In the week when preview performances of Moulin Rouge! The Musical have resumed in the West End, the show’s producers have announced the production will now celebrate its official opening night at the Piccadilly Theatre on 9 January 2022.
To allow the venue to welcome back audiences further Covid health and safety measures are being implemented. All audience members over 18 are being asked to provide proof of either full vaccination or a negative PCR/LFT test taken within 48 hours prior to attendance.
Starring Liisi LaFontaine (Dreamgirls, Savoy Theatre) as Santine, West End newcomer Jamie Bogyo as aspiring writer Christian, the stage musical version of Baz Luhrmann’s vibrant double Oscar-winning tale of love among the artists in the Montmartre area of Paris has been brought to life on the London stage by a team led by award-winning director Alex Timbers (Here Lies Love, Rocky).
Discussing the London production, Timbers said: “Creating Moulin Rouge! The Musical has been a singularly thrilling and unique experience. I am delighted today to announce the incredible group of actors who will bring this production to life in London. We have brought together a thrilling, hugely talented group of artists, and in Liisi and Jamie, we have two outstanding actors to lead our company. We are all so excited to now start creating the show for UK audiences!”
With a book Tony and Golden Globe-winning writer John Logan, Luhrmann’s highly-stylised vision of turn of the century Paris is played out to the sound of an eclectic ‘jukebox-style’ trip through the music of the last 50 years.
Winner of 10 Tony Awards, Moulin Rouge! The Musical features choreography by Emmy Award-winner Sonya Tayeh with music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine.
The design team also includes: Tony Award-winning set designer Derek McLane and Olivier Award-winning costume designer Catherine Zuber, with double Tony Award-nominee Justin Townsend on lighting, Peter Hylenski on sound, Drama Desk Award winner David Brian Brown on wig and hair design and Sarah Cimino on make-up design. Casting is by Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher.
The West End cast also includes: Olivier Award nominee Clive Carter (Into the Woods, Come From Away) as Moulin Rouge impresario Harold Zidler, Simon Bailey (Heathers, Jersey Boys) as The Duke, Jason Pennycooke (Olivier Award nominee for his performance as Lafayette/Jefferson in the original cast of Hamilton, and La Cage Aux Folles) and Elia Lo Tauro (On Your Feet, Carousel) as the Bohemians Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago. The showstopping ‘Lady Ms’ – Nini, Arabia, Baby Doll and La Chocolat – are played by Sophie Carmen Jones (Chicago, Jersey Boys), Zoe Birkett (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Hair), Jonathan Bishop (Hamilton, In The Heights) and Timmika Ramsay (Cinderella, Madagascar).
The full company is completed by Femi Akinfolarin, Robson Broad, Ian Carlyle, Jonathan Cordin, Anthony Cragg, Katie Ella Dunsden, Adam Gillian, Luke Jackson, Alicia Mencía, Ciro Lourencio Meulens, Georgia Morgan, Melissa Nettleford, Ian Oswald, Craig Ryder, Tinovimbanashe Sibanda, Katie Singh, Ope Sowande, Tanisha Spring, Toyan Thomas-Browne, Amy Thornton, Misty May Tindall, Jon Tsouras, Tommy Wade-Smith and Lily Wang.
A decade in the making, the ambitious production premiered in Boston in 2018 and debuted in New York in 2019 – 18 years after the big screen debut of Luhrmann’s evocative story of a doomed love affair between a writer and a dancer starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. Following the Covid closedown, the Broadway production resumed performances at the Hirschfeld Theatre in September.
Angela Thomas
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