Review: Moulin Rouge! Musikaali
Moulin Rouge serves musical overs – Such exuberant visuals have hardly been seen before
More, more glamorous and bigger. Helsinki City Theatre’s Moulin Rouge musical is a nearly three-hour show that is full of brilliance. It feels like the crew has a goal to create a wow effect in every scene and do the same in the next scene even more excessively.
The City Theatre has brought a pan-Nordic production to Finland, directed by the Swedish Anders Albien. In Sweden, everything is bigger, so maybe that’s why the musical adds more rounds in every scene.
And it’s a pleasure to watch that excess. There is so much eye candy on offer that you don’t always even know what to look at: strobe lights flicker, sequins sparkle and pyrotechnics bang.
The handprint of the Nordic team of creators can be seen, as I would dare to say that such a visually exuberant line-up has never been seen on the stage of the City Theatre before.
Classic Triangle Drama
After all, it is a fairly classic triangle drama, the most famous of which is probably Romeo and Juliet. Now, of course, the girl is not a nobleman, but a prostitute of the red mills (Jennie Storbacka), and a poor poet (Martti Manninen) and a rich duke (Joel Mäkinen) are vying for her.
As you might expect, there is no happy ending, just like there was no in Romeo and Juliet. It doesn’t slow down the celebration at all. After all, the best can-can parties are held after death.
The viewer doesn’t even know how to miss any more plot stubs when the ensemble rolls the next batch of eye candy and hit songs on stage.
You could spend the whole musical counting how many songs you can name. The fact that some of the songs have been translated into Finnish, some in English and some in mixed languages, such as Shut Up, Let’s Dance, brings its own challenge to the task.
Songs that are easy to spot are Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, Rihanna’s Only Girl In the World and Elton John’s Your Song. On the other hand, potpourri songs are difficult, where hits are crammed into the same scene one after the other.
You can feel the bass in your bones and core
The music can be felt to the bones and core, as the orchestra led by conductor Ville Myllykoski puts its best foot forward. There is certainly a kick in the basses when the genre of the musical changes from indulgence to a more rocky direction.
The Finnish group of artists shines in the midst of the Nordic setting. Martti Manninen, who played the second leading role, showed his singing and performing skills already in The Little Mermaid. He is the perfect choice for the role of the poet’s son Christian.
The other main role has been elevated to a new acquaintance of mine, Jennie Storbacka, and the entire show is directed by veteran Risto Kaskilahti like the director.
The more than 30-member line-up of performers has taken into account diversity in skin colour, bodies and gender diversity. It is admirable that not all dancers have to be extremely thin or the female role does not have to be female.
More is certainly more! Moulin Rouge shows that overflowing doesn’t have to lead to a cultural rush, but a hunger for more musical theatre.
Review in the Me Fem blog.