As a musical and theater afficionado, I found myself reluctant to watch Mediartrix's adaptation of Moulin Rouge, a movie musical produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann. But armed with complimentary tickets from a Mediartrix actor, Nikki and I decided to give Moulin Rouge a try and caught the last full show last Feb. 28 at the Albertus Magnus Auditorium.
As it turned out, Moulin Rouge was a total failure, with most of its good points overshadowed by its debilitating weaknesses, one of which is the lack of maturity of Mediartrix itself as a school-based theater organization. Mediartrix, known as the media organization of the University of Santo Tomas, failed to consider the weight and aesthetics of the material they decided to adapt. In the past, this has happened too with Les Miserables, with their 10th anniversary production barely surviving their weak points.
Moulin Rouge And The "Bohemian" Individuality
One of the greatest weaknesses of the adaptation was the characters themselves. Tessa, who played Satine, has perfected the English lilts of conversations, much like Satine's coy outbursts. Nikki has commented that Tessa was "good" and that she "studied" the accents to present a more convincing Satine to an audience who wanted some good entertainment. However, Tessa relied too much on her "perfected line delivery", presenting the same blank expression all throughout the duration of the show.
In addition to this, Tessa was not able to justify the character of Satine. Concentrating too much on the English lilts and line delivery, Satine lost her individuality as a central character. Tessa was not personifying Satine, she was trying to be Nicole Kidman.
Dominique, the student who played Christian was not convincing either. He suffered the same "characterization conflict" as Satine did, with him trying to imitate the Scottish/English brogue of Ewan McGregor to a lesser degree. Christian as Christian was fluctuating in character, in acting and in all of him. Line delivery was dry, and his momentous reflections were reduced to monotonous recital of the script. Christian lost his "bohemian individuality", his personality reduced to a mere group member and not a central character.
Luhrmann's creation had individuality---each character present has individuality, even the can-can dancers had their respective individuality. In the Mediartrix's Moulin Rouge adaptation, the characters hardly ever had any individuality to boast of. Nini, the courtesan jealous of Satine, only shone as Nini "the bitch" when the "El Tango de Roxanne" was performed. Nini was a stark contrast to the sweet and romantic bohemian ideology but Mediartrix's Nini was a "stark bitch", a spoiler in the romance of Satine and Christian.
Zidler, played by Jose Miguel Reyes, was fluctuating both in character and in acting although among the characters, it was Miguel's character as Zidler that stood out. In some ways, Miguel was a better actor than all the actors put together. But there are moments that Zidler comes and goes, he surfaces and disappears in all his appearances. Like in 'Spectacular, Spectacular', he literally was the "spectacle" in that segment of the musicale with the others reduced into spots in their own places. In the "Like a Virgin" performance, he literally shrank, with his character diminishing with the lines that were not included in the musical adaptation. Without his mic, he would have been a "mumbling fool" on the stage, because most of the words he delivered were incomprehensible.
In summary, Moulin Rouge was a failure. Even the audience agreed, with most of them commenting that Moulin Rouge "was just another class play". The set was basically okay, but it was nothing special and nothing spectacular either. The costume, on the other hand, was bearable. The costume suffered from plainness and obvious mediocrity with the mixing and matching techniques used lacking a bohmemian creativity unique to the multi-awarded Moulin Rouge musicale. - ALEXIS LAURA FELICIANO
Photograph Source: http://www.teletracks.com/images/logos/moulin_rouge3.jpg
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