“We were working with a dialect coach from Juilliard, and she was like, I’ve got a Houston accent, and I want to figure out how to place that so I can really inhabit this character,” says Tony-winning director Alex Timbers. “She is so funny, so musical, such a smart performer, so witty and
clever in the way that I think ‘Moulin Rouge’ is.”
As nightclub owner Harold Zidler, Megan made history earlier this year as both the first woman to play the role and the first female rapper on Broadway. Timbers says he has “never seen an audience respond” the way they did to Megan, who performed a medley of hits after the curtain call.
“People were on their feet and screaming,” Timbers recalls.
That marriage of pop culture and theatrical tradition is at the heart of “Moulin Rouge!,” based on the 2001 film by Baz Luhrmann. The story of an English poet who falls in love with a cabaret star combines crowd-pleasing pop songs with inspiration from classical opera and folklore. The musical returns July 14-19 to Broadway at the Hobby Center (minus Megan).
As a young theatergoer, Timbers was drawn to that mashup of styles. He fell in love after seeing “Tommy,” the rock musical by The Who that tore down the wall between theater and modern pop culture.
“I’d seen things like ‘Secret Garden’ and ‘Cats’, but it wasn’t something I felt like I really connected to because it felt like its own thing, separate from mainstream pop culture. Seeing ‘Tommy’, where they’re using music video visuals, the sound is huge, the emotions are epic, it just felt cool,” he says.
Timbers has since become the go-to guy for high-concept, pop-infused theater. He’s among a handful of directors in history with four shows running concurrently on Broadway: “Moulin Rouge!” “Beetlejuice,” the Bobby Darin jukebox musical, “Just in Time,” and the comedy “All Out.” He’s won a pair of Tony Awards and is currently working on a musical staging of “The Princess Bride.” The Broadway run of “Moulin Rouge!” closes in August after more than 2,000 performances.
All of those shows lead to the ultimate message behind every one of Timbers’ projects — that theater can and should be for everyone, a “joy-forward” experience for the audience.
“There’s nothing more exciting than stepping into a new space and being completely transported. As much as I love watching movies and TV, there’s nothing about sitting on a couch that compares to that. I get really excited about those shows where you walk into the theater and you leave reality. I think ‘Moulin Rouge’ is one of those,” he says.
“Like when you go to a Beyoncé concert and everyone loses their minds at a key change and a lighting shift and that kind of thing. And the more I work on theater, the more I feel like the greatest gifts we can provide people are joy and hope.”