Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on Baz Luhrmann's 2001 Oscar-nominated movie, is being adapted as a stage musical by Australian-based company Global Creatures, who is also working on bringing King Kong to Broadway.
Tony Award winner John Logan, of Skyfall and Gladiator fame, will pen the book while Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers, who has worked on Peter and the Starcatcher and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, will direct.
“I first encountered Alex Timbers through the remarkable and inventive production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the brilliance of Here Lies Love,” Luhrmann said in a statement. “I immediately recognized the young director’s creative spirit and felt we shared similar sensibilities and instincts. So I’m tremendously happy to celebrate that Moulin Rouge! will be under his direction and that the book will be the creation of the gifted Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan whose writing I also admire deeply. It’s immensely gratifying to know that a new wave of artists will be leading Moulin Rouge! into its rightful theatrical realm.”
In addition to starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, the film, which chronicled the romance between a courtesan in a decadent Parisian nightclub and a penniless poet, boasted a soundtrack featuring music by the likes of David Bowie, Christina Aguilera (who can forget this?), Bono, Beck and Rufus Wainwright. The actors themselves also graced us with their singing talents (though some would quibble with that description) on a variety of musical numbers (Nicole Kidman singing Sparkling Diamonds is one of our favorite for-the-big-screen performances ever).
No announcement has yet been made regarding the opening venue and date, but Global Creatures' last Luhrmann project, a much-panned musical adaptation of the director's first film, Strictly Ballroom, opened in his hometown of Sydney.