isabelle (21/07/2010)

Le Moulin Rouge Cabaret
For many a romantic, no visit to Paris would be complete without a night at the original Moulin Rouge cabaret. Built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, the night club was the very essence of a bohemian, Belle Epoque Paris, where artists converged to produce and attend colorful and avant garde performances. The Moulin has inspired scores of Hollywood hommages, the most recent being director Baz Luhrman’s 2001 glitz fest starring Nicole Kidman. It also provided inspiration for 19th-century painter Toulouse Lautrec, whose portraits of Moulin Rouge performers are today housed in Paris’ Musee d’Orsay.
For all its glamorous past, the current offering at The Moulin Rouge is often dismissed as being a mediocre, mass-produced affair, with a gaudy, contrived performance that does not justify the overpriced entry fee. But when three of my guests expressed their interest in the show, curiosity got the better of me.