MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL SELLS OUT SYDNEY SEASON
The curtain will come down for the last time this Saturday 28 January 2023 on a sold-out Sydney season for the 10-time Tony Award®-winning musical produced by Carmen Pavlovic and Gerry Ryan OAM for Australian theatrical company, Global Creatures.
Following a Covid-shortened sold-out premiere season at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, the show’s June 2022 Sydney premiere at Capitol Theatre marked a true homecoming for the production, returning to the city where Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor was made at Fox Studios 22 years ago.
Since opening, Sydney’s Capitol Theatre has welcomed hundreds of thousands of theatregoers into the musical’s world of splendour and romance, eye-popping excess, glitz, grandeur and glory. The show sold out across the eight-month season, with 32.8% travelling from regional areas and 13.4% coming in from interstate and overseas for the opportunity to witness the spectacular.
Producer Carmen Pavlovic said, “Sydney was a special season for the production because it was the city where Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin filmed MOULIN ROUGE! in 2001 and it was where our partnership to bring their film to the stage began, over lunch in 2009. We owe our success to the audiences across New South Wales who welcomed us with their arms wide and hearts open. Our run in Australia hasn’t been without its Covid related challenges. However, our Australian cast, crew, theatre partners and production suppliers, have all demonstrated their incredible energy, dedication and hard work as we navigated a substantially smaller workforce because of the pandemic. This makes the success of the Sydney season so rewarding given the challenges that not only our production, but other shows have experienced, over the last few years. “
Almost 120 direct jobs were created to bring the show to life in Australia, including the 36 performers who take to the stage nine times a week, the equally talented and hardworking creatives, local and touring backstage crew who make the show run smoothly, and the countless suppliers and agencies that are employed by the production. Most of the set was built in Australia, including 20 people who took over two months to build the giant red windmill, to the 30 truck drivers tasked with moving the show from state to state as it travels around Australia; a journey that shifts 793 individual costume pieces plus wigs, set, props and musical instruments each time. The costumes were all hand-made in Sydney by a team of over 50 people, including Satine’s quintessential sparkling gown which is decorated with over 3,500 hand-placed Preciosa crystals.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical partnered with local Sydney businesses, including The Kimpton Margot Hotel, Nel Restaurant, Black Star Pastry and Blow Dry Bar, to encourage theatregoers to extend their experience, benefitting other city businesses and broadening the direct and indirect economic impact of the show for New South Wales.
A pop up Moulin Rouge! The Musical activation event, in partnership with DNSW, attracted almost 3000 Sydneysiders and tourists to Circular Quay’s Overseas Passenger Terminal Southern Forecourt on 15 and 16 October last year.
In an industry first, Global Creatures created a free event entitled ‘GET TECHNICAL! Behind the Curtain of Moulin Rouge! The Musical’, attracting over 700 high school and tertiary students, with the hope of combatting current industry-wide staff shortages and inspiring a new generation to pursue a career in live entertainment as production creatives, crew and technicians.
From Sydney, Moulin Rouge! The Musical will move on to Perth in February, then on to Brisbane in May, before heading back to where it all began; Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in August 2023 for a long-awaited return season.
