Citizens Opera House 16 January 2024 - Moulin Rouge! The Musical | GoComGo.com

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Citizens Opera House, Boston, USA
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Select date and time
Tuesday 16 January 2024
7:30 PM

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Musical
City: Boston, USA
Starts at: 19:30
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 35min

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Overview

Pop the champagne, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is the winner of 10 Tony Awards® — including Best Musical!

Enter a world of splendor and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur, and glory! A world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment. Welcome to Moulin Rouge! The Musical! Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage, remixed in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. Directed by Tony Award® winner Alex Timbers, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a theatrical celebration of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and — above all — Love. With a book by Tony Award® winner John Logan; music supervision, orchestrations, and arrangements by Tony Award® winner Justin Levine; and choreography by Tony Award® winner Sonya Tayeh, Moulin Rouge! The Musical! is more than a musical — it is a state of mind.

"Spectacular! Euphoric! In Moulin Rouge!, life is beautiful."
- The New York Times

"Eye-popping spectacle and off-the-charts energy."
- The Hollywood Reporter

"A fabulous new musical. The high begins the instant you walk into the theater."
- NY Post

"A knockout night at the theater...an emotional wallop."
- NPR

"The jukebox musical to end all jukebox musicals - it's hard to imagine how it can be topped."
- Time Out New York

"So stuffed with song and sheer outrageous excess that it's hard to catch a breath."
- Entertainment Weekly

History
Premiere of this production: 10 July 2018, Colonial Theatre, Boston

Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by John Logan. The musical is based on the 2001 film Moulin Rouge! directed by Baz Luhrmann and written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. At the 74th Tony Awards, Moulin Rouge! received a total of 14 nominations and won 10 awards (the most for the evening), including Best Musical.

Synopsis

Moulin Rouge! is set in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France, during the Belle Epoque at the turn of the 20th century. The musical relates the story of Christian, a young composer, who falls in love with cabaret actress Satine, who is the star of the Moulin Rouge. Similar to the movie, the musical's score weaves together original songs with popular music, "including songs that have been written in the 17 years since the film's premiere."

Act I
The Moulin Rouge cabaret club, "where all your dreams come true," is in full swing under the direction of Harold Zidler, flanked by four dancers: Nini, Babydoll, Arabia, and La Chocolat. Christian arrives at the Moulin Rouge with fellow Bohemians, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago, the Argentinean. At the same time, the money-motivated Duke of Monroth is introduced as well ("Welcome to the Moulin Rouge"). Right before Zidler introduces the Moulin Rouge's Sparkling Diamond, Christian interrupts to start a story "about love," about a woman named Satine.

The musical flashes back to Christian's arrival in 1899 to the Montmartre district of Paris from England, where he meets Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago, who are attempting to create a play with songs in it. The two are impressed by Christian's musical and songwriting talents and ask for help to get their work produced at the Moulin Rouge. The trio celebrates the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and love ("Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love").

Back at the Moulin Rouge, Zidler introduces Satine ("The Sparkling Diamond"). After Satine performs for the club, Zidler prepares for her to meet and impress the Duke of Monroth, who might invest in the Moulin Rouge and save it from financial ruin. However, Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke. Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago distract Zidler from seeing Satine and Christian interact. While dancing and still thinking she is speaking with the Duke, Satine invites Christian to come to her dressing room in "the Elephant" outside of the club ("Shut Up and Raise Your Glass").

Arabia, Babydoll, and La Chocolat share their worries with Satine backstage about the Moulin Rouge's financial future. Nini expresses cynicism about its future, while Satine tries to maintain the group's morale. Afterward, Zidler expresses the dire straits that the club is in and stresses the importance of Satine impressing the Duke. Satine, who is concealing her worsening consumption from her colleagues, resolves to stay strong for them ("Firework").

Christian arrives in the Elephant hoping to impress Satine with his musical talent, whereas Satine is prepared to seduce him, under the impression that he is the Duke. Christian's true identity is revealed ("Your Song"). The Duke interrupts them; Christian and Satine claim they were practicing lines for a new show, Bohemian Rhapsody. With Zidler's help, Christian, Satine, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Santiago pitch the show to the Duke with an improvised plot about an evil gangster attempting to woo an ingenue who loves a poor sailor ("So Exciting! (The Pitch Song)"). The Duke decides to back the show. Zidler reminds Satine that her duty is to keep the Duke happy for the sake of the Moulin Rouge. She dismisses Christian from the Elephant. The Duke returns, and he and Satine spend the evening together ("Sympathy For The Duke").

In Montmarte, Toulouse-Lautrec shares with Christian that he fell in love with Satine many years ago, when she was living on the streets. He was impressed by her spirit but was too self-conscious to ever share his love for her over the years. He urges Christian to return to Satine and confess his love for her, insisting to him, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" ("Nature Boy"). Christian goes back to Satine to convince her that they should be together. Though she initially finds this ridiculous, she eventually falls for him ("Elephant Love Medley").

Act II
Two months later, rehearsals are underway for Bohemian Rhapsody. Christian and Satine continue seeing each other behind the scenes, and Santiago falls in love with Nini ("Backstage Romance"). As the company rehearses, tensions rise between Toulouse-Lautrec and the controlling Duke. Backstage, Nini tells Satine that she needs to be careful about her relationship with Christian and keep the Duke happy, as he once threw a vial of acid in the face of another woman who betrayed him. Satine tells Christian that their relationship endangers the show and the Moulin Rouge, but he counters by writing a secret love song to affirm their love ("Come What May").

In the Champs-Élysées neighborhood, the Duke tells Satine that he wants every part of her, including her heart. Despite Satine's protests that she does not "fit in" with the upper-class society of Paris that he inhabits, he remodels her image accordingly against her wishes ("Only Girl In A Material World"). Back in rehearsals, the Duke continues to involve himself in the show's creative aspects, to the frustration of Toulouse-Lautrec. It becomes clear that Bohemian Rhapsody is a metaphor for Christian, Satine, and the Duke, resulting in an outburst by Christian. The Duke, enraged, threatens to reconsider his investment entirely. Zidler reminds Satine that she alone can fix the dilemma with the Duke. Satine's illness worsens, but she urges her colleagues not to share that she is ill; she wants to fight to keep the Moulin Rouge alive and for the play to go on.

Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago tell Christian he needs to forget about Satine and move on with his life. Christian retreats in frustration and drinks absinthe with them in excess, at one point, imagining Satine as The Green Fairy ("Chandelier"). Christian expresses jealousy and disgust that Satine is with the Duke instead of him, ignoring Zidler's warning that falling in love with a prostitute "always ends badly" ("El Tango de Roxanne"). At his castle, the Duke threatens Satine from being with Christian ever again, saying that he will have Christian killed if she chooses him. Christian interrupts their conversation to try to save Satine, singing their secret song. Knowing that Christian would be killed if she says otherwise, Satine tells Christian that she does not love him. Christian leaves.

Christian decides that without Satine's love, he will load a prop gun with real bullets and commit suicide on stage during the opening night of the play. Meanwhile, Satine's illness dramatically worsens. Together, she and Toulouse-Lautrec stand up to the Duke, who leaves the Moulin Rouge before the performance begins ("Crazy Rolling"). As Satine performs her part, Christian enters and asks her to face him as he turns the gun his way. Before he pulls the trigger, Satine sings their secret song, all at once saving his life and revealing to him that she loved him the entire time. After a final song together in which the two affirm their love one last time, Satine tells Christian to "tell our story," and subsequently dies in his arms ("Your Song (Reprise)"). Over a year later, Bohemian Rhapsody turns out to be a success, and Zidler regains control of the Moulin Rouge. Christian affirms that his and Satine's story will forever be told ("Come What May (Reprise)").

Venue Info

Citizens Opera House - Boston
Location   539 Washington Street, 02111

The Citizens Opera House ( Boston Opera House) is one of the finest examples of the vaudeville circuit palace at the pinnacle of its development.

Designed in a combination of French and Italian styles by Thomas White Lamb, one of the foremost theatre architects of his day, it was erected under the close personal supervision of Edward Franklin Albee to memorialize his late partner, Benjamin Franklin Keith. Because it was constructed as a memorial and tribute to vaudeville’s greatest impresario, it was built with a degree of luxury in its appointments that is almost unrivaled.

The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in the Keith-Albee chain. The chain became part of RKO when it was established just before the theater opened on October 29, 1928, and it was also known as the RKO Keith's Theater. After operating for more than 50 years as a movie theater, it was rededicated in 1980 as a home for the Opera Company of Boston, which performed there until the opera company closed down in 1990 due to financial problems. The theater was reopened in 2004 after a major restoration, and it currently serves as the home of the Boston Ballet and also hosts touring Broadway shows. The theater serves as the home arena of the Boston Uprising of the Overwatch League.

The Boston Opera House was originally designed as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a lavish movie theater in the Keith-Albee chain. The Keith's Memorial was one of his most elaborate designs of the prominent theater architect Thomas W. Lamb. It was dedicated to the vaudeville pioneer B.F. Keith. On October 23, 1928, just before the theater opened, the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) company was formed and became the owner of the theater. The theater opened on October 29, 1928, presenting first-run films along with live vaudeville.By 1929, the theater had converted to showing only films and remained a leading Boston movie showcase through the 1950s. It became known as RKO Keith's, and bore signage that said both "B.F. Keith's" and "RKO Keith's" (see the 1938 photo shown at right).

In 1965 the Sack Theaters company acquired the theater and renamed it the Savoy Theater. Sack later added a second smaller cinema in the theater's stage space, separated from the original auditorium by a masonry wall built across the proscenium.

In 1980, after closing as a movie house, the theater became the home of opera director Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston and was renamed the Boston Opera House. The theater was acquired and renovated by the opera company with the help of Boston arts patron Susan Timken. After a decade of opera productions at the house, Caldwell's company collapsed due to financial troubles in 1991. Having previously produced opera since 1958 in rented theaters, the company was not financially prepared to cope with the substantial costs of upkeep for the large theater which had previously been poorly maintained for decades. The company's failure left the theater dark and without funds to maintain it.

Unheated, the building fell prey to extensive water damage, severely damaging the electrical system and the decorative plaster interior of the auditorium. The company's costumes, collected for decades and stored under the damaged roof, were lost. In 1996, the former opera company relinquished ownership of the building.

Mayor Thomas Menino, with the aid of Senator Edward Kennedy (whose father, Joseph, was the first owner), helped to get the theater landmark status in 1999 through the Boston Landmarks Commission. After a series of failed or delayed development proposals, the Clear Channel Company agreed to renovate the theater. The need to enlarge the trapezoidal stage house into the street between buildings provoked a multi-year court fight with the neighboring Tremont on the Commons condominium building, whose concerns with fire safety were eventually overcome with the persuasion of Mayor Menino.

The Boston opera community welcomed the efforts of Mayor Menino and Clear Channel to refurbish the Opera House and the damaged interior was restored in a $38 million renovation. It reopened on July 16, 2004, with the Broadway production of The Lion King. Clear Channel kept the historic theater busy and active with long runs of touring Broadway musicals and pop concerts. While its agreement with city included a clause that opera be produced at least two weeks a year, no opera company has yet returned to make the Opera House its home.

The current owner of the theater is Boston Opera House Ventures, LLC, a partnership of local Boston businessmen Don Law and David Mugar. Its primary tenants are Broadway Across America, Boston Uprising and the Boston Ballet. Home to Boston Ballet's annual production of The Nutcracker since 2005, the theater became the company's permanent home in 2009.

Important Info
Type: Musical
City: Boston, USA
Starts at: 19:30
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 35min
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