Moulin Rouge! The Musical, London

Get ready for spectacular spectacular: the stage adaptation of Moulin Rouge is transferring to London after impressing on Broadway.

Based on Baz Luhrmann's Oscar-winning film, Moulin Rouge! The Musical transports audiences to bohemian romance in Montmartre with a medley of pop's greatest hits. It is due to run at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre from autumn 2021.

The 2001 film has all the makings of a magical show with a surfeit of songs, dancing and romance. It tells the tragic love story of a courtesan called Satine and a penniless writer called Christian, who are immortalised on screen by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. The drama plays out against a glittering Parisian backdrop, with chorus girls dancing the can-can, idealistic thespians attempting to put on a spectacular new show and a wealthy Duke threatening to withdraw his funding. But, beyond the story, it's the atmosphere and aesthetic of the film that makes it such an enduring favourite.

There's an absinthe-soaked hallucinatory quality to Luhrmann's direction, which combines the razzmatazz of cabaret costumes with hints of Bollywood in a playfully discordant take on the 1899 setting. This sense of modernity resonates through the film's soundtrack, which is made up of re-worked pop songs by the likes of David Bowie, Fatboy Slim and Elton John.

Multi-award-winning writer John Logan (Red, Sweeney Todd, Gladiator) adapts and reworks the script for the stage and Alex Timbers (Beetlejuice, Here Lies Love) directs. The emphasis is on hedonism and exuberance, recreating the film's sense of spectacle.

Musical supervisor Justin Levine brings film tracks including Come What May and Your Song to the stage, along with many more medleys sampling Katy Perry, Outkast, Adele and Lady Gaga. This extravagance of pop music, with over 50 songs referenced, prompted some Broadway critics to dismiss the new musical as 'NYC's biggest karaoke night', while others enthused about this excess, hailing the show as 'a party and a playlist for the ages'.

Now the party is living on in London. Click here to book tickets.