Bohemian Rhapsody - Guest Review by Dr Terror
Moulin Rouge! The Musical! (The Piccadilly Theatre)
Okay, so there's now a smouldering hole in your bank account. Is it worth it? Too bloody right it is. To say I loved this would be an understatement. I thought the film was good but this is superlative.
The song mashups are still there. The only notable absence is Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent in the film, Craig Ryder here) breathing fresh life into Like a Virgin - it took a decade between Baz Luhrman giving the thumbs up and the eventual staging of this show and I bet all of that was spent quibbling over rights to the songs. But if Madonna wasn't playing ball, no one cared because they have added loads more...sometimes mere snippets of songs, but instantly recognisable. I spotted Piaf, Bizet, Tears for Fears, The Human League, David Bowie, Shirley Bassey, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga...and loads more. Offenbach's Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld is present and correct, as is an anthem to absinthe.
As for the cast, they were friends from the off, such was their familiarity. The stunning Santine had been Tina Turner in the West End's Tina, Craig Ryder himself in Bat Out of Hell, Richard Lloyd King as Toulouse-Lautrec in The Book of Mormon and the two male leads were both off the telly: the villain known only as The Duke was Bruno in Footballers' Wives and Alistair Brammer as Christian played the likable DS Daniel Tarrant in the latest incarnation of Dalgleish. Ivan de Freitas as the fiery Argentinian Santiago was the only one I hadn't seen and he was sensational too, his duet with Lindsey Tierney's Mimi, opening the second act with a bit of Bad Romance, is a show-stopper.
The set is magnificent and you experience the atmosphere as soon as you go in, as the auditorium already contains a rotating windmill and huge blue elephant (not to mention a truckload of chandeliers and red velvet) before the thing even starts. The story is better, more moving and more coherent than in the film. This simply didn't put a foot wrong.
I'm told some people think Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (which I'm seeing next week) is better still. I find that next to impossible to believe.