The West End Cast Chat MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL

There was Charles Zidler, who was actually the chap who opened the Muna Rouge in 1889

ran about that time. So it's based on him, loosely based on him, how chap is called Harold Zidler

And Harold Zidler, there's different sides to Zidler. He's a showman, first and foremost, he's a showman

But he is a survivor, he's in business, and he's desperate to keep the Muna Ruge alive

To lose the Trek is a real-life character. It was an artist, a painter, a philanthropist, a anarchist, a anarchist, you know, and actually quite a sad character, you know, in as much as he had, you know, quite a few afflictions

The Moulin Rouge was a perfect place for him to be because, you know, you had various different misfits and freaks, as it were

So he kind of fit in there. She was the star of the club. She had a very rough upbringing, you know, growing up in a very poor area

of Paris. Now Satin kind of has the world on her shoulders when it comes to keeping the club

running because she kind of the face of it all Christian is the sort of young idealistic writer who come to Paris to write but also mostly to fall in love and who does fall in love with the sparkling diamonds Sotin herself

the first night that he sees her, descend on a swing at the Moulin Rouge

And from then on, it's just a Romeo and Juliet kind of story

The biggest challenge of being in Moulin Rouge, I would say is probably the physicalization

of to lose the trick and trying to keep true to that

while still trying to play the musical the musical aspects of it

and you know I'm dancing and stuff like that in the best possible way it just kind of uses all of you

uses all of your and for me like I'm singing at the top

of my range dancing then there's a lot of comedy and then there's also

like the drama and the death of it all so it's just like a very

elaborate journey to go on over to I've never done a musical like this before, so I'm realizing very quickly it's so much about what you do the rest of the day

And I think just coming in terms of the fact that my whole life is about the show from the moment I wake up to go to bed So you just have to be willing to kind of make that sacrifice Yeah but it worth it The music in this show comes from so many different periods comes from the 50s There even often barking here somewhere

Justin, Justin Levine has done an amazing job of the music. So everyone will recognise, whether you're a grandmother, whether you're 15, there is music you will recognize

Come What May is from the movie, so I love that. I do love Nature Boy as well

It's a song that you can get your teeth into because it's really story

I'm just singing a song. So I really feel that one. So many of the pop songs we have interwoven into each other

take on this new life and new meaning. The mashup of bad romance at the opening of Act 2 is like

I do get to watch that too and it's just wild. We watch that in the way, too, every night we're like..

The show doesn't start behind the curtain, the front curtain. The show starts as soon as you walk into the building

You think you're in the Moulin Rouge. They do really get into it and they feel like they're actually, you know

within the Moulin Rouge, the musical, you know, like they would be if they would be. went to see the show in Paris

When you step out there and you hear the reaction, you see people's faces

you know how long people have been waiting for this, how many people are obsessed with the film

how many people, you know, bought tickets two years ago It just It gives you a lot You have no other option but to go 100 There one point during diamonds I in the windmill and I can see the audience on all levels

because I'm in the middle, I can see. And their faces, that's the thing that blows me away

And right at the top of you, they just go, you know, and they're applauding the screaming, they're getting involved

It's not the kind of show you can sort of do, like, if you just, you get the energy from the audience

They want to be there so badly, which is so amazing. And that makes it easy to kind of ride that way

I think. Coming to see it once is not enough. There's so much to look at. There's so many contextual things

from the costume design, from the can-can dancers, from all of the male ensemble

from all of the principles in the show, all of the songs, the set, the way that the set works

the audience participation, the poppers, everything that flies around. There's just so much to look at that

I don't think once is enough. Because it's such a high-level energy

of entertainment, it will take you away for it and it will make you feel very happy

It's better than any drug, I can tell you that. Don't take drugs. Come to the theatre

It's longer lasting. Drugs wear off. This won't. You'll remember this for years