjoy all song, no story, don’t bother going. Totally forgettable other than the women sticking their bottoms in the air.

S Baines from London, England

MODERN VAUDEVILLE BUT WITH A SPECTACULAR SET

It's a strange thing sitting in an auditorium full of people who are clearly having a ball, and wondering if they're watching a completely different show to you. There's clearly potential here, but any nuance or care for story and characters has been ditched in favour of what is essentially an extended pop video - there's a scene in act two where the Moulin Rouge benefactor imposes more shiny, happy dancing in rehearsals in place of characterisation and feeling, and I couldn't help wondering if this was the writers inner voice trying to escape... Anyway, the set is sensational, the supporting cast work their behinds off in the company numbers and the dancing is astonishingly slick, but there's zero chemistry between the leads, odd direction choices throughout, and I honestly couldn't have cared less if every character had died by the end (with the exception of Tolouse). It's difficult not to mention the audiences too - I was left feeling that this show is the modern equivalent of vaudeville, drinking in the stalls, verbal altercations breaking out over phone usage, half the audience singing along. If that's what you love do go, if you loved Cabaret avoid this like the plague!!

from London, England

NOT A PATCH ON THE FILM

Pantomime at the very best. No songs from the original film and the bad romance part? Awful scene more like! Terrible singing and made no sense. The story wasn’t followed, acting was amateur at best. Extremely disappointing.

from London, England

VERY DISAPPOINTED

I've waited years for this to finally appear as a stage musical, but was very underwhelmed. The visuals and costumes are terrific, but that's where the quality ends... like most West End musicals now, it's all about visual spectacle with nothing else paid attention to. The leads had no chemistry at all, the lead guy's voice wasn't up to par with the songs he was expected to sing, and the love story part is enormously underdeveloped so that by the end, I just didn't care - the death scene is shoehorned onto the end and performed like a Carry On scene pratfall, no emotion at all. The music is like an insane parody, some of the best from the movie taken out, and replaced with dozens of new songs from the last few years - a line from one here, followed by two lines from another, another line from another - to the point where your brain is fried. It's like & Juliet on steroids - but at least in that show the songs serve the storyline. There's also the expected social justice virtue signalling which is all over theatre now - Harold Zidler is now gay and has a male lover, and one of the 4 Lady Marmalade performers is now male also - and I roll my eyes at this as a gay man! Why was effort made to this, but none to the actual story and character development? By the end I was laughing and not for the right reasons - this show is like a massively overpriced panto, don't waste your money and watch the movie instead!

Becky from London, England

NOTHING LIKE THE FILM

So disappointed. It would have been so easy to recreate the film on stage, it was crying out for it. The show loosely followed the story but had loads of modern pop songs thrown it. Ruined and so unnecessary. Such a shame and a wasted opportunity. 2 starts because the set was amazing.

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