LA Weekly
- Highly Recommended
"...As the hoopla over Baz Luhrmann's glitzy Elvis biopic seems nowhere near subsiding, many of us have been reassessing the filmmaker's previous works, from Romeo+Juliet to The Great Gatsby. More recently, we admired his vision of 70's New York in the Netflix series The Get Down. But Luhrmann's biggest achievement on film was most notably the Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor extravaganza Moulin Rouge, and the stage show it inspired has been universally lauded for capturing its excess and excitement. The West Coast production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Hollywood Pantages is no exception."
Edge
- Highly Recommended
"...The Tony Best Musical winner "Moulin Rouge: The Musical" is another movie to be made into a musical, but this time it is a movie-musical transformed into a stage musical. While that idea alone might make some groan, you can wipe the frowns off your faces because this stage adaptation is a dazzling, dizzying, sparkling treat."
Stage and Cinema
- Somewhat Recommended
"...It wasn't just the powerhouse romance between Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. With its frenetic theatrics and killer soundtrack (virgin ballads locking lips with re-imagined pop hits), Baz Luhrmann's epic, high-octane love story, Moulin Rouge! (2001), was always destined for the stage. But Broadway, it appears, is the Duke in disguise here, promising the property a rich and lavish life ... in exchange for its soul. In the award-winning Moulin Rouge! The Musical, now playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, exaltations of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love remain intact. As does luxurious excess. But it's as if the new creators are so certain they could never recreate the emotional tightrope act that Luhrmann achieved with his Bohemian opus that ... they don't even appear to try. Directed by Alex Timbers, with a brand new book by John Logan, Moulin Rouge!-once a "goof-bollywood" hybrid of quirk and high drama-offers just enough glam, glitz, and (updated) pop hits to make you forget: long ago, it once beautifully broke your heart."
Stage Scene LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Sumptuous and spectacular and filled with as many instantly recognizable pop hits as in four or five jukebox musicals put together, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is all this and more."
Daily Bruin
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Running until Sept. 4 and featuring alumnus Camden Gonzales as the associate choreographer, the musical adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!” has officially been transplanted from Broadway to Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre. But while “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” successfully translates the flamboyant visuals of Luhrmann’s film onto the stage, it unfortunately leaves the heart-wrenching storyline of two star-crossed lovers in shambles."
Entertainment Weekly
- Highly Recommended
"...Like the bombastic Baz Luhrmann film it's based on, the stage production Moulin Rouge! The Musical (playing at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles through Sept. 4) is buoyant, campy, and vivacious. Of course, when you kick off a show with "Lady Marmalade," the signal is clear: Sit down, relax, and get ready to lose yourself to "truth, beauty, freedom, and love.""
Stage Raw
- Not Recommended
"...Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a depressing experience, the theatrical equivalent of an ardent idiot yelling into your face for three hours. It's a nadir for musical theater in this country, I can't can't can't recommend it."
Peoples World
- Highly Recommended
"...Moulin Rouge! The Musical may have pushed the pastiche principle farther than anything else so far. The whole score is a mash-up, a sampling of hundreds of pop songs calculated to coax smiles and happy feelings from row after row of theater patrons. Barely anything lasts for more than a few seconds. They start off with “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi” to set the mood. Aside from “Come What May,” the only song I can recall presented in anything resembling its entirety is “Nature Boy.”"
Ticket Holders LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Still. Moulin Rouge! is a fantastical, gloriously and richly mounted production worth seeing as long as you’re ingesting your gummies and expecting Ovo, not Next to Normal. See, no matter how spectacular and razzle-dazzling as Moulin Rouge! The Musical might be to entertain and distract on a hot summer night"
Indulge Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Want to sing along to “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi'”, get up and dance, and be swept in an unbridled extravaganza of song, dance and color' Then slip into your most dazzling sequined outfit and head over to the Hollywood Pantages, now serving as the Moulin Rouge in 1889 Paris by way of Vegas. Could there be a better setting' The theater’s opulent Art Deco style and production’s scenic design by Derek McLane are a match made in Montmartre heaven. Picture the stage with a windmill on one side, an enormous elephant on the other, and at the center, the legendary club where pretty much everything goes."
Broadway World
- Highly Recommended
"...But for the campy, sensory overload that is the Tony Award-winning stage adaptation of MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL---whose first national tour is currently smacking audiences' attention spans at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through November 27, 2022---the pop catalog it uses spans multiple genres, musical tastes, and even centuries... virtually a chart-topping buffet of familiar hits that don't have much connective tissue between them, but yet still cheekily exemplifies the show's entire vibe."
