Wayne Brady & Taye Diggs to join MOULIN ROUGE in July?

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/25/25 at 6:31pm

According to these (now deleted, but screenshotted) Instagram posts, Wayne Brady and Taye Diggs are allegedly joining MR as Zidler and The Duke respectively on July 22nd.

https://x.com/tveitidk/status/1915876593475490209?s=46&t=0XG46rJiPEOy8dyIeDsimg

Thoughts?

 

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 4/25/25 at 6:46pm

My guess is the announcement's scheduled for a different day and got posted early?  This is GREAT casting - I'm curious as to how much of a pull Wayne Brady's going to have, as I don't remember him being a big impact on sales for The Wiz (although they didn't use him a ton in the marketing I saw), but I love seeing seasoned theatre performers who have crossed over to film/TV return to Broadway!  Stunt casting without the "stunt" of it all...And between the two of them plus Jordan and Soles, would this mark the first time that MR has had an all-Black leading cast?

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/25/25 at 6:54pm

Jordan and Solea are scheduled to leave July 20th.

Not sure either performer would do a ton to move the needle. Brady can play an Emcee very well (which is essentially what his Wiz was).
 

Diggs, on the other hand, seemed VERY out of practice with musicals when he last did HEDWIG in 2015. I know the Duke is not a huge role by comparison but I don’t see him bringing the same menacing swagger that David Harris has.

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/25/25 at 7:37pm

I guess David Harris will be leaving almost as soon as he arrives back into the show. I almost imagined him finishing the run, he seems that popular and it’s clear he enjoys the job.