Robert Petkoff and the Company of the 2025 touring production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

Transforming the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Center into a dazzling Parisian nightclub at the turn of the 20th century, where passion and spectacle collide, the Tony Award musical, based on Baz Luhrmann’s beloved 2001 film, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” blends a love story with a soundtrack of modern pop hits and invites audiences into a world where art and romance flourish against the odds. The first North American tour of the Broadway production premieres at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall on April 7 and runs through April 12, 2026.

“With the lavish sets and costumes and high-energy numbers, ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’ is the perfect anchor to our 2025-2026 Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series,” believes Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW’s General Manager Scott Saxon. “Any show that wins 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, is a show we certainly want to present on our Broadway Series.”

Enter a world of splendor and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur and glory, as noted in the official press release. “A world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment. Pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular.”

Kaitlin Mesh and Danny Burgos in the 2025 touring production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

Florida-native Actor Danny Burgos, who is from Miami and lives in New York City, portrays Santiago in the musical, and he sat down with Florida Weekly to share his experiences and reflections about the production.

“It’s your classic love story, you know? Boy likes girl, boy can’t have girl because of a love triangle, the story ensues. And so, it’s a very classic story that we all know and love,” Burgos explained. “It’s told in a time, 1899, that none of us have experienced, in a place that a lot of us have not experienced. So, it is a very new situation, but it’s familiar enough that we all are kind of locked in, and then you add in songs by Beyoncé, songs by Sia, songs by Lady Gaga, and it’s like, oh, okay, I know what to expect from this. And then we give you a final kicker that nobody expects, and I won’t spoil the show, but it’s worth watching.”

In “Moulin Rouge! The Musical”, the main storyteller is Christian. “He starts the show, he ends the show, he is the heart of the show,”

As in the film, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” celebrates over 160 years of music – from Offenbach to Lady Gaga. The stage musical features many of the iconic songs from the movie and also includes recent hits released since the movie premiered 21 years ago, the official press release states.

“For the first timer, someone who’s never seen ‘Moulin Rouge!’, someone who is, like, new to musical theater, even, I like to call it a fever dream, and it’s because at first, you don’t really know what’s going to happen. And then you start hearing pop music, and you’re like, wait…what,” Burgos described. “It’s minorly confusing, because I think people associate musical theater with new music, so when they start hearing pop music, it’s like, wait, I know these things, and I think that’s, like, the first hook into a musical. And then you start getting really invested in the story.”

For the person who has never seen Moulin Rouge, Burgos believes they will be most impacted by the performance of 72 pop hits. “So, 72 chart toppers, that are just coming at you, and at the end of Act 1, there is a big song called ‘The Elephant Love Medley’, and it’s just packed full of songs, and the songs change, like, every three or four bars,” he adds. “So, it’s impressive, and I think it’s very cool that people who like all styles of music can come to our show. You know, we have songs by the Rolling Stones, songs by the Beatles, we also have songs by Beyoncé, and songs by Lady Gaga. So, it’s a wide variety of music being touched upon.”

Robert Petkoff and the Company of the 2025 touring production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

Jahi Kearse, Arianna Rosario, Andrew Brewer, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Robert Petkoff and Danny Burgos in the 2025 touring production of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

A personal favorite number performed in the show for Burgos is one he is directly involved with – “Roxanne.”

“My favorite for the movie, for movie lovers, and for anybody highly anticipating, yes, ‘Roxanne’ (by the Police) is in the show, and they reinvented it a little bit, so in the movie it’s sung by the Argentinian, which is me. I do not sing it in this version, but I do dance in it,” Burgos said.

The top of “Roxanne” is well done, according to Burgos. “We transitioned from another song into ‘Roxanne’, and at the top of (the number), you just see me, Nini, my dance partner and Zidler in three specials,” he describes. “It starts like in a very serious and very aggressive fashion, and then you just transition directly into our ensemble dancers doing some of the most impressive choreography I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Outside of that choreography, a moment during the production other than the scene that would be a spoiler for the show is one that deeply touches Burgos.

Gabriela Carrillo as Satine and the Company of the 2026 North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

“I am very moved by it. I think one of the moments that I really love in our show is a moment when Christian says to the Duke, because she doesn’t love you,” Burgos reflects. “There are some cities where the audience goes entirely quiet. There are some cities where it’s just quiet, and it goes right over their heads. And there are some cities, and these are my favorite cities, where everyone gets surprised, and then everyone starts laughing because collectively you realize everyone was surprised.”

For this role, he describes Santiago as sexy, a Tango dancer who is fiery, Latin and passionate; but also, someone who is very funny.

“I try to key into all the comedic moments, like, all the moments where he can just drop the sexy bit and be a funny guy. And I think that kind of made me like the character a little bit more and let down a couple of my walls so that I can do the other parts of the character as well. But in my brain, Santiago is the funniest guy on stage,” Burgos described. “He is just always down for a bit, always down for a fun little moment, and he also just happens to be deeply in love with Nini (played by Kaitlin Mesh), who is my dance partner on stage and the biggest gift that I could have ever received.”

Being in tune physically with what other people are feeling, not just with Nini, but also with the characters Christian, Lautrec, and the Duke, Burgos says he finds that a physical embodiment of the character is more useful.

“A lot of what Nini and I do is not intricate, but it is partner dancing. And anyone who does that type of dancing knows that being able to communicate verbally is one thing, but being able to just feel what that other person is feeling in the moment is such a very nuanced thing, and I’m very glad that Kaitlin and I have been able to find that and explore that,” he believes. “I think that’s another big part of my character.”

This Broadway touring production is directed by Tony Award® winner Alex Timbers and with a book by Tony Award® winner John Logan, choreography by Tony Award® winner Sonya Tayeh and music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Tony Award® winner Justin Levine.

Renee Marie Titus, Amara Berhan, Kaitlin Mesh and Rodney Thompson in the 2026 touring production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

The current North American tour cast is led by Gabriela Carrillo as “Satine” and Ryan Vasquez as “Christian”, and features Robert Petkoff as “Harold Zidler”, Andrew Brewer as “The Duke of Monroth”, Jahi Kearse as “Toulouse-Lautrec”, Danny Burgos as “Santiago”, Kaitlin Mesh as “Nini” and Jerica Exum in the role of the “Satine Alternate”.

Saxon says that when curating a season, the Broadway season is considered as a whole. “We feel it is important to demonstrate to Southwest Florida the breadth of shows that come to Broadway,” he continues. “Whether it is a big-budget spectacle or an intimate two-hander, we want our patrons to experience the best of what Broadway has to offer and still get to sleep in their own bed at night.”

Only a handful of musicals in history have won 10 Tony Awards in their original run, Saxon added. “We feel that it is very important to give Southwest Florida audiences an opportunity to experience this show,” he continues. “The glitz, glamour and excess of the turn of the century France make the show such an immersive experience. Something is happening on every portion of the stage- and you don’t want to miss any of it.”

Burgos adds that he believes one reason this story is so wonderful to tell is that it just makes people believe in love again. “It makes people believe that, oh, wow, look at me, my jaded little heart, crying over this musical about love. It just inspires you, and I ask that people listen to that,” he adds. “I think it’s surprising, and the reason people continue to love this show is that it surprises them. They surprise themselves, and then they say, wow that little piece of theater made me feel something. And it keeps them coming back because they want to feel something else, something new, something different.”

Saxon hopes audiences depart feeling the musical’s anthem: Truth, Beauty, Freedom and- above all- Love.

“Our story is beautiful, and it is a love story, and I hope that you go out of there crying and believing in love again. But also, I just, like, hope that people believe in themselves again, because we’re 32 people playing pretend on stage for fun, and it just happens to be our jobs,” Burgos champions. “Chase your dream, make your dream your passion, make your passion your job one day, and then, you know, you’ll be happy.”

Tickets for Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW can be purchased in person at the Box Office, by phone at 239-481-4849, or online at BBMANNPAH.com. “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” runs from April 7-12, 2026.

Jahi Kearse, Arianna Rosario, Andrew Brewer, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Robert Petkoff and Danny Burgos in the 2025 touring production of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO

Robert Petkoff and the Company of the 2025 touring production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. -MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE / COURTESY PHOTO