At Cafe Sydney on Monday,as he helped launch the show’s Sydney season,Flanagan,who plays the lovelorn poet Christian,was quick to assure that all ended well. “We got to know each other a little bit,” says Flanagan,who moved out shortly after the complaint. “I’m sure they did come along and reminisce about how much I annoyed them.”
The musical’s Sydney season is a homecoming of sorts for the show,which rehearsed in Ultimo last year and where director Baz Luhrmann shot the film at Fox Studios 21 years ago.
Show producer Carmen Pavlovic said,“everything felt like a hurdle” getting the musical this far,particularly as the Melbourne season was repeatedly delayed due to the ongoing lockdowns.
“It has been a lot of stress,but it’s always felt worth it,” she said. “And,of course,Moulin Rouge! is a show about performers fighting to get their show on and that became our guiding idea. We just knew we would get it done.”
The musical has been more than 15 years in the making,with production company Global Creatures chasing Luhrmann for six years before he agreed to turn his story about two star-crossed lovers,Christian and Satine (played by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman in the film),into a stage show.