Moulin Rouge! is a curious beast. Rather than an actual stage musical, it is a movie with huge borrowings from musical theatre. No stage version of Moulin Rouge! exists, at least not officially.

Initially, I thought Moulin Rouge! would be hard to translate to the stage and I was skeptical if AUBG’s Broadway Performance Club could pull it off. You see, the movie is intensely visual, with quirky camerawork and a splendor of sets, locations and costumes that even a professional live show could doubtfully reproduce.

However, this year’s AUBG musical dispelled any doubts I had with unassailable certainty.

Based on La Traviata and inspired by Bollywood, Moulin Rouge! tells the story of the young and poor English poet Christian (played by Bulgarian National Music Academy graduate Martin Kostadinov), and the star of the Moulin Rouge cabaret Satine (sophomore Gergana Petkova). They fall in love, which progresses from impossible to tragic throughout the show. Not terribly original in that department, I know.

But where Moulin Rouge! shines is in its smorgasbord of musical pop culture references. The musical itself only has one song written for it; everything else is rearranged, adapted, and marvelously retrofitted from contemporary music, bent to serve the purpose of the plot. And it is beautiful. I don’t remember enjoying myself so much on an AUBG stage as when I watched the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"/"Material Girl" and “Like a Virgin” sequences.

The cast of (mostly) AUBG students did exceptionally well. Song and choreography were maintained at the high bar last year’s Hairspray set, and some were even better - Kostadinov was perhaps the best male lead an AUBG musical production has had so far, and sophomore Smajo Bajramspahic delivered an exceptional “El Tango de Roxanne” as Toulouse-Lautreac. 

But what made Moulin Rouge! better than Hairspray was the live music - “Levon Manukyan Collegium Musicum” was the orchestra that performed all the music for the show, save for some special sound effects. The addition of live music was risky - it is a lot harder to synchronize choreography to sound when the performance is not fixed as in a recording. But it paid off - the sound of the show was a lot better than previous years. Any audiophile will attest that nothing can beat a live performance. And even though choreography was harder to pull off correctly, it was top notch.

The supporting cast was very good. Senior Kiryl Faminou’s Duke of Monroth was creepy, and villainous, and excellent. I regret I won’t be able to see him in another AUBG show. AUBG graduate Anguel Anguelov-Mostuna and Professor Sabina Wien as Moulin Rouge proprietor Zidler and Marie, respectively, were not only fun to watch, but managed to deliver memorable performances.

I honestly liked this year’s musical. In fact, I was surprised at how good it was. Even though the stage here in Blagoevgrad was bare of all the shiny trappings the movie boasted, I did not care one bit, because I almost fell in love with the performance.

The AUBG performance of Moulin Rouge! was not without its faults, however. The role Bajramspahic played was a combination of two characters from the movie - Toulouse-Lautreac and the Narcoleptic Argentinean. Even though his role in the plot was correct and despite being billed as Toulouse, Smajo played as the Argentinean but performed Toulouse’s part. His performance was excellent, but it deviated wildly from the original.

And if I can forgive this merging of characters, I cannot forgive the way the show ended. Satine was supposed to die on stage at the end, but she did not. We learn she is terminally ill and she collapses at the end of the show, but her death and the subsequent “a year after” epilogue from the movie is not revealed. I acknowledge the difficulty of adapting a movie musical to the stage, but more difficult scenes from the movie were performed, whereas this was not. 

Moulin Rouge! is as good as Hairspray, in some parts even better. With this show, the AUBG Broadway Performance Club convinced me how good they are and despite the few reservations I may have over the way they adapted Moulin Rouge!, I can’t wait to see their next show. Guys, Wicked, please?