'Moulin Rouge! The Musical' Is Bringing Its Spectacular Stage Show Back to Melbourne in 2023

After proving an unsurprising hit at the Regent Theatre in late 2021 and early 2022, this screen-to-stage musical has booked in a return date for next year.
Sarah Ward
May 10, 2022

It's true in Baz Luhrmann's beloved movie musical Moulin Rouge!, and it's true about the Tony-winning stage version that's wowed Broadway and first hit Melbourne in 2021: the show must go on. Didn't get a chance to see this film-to-theatre spectacular during its initial Victorian run? Don't fancy making the trip to Sydney from late May to see it sing and dance up a storm then? Thankfully, this gorgeous production has locked in its return to Melbourne in 2023.

Mark Sunday, August 20, 2023 in your diary — and start snapping up tickets now, because they're already on sale. Heading back to the Regent Theatre, likely after Shakespeare-meets-pop musical & Juliet unleashes its first-ever Australian shows from February, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is currently slinging seats until mid-September.

Yes, it's spectacular (spectacular) news. It's so exciting, you're allowed to stomp and cheer, too. Whether the musical will venture elsewhere in-between its Sydney and return Melbourne gigs — Brisbane perhaps? — hasn't yet been revealed, and neither has how long it'll stay in Melbourne the second time around.

Once more, Melbourne will stand in for the Montmartre Quarter of Paris — the backdrop for a heady romance between lovestruck young bohemian Christian and performer Satine, star of the legendary titular cabaret. As Luhrmann's award-winning, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor-starring movie did before it, the stage musical spins their tale, ups, downs, joys, heartbreaks, wins, tragedies and all.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical isn't just heavy on star-crossed romance, however. Also like the film it's based on, it comes with a loaded soundtrack that celebrates iconic tunes from across the past five decades. Indeed, Moulin Rouge! The Musical backs up those favourites with even more hit songs that have been released in the two decades since the movie premiered.

It has now been six years since, back in 2016 it was first announced that Moulin Rouge! was being turned into a stage musical — and this delight was always going to prove popular. Since then, the lavish production premiered in the US in 2018, then hit Broadway in 2019, and finally made its way Down Under last year — and also became the first-ever Aussie-produced show to win the Tony for Best Musical.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical will return to Melbourne's Regent Theatre, at 191 Collins Street, Melbourne from Sunday, August 20, 2023. For further details or to buy tickets, head to the production's website.

Images: Michelle Grace Hunder.

Published on May 10, 2022 by Sarah Ward
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