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Published: September 21st 2012
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Saturday evening in Paris! What could be more exciting apart from seeing the Eiffel Tower at night, than to partake in a quintessential Paris experience by catching a show of ‘Féerie’ at the world famous cabaret, the Moulin Rouge, which is located in the historic Montmartre district.
Accompanied by my friend and his wife, I reached the illustrious red windmill of the Moulin Rouge 45 minutes before the show as recommended on the ticket. Whew, thank god for that, as a crowd had started swarming under the red rooftop windmill. Shortly before 11:00 p.m. the mass exodus from the earlier show exited the theater, and we were ushered in to our seats. My camera had to be deposited to the Cloak room as photography was prohibited. That sure was a bummer. Ah well, sometimes your eyes creates images you cannot forget and this was one of those times.
I must say, the minute you enter the theater, you feel that you are teleported into the flamboyant nineteenth century bohemian Paris. The atmosphere is breathtakingly exquisite. The plush décor combined with the dim lighting emitted from small red lamps placed on every table, creates a surreal and decadent ambiance.
Moulin Rouge
The red windmill Oh, forgot to mention the tickets were quite pricey, around € 90 per person, but it did include a bottle of champagne, which built a feeling of glamour and extravaganza.
Soon after we were seated, the waiter brought us our two bottles of Champagne on ice. However between the three of us we managed to sip through only one bottle. As I waited for the show to start I could hear some classical music playing in the background and the chatter of people sitting around us along with the ubiquitous popping of champagne corks.
Promptly at 11:00 p.m. an announcement was made requesting everyone to settle down as the show was about to start. A minute later as the murmur tempered down and the theatre lights went down, the curtain was raised to the opening of a sumptuous show. The entire troupe of about 80 artists including the legendary Doriss Girls wearing tiaras, long white gloves, floor-length white skirts trimmed with tomato red feathers and above them, sparkly bead necklaces through which bare breasts peeked and with the guys wearing silver suits burst onto the stage to the opening number of “The Moulin Rouge Today, Yesterday, and Forever,”.
This initial semi-nudity of the female dancers set the tone for the entire show.
The show featured four main acts including the “The Moulin Rouge Today, Yesterday, and Forever,”. In one of the scenes of the act, the girls appeared enclosed in globes of red feathers, with only their heads and legs visible. After cavorting a bit, they flung out their arms, transforming the globes into trailing skirts and revealing their bare torsos. I must say that seeing the dance of these beautiful damsels topless is not salacious as it has been aesthetically performed.
The second act was a sort of Oriental fantasy, with a pirate ship with female pirates in boots, leather belts and scantily covered torsos. The guys portrayed British soldiers in their spiffy red attire along with a princess and priestesses. The most enthralling moment was when an aquarium lit with an eerie greenish light rose up from beneath the stage with a couple of giant pythons slithering about. A topless dancer jumped in and swam with these snakes as they writhed, twisted and wound around her. At one point one of the snakes actually started slithering out of the tank which made the audience
gasp. The dancer gracefully pulled it back into the water. That is one thing which is definitely not going on my bucket list. ‘Swimming with snakes’.
As the aquarium sank back into the floor we heard a delighting song being sung of above our heads. Looking up we saw a male and female leads singing to each other floating above us giving the impression of a magic carpet.
Next came, a circus act with miniature ponies trotting around stage by long legged jockeys, acrobats, a juggler and a mime artist. One of the highlights of this act was the splendid display of 2 male acrobats who did flips and balancing routines to the music of an old song by Frank Sinatra. At one point of time, one acrobat balanced his partner on the base of his neck as he himself did a one hand hand-stand. That was a breathtaking performance. The final scene in this circus act was by a comic mime that brought four audience members on stage to enact a skit. This was insanely hilarious.
The Moulin Rouge show ended with the famed Can-Can routine, and skirts in red, white and blue resembling the colors of the French flag engulfed the stage. The Doriss girls lifted skirts and kicked their legs into the air revealing fishnet stockings and G-strings while howling the Can-Can signature shriek whilst cheering a few who performed incredibly fast-paced acrobatics with lots of cartwheels, back flips and splits.
Mark Twain, while visiting Paris in 1867 described the show at Moulin Rouge as “The idea of it is to dance as wildly, as noisily, as furiously as you can; expose yourself as much as possible if you are a woman; and kick as high as you can..” That description was totally spot on.
The show has been appropriately called ‘Féerie’. This double entendre, not only creates magic with its brilliant nonstop, glittering extravaganza of feathers, plumes, shimmering sequins and long-legged, scantily clad showgirls depicting an enchanting fairylike vision, but also displays a spectacular stage extravaganza.
It was a memorable evening well spent.
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The Wolfman
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Wonderful account of the show
Sanjeev, You described the ambiance for the MR beautifully. Your observations were precise and your judgement spot-on!