Jane Bradley goes behind the scenes of Moulin Rouge! The Musical

The Scotsman

Jane Bradley goes behind the scenes of Moulin Rouge! The Musical which is kicking of it World Tour at Edinburgh Playhouse.  TRUTH, BEAUTY, FREEDOM, and LOVE Baz Luhrmann’s iconic film comes to life onstage, remixed for today in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. Moulin Rouge! The Musical invites you to enter a world of passionate romance and eye-popping splendour... a place where Bohemians and aristocrats revel together in electrifying enchantment... a place where all your wildest dreams come true!  Moulin Rouge! The Musical celebrates over 160 years of music – from Offenbach to Lady Gaga - encompassing 75 songs credited to 165 songwriters, administered by 31 publishers. The stage musical features many of the iconic songs from the movie and also includes recent hits released since the movie premiered over 20 years ago. Over 300 costumes involved with the show (not including swings and understudies) 150,000 + crystals used per show Approx. 20,000 crystals used per Satine Approx 4878 crystals on Blue ELM costume 5000+ used for Satine Diamonds Approx. 1500 crystals per pair of Satine gloves (1550 on green fairy & 1465 Diamonds), 1200+ different fabrics & trims used over approximately 450 costumes – over 200 of which are seen on stage nightly 250 pairs of gloves.

Transcript

00:00I'm Jane Bradley, Arts Correspondent at the Scotsman in Scotland on Sunday and

00:04I'm here today at Edinburgh Playhouse where we have got a glimpse behind the

00:07scenes at the fabulous Moulin Rouge. As you can see the stage set behind me is

00:12really quite spectacular. We've got to meet the cast, we have got to chat to the

00:17producer and we've also been in the incredible wardrobe village where we've

00:22been looking through the costumes, the can-can costumes, the absolutely

00:27incredible work that has gone into a show like this which is to run for the

00:32next eight weeks at the Playhouse before embarking on an 18-month tour which will

00:35take it all around the UK and into Europe. I'm here today with Carmen Pavlovich

00:40who is the producer of Moulin Rouge which is beginning an 18-month UK first leg of

00:46its tour in Edinburgh. Hi Carmen. Hi, how are you? Good, thank you. So you've had about

00:53seven or eight days of previews so far and it's going strong. Yes, ecstatic

00:58audiences and it's just a lovely welcome to kick off the tour and we're excited to

01:03open in Edinburgh. It's a really vibrant city and it's always been important to

01:08us that we are somewhere that has deep sort of cultural diversity and you know

01:13the kind of themes of the art and music of the show can kind of spill out beyond

01:17the theatre and into the city so Edinburgh felt like a really natural place for us to

01:21launch the tour. Fantastic and it's a eight-week tour I believe in Edinburgh

01:26which is obviously a very long time to have a show and ticket sales are going well.

01:31Yeah, yeah it's been really lovely for us because audiences have really embraced the

01:36idea and this is actually our ninth production that we're opening this week

01:40and it's you know the film is really beloved around the world

01:44and it's just wonderful to see that the audiences of Edinburgh

01:47you know feel so fondly about it and I'm sure the show's got its reputation now of actually

01:51welcoming our 10 millionth visitor this week to the show on a worldwide basis so

01:56yeah it's lovely to have that opportunity to bring it here. And what do you think it is about the story

02:00that appeals to people so much? I think it's a story of just deep romance and love and also hope

02:06you know obviously the story is a tragedy on the one hand but it does

02:09have a sort of great sense of hope and rebirth at the end and then I guess the film really just

02:17made its way into people's hearts and became so iconic around the world when it opened in cinemas

02:23we hadn't really seen anything like that before that kind of use of music and Baz's unique style and

02:30people always say to us oh it's so theatrical and Baz does really create very theatrical pieces

02:38but we wanted to make sure we created a show that was as surprising to people now as it was when

02:45they saw it in the cinemas in 2001. So people who know the film from the original will they

02:51have any surprises if they if they come and see it here is there some changes? Yeah so we want to

02:55obviously delight the fans of the movie and make sure we've delivered all those iconic moments and

03:00iconic songs but in the years that have passed since the film uh was in the screens on screen sorry

03:06we you know we do have the opportunity to update about 50 percent of the score is updated catalog so we

03:13have 75 songs in the show representing the work of amazingly 160 composers and it's a lot more music

03:21than the film had but that's the theatrical form lends itself to that um the plot is largely what

03:27people know from the film but again we've kind of really updated it for today and um just kind of

03:34shifted some of the characters a little um but it will be the things people know and love from the

03:38film and if you don't know the film it's just a totally different experience again in the theatre

03:43fantastic thank you very much thank you nice to chat i'm here in the absolutely fabulous wardrobe

03:48village in the edinburgh playhouse with costume supervisor sabrina quinoberto hi sabrina hello how

03:55are you good thank you so can you just talk us through a little bit about the costumes of moulin rouge

04:01i mean they are very very spectacular thank you yes they are indeed spectacular and they really like

04:06raise up to the to the occasion with this like wonderful set and like stunning um production um so

04:12what we have here is uh the kankan dresses so we have corsets and skirts every single uh person on

04:18stage is individual so they have their own color scheme they're all simple so when they come out is

04:22really a feast to the eye where everybody's like dancing and moving and inside the skirts are all very

04:27colorful there's lots of layers and all kind of in aid of this like huge moment choreography and so

04:33they can do everything they need um they're inspired of course from the from the film and from the

04:38original like kankan dancers when they were back in the days in paris and with a nod to couture and

04:43like more modern and contemporary like fashion so that's a mix of it all which then kind of makes

04:48them contemporary and always up to date i guess and always gorgeous uh and that's what we have there is

04:55is the diamond uh corset that sateen wears when she comes down um for the first time we meet her in the

05:01show uh which is um clearly very very blingy um so yeah this is a big moment when we meet her first

05:10she comes down on stage with their feathers and her diamonds and then everybody else join her and then

05:14there's a big reveal when she takes this off really quickly and she has another costume underneath so

05:20it's a big moment and the costumes are so intricate i mean how do you actually even start to

05:25compile compile a wardrobe of this scale i know it takes a long time and as everybody says it does

05:32take a village there's a lot of makers involved a lot of fabricators a lot of like there is about

05:362 000 fabrics in the show there's many there's a lot of braids trims crystals decoration and like

05:43looks from shoes and like everything is like thought to the last detail everything is made nothing is

05:49purchased and used as it is so it's all being fabricated for the show and quite intricate and made to

05:55measure of course like everything is made specifically to each each cast member and like

05:59there's quite a lot of elements that are supposed to have the nude effect therefore they have to be

06:03like all the fabric has to like skin match to the actor therefore when they wear them they look like

06:07they're not wearing anything but they are it the magical theater um yeah same with same with hats wigs

06:15like everything is custom made and like kind of goes with the outfits and every outfit is for an

06:20individual scene like only a couple of them gets repeated otherwise it's always like a new outfit that you

06:24see on stage so and how many costumes are there in total i have not counted you've not counted we

06:29could start now many many there are a lot uh but you know they're all like gorgeous and so individual

06:35like every scene is quite it's quite different so you do get a very different vibe so you have the

06:40bohemians you have the kanka and then you have like the scene in roxanne where everybody's more like

06:44black lace because they're supposed to be prostitutes and they kind of have this kind of like a bit more

06:48more i don't want to say dismay or like kind of you know a bit of a simpler look but he's not it's

06:53like gorgeous and his lace and they're again all individual and it's this really dark scene and then

06:57you have the bohemians which again like more costuming with like long skirts and you know in

07:03the street of paris and um yeah and then we have boulevard which is the aristocrats and is that kind of

07:07like my fair lady ascot scene which is like quite surreal and past any color so completely like

07:13opposite to everything else we've seen before so yeah you get a bit of everything thank you for

07:17letting us have the costumes are amazing thank you for coming i'm here with nate lance kroner

07:23and verity thompson who played christian and satin in the edmund playhouse production of moulin

07:29rouge hi hi so this is the first one of moulin rouge you've both done is that right it is indeed

07:36yeah so you've had about eight days of shows so far yeah previews so far yeah exciting time yeah

07:42it's going really well the audience have been loving it just excited to open yeah and when you got the

07:47parts when you auditioned for the parts is this something you'd always wanted to do was it a show

07:51that always interested you it was my favorite film growing up um and when i got the audition through i

07:57couldn't quite believe it um but i've known for like a year now so just a year of knowing and

08:04excitement has been fantastic yeah i can't believe i'm here oh amazing and how long do you

08:08rehearse for so i mean how long how long ago did you start the rehearsals for the we started is it

08:12nine weeks ago nine weeks ago yeah brilliant gosh that's quite quite a short time for such a complex

08:17show it feels like well i think they've been quite nice to us actually yeah sometimes there's a quick

08:23turnaround rehearsals yeah yeah they've got it like so finely tuned like the system of how to do it and

08:29how quickly they do it is just to a tee that's amazing and you've obviously got an eight week one

08:36here and then an 18 month one in total for this first leg of the tour um and you're at the beginning

08:41at the moment how does that feel exciting yeah it's very exciting i mean we've had such a warm welcome

08:47to it already from um from the lovely people of edinburgh so you know it's uh very nicely teed us into the

08:54door i think and have you much time to get out and about in edinburgh see around a bit not yet

08:59we can't wait to have our days through and we can go out and venture out i'm just saying scottish

09:04people are so lovely so great well thank you so much good luck with the rest of the world thank you

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