Theater News

Moulin Rouge! The Musical Will Have Its Pre-Broadway Run in Boston

The production will take the stage in 2018.

Alex Timbers will direct Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Alex Timbers will direct Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
(© David Gordon)

The world premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical will take place at Boston's Emerson Colonial Theatre in late June 2018, producer Carmen Pavlovic has announced. The engagement at the newly restored theater will serve as the production's pre-Broadway run. Casting and dates are still to be announced.

Moulin Rouge! tells the story of a young poet and writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine, using the musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris. Released by Twentieth Century Fox, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. At the 74th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and it won two.

Written by John Logan and directed by Alex Timbers, the musical will feature a score culled from the most beloved popular music of the last 50 years, with Justin Levine as music supervisor, orchestrator, and arranger, and Matt Stine as music producer. Sonya Tayeh serves as choreographer. As previously reported, Aaron Tveit and Karen Olivo will star in the show's upcoming developmental lab production, though they are not necessarily attached to the full mounting.

The design team includes Derek McLane (set design), Catherine Zuber (costume design), Justin Townsend (lighting design), Peter Hylenski (sound design), and David Brian Brown (wig and hair design).