It's still the most famous cabaret show in the world, and has been since the 1890s, but is it any good? P.K. Stowers spends a night at the Moulin Rouge.
Thanks to several books, six different films and a presence in French culture since before the turn of the 20th century, the Moulin Rouge in Paris is probably the most famous cabaret in the world.
It began life originally as a high-class brothel, but has moved and developed through history to become one of the city's top attractions - known for its "titillating" song and dance shows.
Exactly how titillating I was yet to discover - in fact it was only in the taxi going to the theatre that I was told that a lot of dancers perform the show topless. Now, I don't wish to appear naive in affairs of French cabaret (though clearly I am) but this fact was entirely unknown to me until that time.
My knowledge of what to expect was pretty much limited to visions of cafe-style accordion music performed by women in stripy tops and berets (which didn't actually feature at all) and the cancan dance (which did).
But before all the dancing and toplessness we had to find our seats and enjoy dinner. The auditorium is gorgeous and reflects the style and décor of bohemian Paris in the early 1900s. Lots of plush red velvet, intricately designed metalwork features and dim lighting. (I'd love to be able to show you some photos but all photography was banned and a couple of colleagues had to leave cameras at the coat check.)
The theatre fills up quickly and while the waiters are pouring champagne and finding out which one of the three set menus you would like, a five-piece band and two singers run through a series of lounge-style songs from artists such as Frank Sinatra, Jacques Brel, Lou Rawls, Cyndi Lauper and Sade.
Dinner is served by a small army of hyper-efficient staff who swarm over the tables personalising your cutlery setting depending on your order. They move incredibly quickly, like they are working to an impossibly tight schedule - which, I suppose, they are. Dinner was nice, although it has to be said that it is basically high-end, mass-produced catering food. It is high quality, but someone who has been to a few good restaurants will be able to tell the difference.
I had a smoked salmon entrée, followed by braised sea bream and "rouge plasisir" millefeuille (multilayered French cream pastry) for dessert.
When the lights go down and the curtains come up you are presented with an impeccably decorated "garden" setting as the whole troupe appears on stage, the women in skimpy beaded costumes and the men in shiny silver suits - the first of many, many costumes.
The women, it has to be said, are all gorgeous - in a highly polished kind of way. A piece of promotional material handed out after the show contains this interesting fact and puts things in perspective: "The girls have to measure at least 1.75m in height and have astounding figures that will leave the spectators spellbound. The artistic directors pay particular attention to the aesthetics and the physical condition of the troupe. Losing or gaining weight is controlled (plus or minus 2kg), cutting or dying one's hair is also strictly monitored."
The music throughout the show has a bouncy "European" quality to it, although none of it is sung live and most of the lyrics were in French. I couldn't tell you if they were well-known songs. I recognised only a couple near the end.
Was there supposed to be a plot? Apparently, but if there was our group couldn't follow it. The settings and costumes moved quickly from bejewelled priestess, to dancing cossacks, colourful circus clowns, immaculate jockeys complete with live miniature horses and finished up with Las Vegas-styled showgirls attired in enormous feather headdresses.
If that sounds surreal, the strangest moment was a mock jungle sacrifice when a woman wearing only a sequinned G-string was pushed into a water tank that had risen from the floor containing five rather large (but sleepy) pythons.
The different dance sequences were separated by three more traditional "vaudeville" variety acts: a tremendously talented juggler, a dexterous acrobat couple, and a not very politically correct ventriloquist and dog act. While entertaining (especially the juggler, who at one stage was keeping three small balls in the air using just his mouth) the highlight of the evening is still the traditional French cancan revue.
It's a 15-minute segment of pure exuberance and French enthusiasm for life. It's colourful, boisterous, clichéd, but ridiculously fun as the dancers tumble and roll, high kick and flirt their way effortlessly through the Moulin Rouge's best-known choreography. According to the venue's history, the cancan was first performed on opening night way back on October 6, 1889 - and has been included in every performance since then. It takes place near the end of the two-hour show, and after it has finished the show moves to become more "Las Vegas" in style. This includes a glitzy feathers and sequins sing-a-long to Gloria Gaynor's seventies disco hit, I Will Survive that the person sitting next to me described as being, "way gay".
If all of this sounds like something you have to experience for yourself, don't expect it to be cheap. Dinner, a half bottle of champagne and a show will set you back €150-180 (NZ $268-$322), depending on which one of three menus you select. Without dinner (but with champagne) it costs either €102 or €92 for the 9pm and 11pm shows respectively. Just to see the show with no drinks is either €90 or €80, again depending on the time.
The show we saw, titled Feerie has been running since 1999 and will finish its season next year in November 2012. The new show will be called "Flash" and is expected to open just before Christmas.
It's fair to say that the Moulin Rouge cabaret has moved a long way from the days when painter Toulouse-Lautrec sat in the auditorium at the turn of the century, or even from when Edith Piaf performed there in the mid-1940s, and that is to be expected. Like any modern, professional stage show the Moulin Rouge has to move with the times in terms of music and performance, but I couldn't help wishing that it perhaps wasn't so slick and polished. I would have loved for there to be more of a feel of its historical origins, more rough edges - and maybe less of the Euro-disco and feathers,
Still, I suspect I may have been alone in that regard on the night. The audience cheered loudly at the show's conclusion (especially for the juggler and the acrobat pair), the lights came up and we all filtered out into the night - past what looked to be another huge sell-out crowd ready for the 11pm show.
Exactly how much of the performance will stay with me is hard to say. None of the group I was with found the show at all "erotic", despite all the naked flesh on display. Many even thought it was family friendly rather than risqué.
Most people in our group enjoyed it - in a kitsch, guilty-pleasure kind of way - but no one was ecstatic. The main topic of discussion, an argument that continued until our flight home later that week, was whether the pythons in the water tank were real - we never really came to a satisfactory agreement on that point, either.
PK Stowers travelled to Paris with assistance from AirAsia and Tempo Holidays.
By the numbers
The Moulin Rouge has approximately 600,000 spectators per year, during which time they go through an estimated 240,000 bottles of champagne. Want more statistics? The Moulin Rouge show has:
* 800 seats
* 80 dancers - 60 Doriss girls and 20 Doriss dancers (male)
* 1000 costumes of feathers, rhinestones and sequins
* Two shows a night, 365 days a year
* Currently 14 nationalities on stage
* 800 pairs of shoes from size 35 to 47
* 120 head waiters, servers and maitre d's
* 700 silver champagne buckets
* 350 employers
* Six miniature horses
* One aquarium containing 40 tonnes of water
* Five pythons
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Low cost airline AirAsia has four flights a week from Christchurch to Kuala Lumpur and then to Paris. AirAsia has also introduced lie-flat beds for Premium Economy travellers.
Further information: Tour packages and hotels can be booked through Tempo Holidays.
Visit the Moulin Rouge site for more details.
