In a show as lavish and exciting as Moulin Rouge! The Musical, smart star casting keeps the production fresh and attracts new audiences to Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Case in point: Meg Donnelly of the Disney hit Zombies is making a smashing Broadway debut as the alluring chanteuse Satine, alongside RuPaul’s Drag Race champion and Traitors alum Bob The Drag Queen as nightclub impresario Harold Zidler. For Donnelly, a singer-songwriter as well as an actress, playing Satine fulfills a lifelong dream. For Bob (a.k.a., Caldwell Tidicue), portraying Zidler is a natural next step after emceeing Madonna’s international tour.
“This show is an amazing combination of everything I want to do,” the bubbly Donnelly declares. “Not only do I love Satine, but the show itself is such a spectacle — and it’s pop music, which is what I perform with my own music.” (Her pop-flavored EP, Dying Art, was released last year.) “Being able to act and sing and dance on stage every night with this amazing cast is absolutely incredible.”
Speaking with Broadway Direct a few days before his first performance, Bob The Drag Queen recalled the first time he saw Moulin Rouge! The Musical, winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Beyond responding to the 70-plus tunes woven into the show — “The songs we millennials love,” as he puts it — Bob immediately pictured himself as Zidler. “I leaned over to my friend and said, ‘I could be really good that role.’ Harold Zidler is a showman, a people pleaser who makes sure everything looks good, and audiences relate to that.” Not surprisingly, he feels perfectly at home in the character’s snazzy top hat, gold vest, white gloves, and crystal-topped walking stick, designed by Tony winner Catherine Zuber. “I’m not shocked that I’m on Broadway,” Bob says with a laugh. “I’m shocked it took me this long to get here!”
Donnelly shares her costar’s enthusiasm, having auditioned unsuccessfully for a handful of Broadway musicals as a kid growing up in New Jersey. She had better luck on the small screen in the ABC sitcom American Housewife, followed by the breakout hit Zombies, opposite Milo Manheim. Because of her experiences as a teen actor, “I realized that I felt connected to Satine on a personal level,” she says now. “Being in the spotlight as a kid puts pressure on you to be perfect in everything you do, something Satine feels. She’s a ‘sparkling diamond,’ which was daunting at first, but playing her has given me a lot of confidence.”
It helps that Tony winner Alex Timbers’s kinetic production gives both stars the kind of eye-popping entrance every actor dreams of. Zidler’s joyful cry “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge!” kicks off an opening number that mashes up “Lady Marmalade,” “Can-Can,” and more. Observes Bob, “You get to command the stage and hold court, and I love that.” Satine’s introduction is even more dramatic, as she drops from the ceiling of the theatre on a swing, “the coolest entrance of all time,” says Donnelly. What follows is medley that leaves audiences cheering, including “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Material Girl,” “Single Ladies,” and (of course!) “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
“Because the songs are so familiar, it automatically pulls the audience into the world of the show,” Donnelly explains. The fun begins even earlier, when theatergoers first encounter Tony winner Derek McLane’s immersive set design. “As soon as you walk in, actors are already on stage looking at you,” she says of the preshow. “You feel like you’re actually in the nightclub.” Even the cast gets swept up in their glamorous surroundings: “Last night, when [Christian Douglas, as romantic lead Christian] and I were doing the love medley at the end of Act One, we were spinning around the Eiffel Tower in capes, and I was grinning from ear to ear,” Donnelly says, laughing. “I thought, ‘I am on Broadway right now, and this is the coolest thing.’”
Casting actors with distinct fan bases expands the audience for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, a fact that delights both stars. “My best friend, who grew up in New York, didn’t go to Broadway shows, which is crazy,” says Bob, who lists Once on This Island, Dreamgirls, and Jesus Christ Superstar as his favorite musicals. “I’m always happy to bring someone new to the theatre — and I would say that the people who love Moulin Rouge! are as instrumental to the success of the show as the people in it. When I posted my picture in costume, someone commented, ‘Does this mean I’m coming to Moulin Rouge! for the sixth time?’ People love this story.”
Donnelly, who fell in love with musicals as a kid after seeing Rent, enjoys greeting young admirers at the stage door. “So many people tell me that Moulin Rouge! was their first Broadway show, and they loved it,” she says. “They love the music; they love the atmosphere; they love the emotion of it. And their parents love it too.”
As they prepare to take the stage together for a winter Broadway run, Bob looks forward to portraying Zidler’s protective relationship with Satine. “The vision of me towering over tiny Meg Donnelly is hilarious,” says the actor, who is 6-foot-2 without heels. Responds Donnelly, “The only thing I’m nervous about is laughing on stage because Bob is the funniest person I’ve ever met. I am so excited for his version of Zidler, in stilettos.”
Joking aside, Donnelly is cherishing the opportunity to play an iconic character on Broadway eight times a week. “Personally speaking, I’ve learned more from this experience than from anything I’ve done,” she says of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. “When I saw the show for the first time, I wasn’t expecting how deep and heartfelt it was. It’s such a spectacle, but it also has so much heart, which is a joy to experience, on and off stage.”
