ProSoundNetwork.com: Moulin Rouge! The Musical might be the ultimate jukebox musical. The show, which opened on Broadway in late July, may be set in 1900, but it uses a very 21st-century genre—the mashup—to weave elements from more than 70 pop songs together into an ambitious, wide-ranging score. Based on the 2001 movie musical, the stage adaptation adds in numerous songs from the last 17 years as it follows the doomed love between Christian, a poor composer, and Satine, a worldly dancer.
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I’ve never seen Moulin Rouge! The Musical. However, the soundtrack - which is a mash up of over fifty pop songs - is something I am all too familiar with. In addition, some of my favorite actors are in it. The fact that they’ve made certain pop songs better than their original version is freaking wild. The story of a doomed love between poor composer Christian and worldly dancer Satine is freaking incredible. I’m not surprised that this incredible piece was tasked to Tony-winning sound designer, Peter Hylenski. The many different musical styles while staying true to the story telling is an incredible feat by Hylenski. The balance of rock concert to intimate solo moments is beautiful. Hylenski focused on making the most important of the music be played by a live band. And that was how the musical’s foundation was built. It’s really cool that the band members themselves are dispersed in different locations within the theatre due to the size of the musical and due to the conductor location. It’s really wild. Looks likes a beautiful show, and it sounds like it too.
I dug back into the archives for this one - I really wanted to read an article about the design process/implementation for a specific area within musicals this week and this article really seemed like it fit the bill. I really like Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and reading about the scale of the sound design of the show was fascinating. I cannot imagine how much of a beast this show is to mix live with 40 radio mics just for the cast + more mics for the band. There are just so many moving parts (something I know is not necessarily unique to this show in terms of the size of Broadway musicals) and the detail needed to maintain shows is incredibly cool to me. I also love the detail in the preshow music for Moulin Rouge!, every tiny detail in the show is considered to make a beautiful, immersive show experience for theatergoers every night.
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