MOULIN ROUGE Cast Recording Out Today! - Thoughts — Page 2

Incredible album, Aaron and Karen sounds so wonderful. Everyone sounds better live, but this is a close second.

Will this be eligible for this coming Grammy season? I sure hope it doesn’t steal Hadestown’s thunder.

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The 2020 Grammys honor recordings released between Oct. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019. With its Aug. 30 release, I think ''Moulin Rouge!'' just made the deadline. (Grammy nominations come out Nov. 20; the Grammys will be given out Jan. 26.)

For the record, ''Moulin Rouge!'' has earned Tveit some of the best reviews of his career. Ben Brantley of the N.Y. Times has raved that Christian is a role that Tveit was ''born to play.''

Updated On: 8/31/19 at 02:54 PM

After listening to the OBCR again today, I’d like to at least subdue some of my earlier criticisms in my longer post in the MR! professional reviews thread. I think it helped that today I started with Come What May which is my favorite song from MR! Listening to the OBCR from Come What May to the end then looping around to the beginning makes it clear (to me at least) the strongest part of the OBCR is the last half. In fact, the album doesn’t start to grab me until Firework. Part of that is because some of the earlier songs are either not my favorites (Single Girls, Shut Up and Dance, Raise Your Glass and gasp...Lady Marmalade) or don’t easily lend themselves to theatricality (this is true of the latter use of What’s Love Got To Do With It which I love but does nothing for me here - I hope it fares better in Tina - I do like it on the Tina London Cast Recording where it’s not relegated to just a snippet).

The album starts to build steam (for me) at Firework although loses some steam again with So Exciting! (The Pitch Sing) then gains some steam gain with Sympathy for The Duke and Nature Boy then Elephant Love Medley which either succeeds or fails depending on which songs snippets I love, like or feel meh about. But then the album really hits the ground running from Backstage Romance going forward which makes me think I’ll like Act 2 much better than Act 1 when I see it on September 28th (4 weeks from today!). Of course, seeing it live may totally invert my expectations. The only song from the second half that still leaves me perplexed is More More More! (Encore) because the choice snippet choices seem more designed for a high energy ending (odd after the death of a lead character) rather than any sort of any coherence. It really does nothing for me.

To help put ''More More More!'' in context, it's the show's celebratory Encore and Curtain Call. It was considered OK to film (which is why you can find more than a few versions on YouTube), but Equity recently enforced a new policy to put the kibosh on that. Here's one while it still lasts ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QAAXjzT3zE

Updated On: 8/31/19 at 04:42 PM

EllieRose2 said: "For the record, ''Moulin Rouge!'' has earned Tveit some of the best reviews of his career. Ben Brantley of the N.Y. Times has raved that Christian is a role that Tveit was ''born to play.''

Exactly. People who are complainingabout one of the most beautiful voices on Broadway clearly are people who haven't seen the show or have terrible seats for sound lines when they see it."

Clearly I haven’t seen it, as I said in my post I was just going off the album, but Aaron Tveit just doesn’t do it for me as Christian. All of his tracks seem to lack any emotional oomph for me. I will take the McGregor versions any day.

Updated On: 8/31/19 at 05:48 PM

EllieRose2 said: "For the record, ''Moulin Rouge!'' has earned Tveit some of the best reviews of his career. Ben Brantley of the N.Y. Times has raved that Christian is a role that Tveit was ''born to play.''

Exactly. People who are complainingabout one of the most beautiful voices on Broadway clearly are people who haven't seen the show or have terrible seats for sound lines when they see it."

Or, they saw the show, had great seats, and think Brantley is completely wrong about this one.

Everyone is going to have their own personal tastes, but I saw it, had great seats, and thought he was dreadful (and that Brantley was completely wrong on this one). Tveit is terribly bland in this. No emotion or power in his voice, no chemistry with other actors, no meaning to anything he's doing on stage. He looked lost. I saw him years ago in Catch Me If You Can and loved him there. Whatever he was doing in that show worked, but he's just not right for this part.

The negative opinions don't matter anyways, it's a huge financial hit, Aaron got rave reviews, and it is the show to see. So....move along haters!

Miles2Go2 said: "After listening to the OBCR again today, I’d like to at least subdue some of my earlier criticisms in my longer post in the MR! professional reviews thread. I think it helped that today I started with Come What May which is my favorite song from MR! Listening to the OBCR from Come What May to the end then looping around to the beginning makes it clear (to me at least) the strongest part of the OBCR is the last half. In fact, the album doesn’t start to grab me until Firework. Part of that is because some of the earlier songs are either not my favorites (Single Girls, Shut Up and Dance, Raise Your Glass and gasp...Lady Marmalade) or don’t easily lend themselves to theatricality (this is true of the latter use of What’s Love Got To Do With It which I love but does nothing for me here - I hope it fares better in Tina - I do like it on the Tina London Cast Recording where it’s not relegated to just a snippet).

The album starts to build steam (for me) at Firework although loses some steam again with So Exciting! (The Pitch Sing) then gains some steam gain with Sympathy for The Duke and Nature Boy then Elephant Love Medley which either succeeds or fails depending on which songs snippets I love, like or feel meh about. But then the album really hits the ground running from Backstage Romance going forward which makes me think I’ll like Act 2 much better than Act 1 when I see it on September 28th (4 weeks from today!). Of course, seeing it live may totally invert my expectations. The only song from the second half that still leaves me perplexed is More More More! (Encore) because the choice snippet choices seem more designed for a high energy ending (odd after the death of a lead character) rather than any sort of any coherence. It really does nothing for me. "


I forgot to mention “Your Song.” This song has special meaning to me. Back when there was a tribute album to John/Taupin, Rod Stewart did a great version of it. One day when I picked my best friend at the time up from his job, I played it for him on my car stereo and told him it was basically from me to him. It made him cry. I believe he was already HIV+ by then. It kinda became our song. He died many years ago (from a combination of AIDS and drug use) a few years after his drug use created a distance between us. At the time he died, we hadn’t spoken for at least a couple years. I admit it was almost a relief when he quit seeking contact as by that time we had little in common and he appeared to have possibly stolen from me (borrowed a bunch of CDs he never returned, possibly to sell for money for drugs...seems meaningless now). I found out he died by reading the death notices in the newspaper one morning. I didn’t even get to attend his funeral.This song never fails to produce the bittersweet brew of grief and regret and guilt and love and gratitude. Doesn’t have anything to do with the plot of the show, but I suppose we all bring our own personal histories to the shows we see. I know I do.

Updated On: 8/31/19 at 08:35 PM

BEST WORKOUT PLAYLIST EVER!!!!! I just finished my 4 mile jog and every track works for me....not so much in the theatre when I saw it last month. I think one just has to give in to the excess and go along for the ride. That’s what all those civilians are doing who have been selling it out each night. It’s over-baked but a great recipe if you just leave your critical eye home. In the words of one of the few pop musical legends not represented onstage. LET IT BE!!!!!

He is in the top five of the best on Broadway. He was BRILLIANT in Company, CMIYC, Assassins, and his rendition of "Maria" on New Year Eves at Lincoln Center a few years ago was the best version I have ever seen. He soars, above and beyond!

nycward said: “In the words of one of the few pop musical legendsnot represented onstage. LET IT BE!!!!!"

Actually, I believe “Money (That’s What I Want)” by The Beatles is referenced in the first song and “Silly Love Songs” by McCartney’s Wings is referenced elsewhere.

Update: I may be wrong about “Silly Love Songs.” It is included in Elephant Love Medley in the movie, but appears to be missing from the OBCR.

Updated On: 9/2/19 at 11:51 PM