The good news is that there’s an exciting cast of performers in a new stage musical that’s set to debut in Boston this summer. It includes Aaron Tveit, Karen Olivo, Danny Burstein, Sahr Ngaujah, Tam Mutu, & Robyn Hurder. The bad news is that it’s Moulin Rouge!. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, I HATED THAT BAZ LUHRMANN FILM A LOT! I literally cringe every single time someone expresses their passionate love for it. I just would literally like to burn every single copy in existence.
Now I have great respect for a lot of the performers involved. Aaron Tveit is a very talented triple threat, Karen Olivo is a Tony-winning actress for her performance as Anita in the most recent Broadway revival of West Side Story, Danny Burstein is one of the best actors working today (he’s even received six Tony nominations to prove it), Sahr Ngaujah is a Tony nominated actor for his performance as the title character in Fela!, I’m glad that Tam Mutu has another chance to show America what he’s made of after Doctor Zhivago crashed and burned. But the news that they’ll all be appearing in this stage adaptation of the popular (or dare I say migraine of a) film makes me even more angry.
Whenever I see news regarding this project on social media, I post my brutally honest thoughts on the film in the comments just to unleash all my anger. It’s also a huge pet peeve of mine whenever people call this a ‘musical adaptation’ because the film was already a musical to begin with. If you ask me, ‘stage adaptation’ is the proper term to use.
In any case, if this ends up being the show that finally wins Danny Burstein a Tony, I will literally scream at the top of my lungs (and not for good reasons). If only I had the power to make this entire property disappear with the snap of my fingers. By the way, if you want to watch someone tear Moulin Rouge! apart from limb-to-limb, I highly recommend you watch The Nostalgia Critic’s review.
Now I have great respect for a lot of the performers involved. Aaron Tveit is a very talented triple threat, Karen Olivo is a Tony-winning actress for her performance as Anita in the most recent Broadway revival of West Side Story, Danny Burstein is one of the best actors working today (he’s even received six Tony nominations to prove it), Sahr Ngaujah is a Tony nominated actor for his performance as the title character in Fela!, I’m glad that Tam Mutu has another chance to show America what he’s made of after Doctor Zhivago crashed and burned. But the news that they’ll all be appearing in this stage adaptation of the popular (or dare I say migraine of a) film makes me even more angry.
Whenever I see news regarding this project on social media, I post my brutally honest thoughts on the film in the comments just to unleash all my anger. It’s also a huge pet peeve of mine whenever people call this a ‘musical adaptation’ because the film was already a musical to begin with. If you ask me, ‘stage adaptation’ is the proper term to use.
In any case, if this ends up being the show that finally wins Danny Burstein a Tony, I will literally scream at the top of my lungs (and not for good reasons). If only I had the power to make this entire property disappear with the snap of my fingers. By the way, if you want to watch someone tear Moulin Rouge! apart from limb-to-limb, I highly recommend you watch The Nostalgia Critic’s review.