![]() ![]() For instance, in 1907 the writer-performer Colette kissed her lover, the Duchess of Mornay, onstage in an Egypt-themed routine. Though the Moulin Rouge had a laissez-faire ambience, some routines ignited outrage. But the kicking, cartwheeling can-can moves he portrayed could also be injurious to the performers - especially the leaping splits that ritually ended a number. And when she spotted Britain’s Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) in the audience, she cheekily called out, “Hey Wales! The champagne’s on you?” La Goulue is one of the dancers immortalized in portraits and posters by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, a regular at the Moulin Rouge (and nearby brothels). The early Moulin Rouge star La Goulue (“The Gourmand”) would kick the top hats off men’s heads. But if the eff ect was titillating, it was leavened with winking humor. The can-can, which grew out of the less racy quadrille partner dance, revealed enough black-stockinged female leg in public to be shocking to prim Parisians. But the most famous act by far, and a mainstay today, is “le cancan” - the high kicking dance executed at a furious pace by a chorus line of limber, skirt-swishing young women. As they sipped champagne, the audience watched exuberant variety revues with musical, comedic and acrobatic acts. It sported crystal chandeliers, mirrored walls and a spacious dance fl oor for performers as well as patrons. The Moulin Rouge is the best known, and most enduring. Adapted from Baz Luhrmann’s inventive 2001 fi lm, Moulin Rouge! The Musical in style and spectacle lives up to movie critic Roger Ebert’s description of the movie as “all color and music, sound and motion, kinetic energy, broad strokes, operatic excess.” But what sets the stage, if you will, for the musical’s romantic and pop-song mashup about a young poet’s love aff air with a beautiful Moulin Rouge cabaret star? Let’s rewind back to those heady times in the Belle Epoch era, when Paris was giddy with relaxed morals and waning class rigidity, and a host of new show palaces became all the rage. (The show is also still running on Broadway, in Australia and in London’s West End.) The production is the latest chapter in the epochspanning fascination with the fabled Paris showplace. Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! The Musical, the recipient of ten 2021 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) is currently spreading its nostalgic brand of extravaganza and oohla-la to Denver and other major U.S. A temple of decadence and dazzle, portrayed in the famed artworks of Toulouse-Lautrec, silent fi lms and talkies, and most recently in a smash hit Broadway musical, the Moulin Rouge has persisted despite fi res, wars, boom, bust, and two global pandemics. There the champagne fl owed, the ornate décor beguiled, aristocrats and bohemian writers and artists mingled, and staged shows were opulent, risqué and, at times, scandalous. Moulin Rouge (Red Mill) was created as a unique pleasure palace. ![]()
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