2024 was a big year for both Solea Pfeiffer and John Cardoza.
Pfeiffer began the year finishing up her run as Eurydice in the long-running Broadway favorite Hadestown, then spent the summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, playing the role of Myrtle in the premiere of Florence Welch’s Gatsby before heading back to Broadway to join Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Cardoza returned to New York in The Notebook, tackling his first principal role on Broadway after having wrapped up a run the previous year as Christian on the national tour of Moulin Rouge! During the final months of The Notebook’s run, he departed the show to reprise his performance as Christian in the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge! alongside Pfeiffer as Satine.

Broadway Direct caught up with the leading duo shortly after they began their run in the show at the end of 2024.
What’s the nightly energy like at the Al Hirschfeld these days?
Solea Pfeiffer: We have amazing audiences. People are very vocal. I think a lot of people who don’t know the show very well and are seeing it for the first time, we get a lot of gasps and oohs and ahhs at the big plot twist. But it’s been lovely. Everyone here is so kind and so sweet. It’s been an amazing energy; everyone was so welcoming.
John Cardoza: It’s a really beautiful building to be in right now. You can tell that people love it so much, you can feel that when you walk in the building. The anticipation before the show and the sort of elation and release at the end of the show are palpable. Whether you’ve seen the show a dozen times or you’re seeing it for the first time, there’s joy in there for everyone.

John, you’re joining the show after playing the role on tour in 2023. How has it been returning to Christian, now on Broadway?
JC: It’s a real honor to come into this Broadway production that’s become such a staple here in New York over the last few years. I felt like my time on tour was cut a little short and I was just coming to an understanding of this character below the surface, so the fact that I get to continue that exploration now has been really exciting. He really spans the spectrum of human emotion over the course of the show, which is a real challenge that is exciting to me and is a huge part of why I wanted to return to the role.
And Solea, you’re new to Moulin Rouge! What has the process been like as you’ve stepped into the shoes of Satine?
SP: A whirlwind, to say the absolute least. This has been a process that I’m so happy to have had as much experience as I have had in my life. I think they really trusted us to make it happen in what some might consider a little bit of a short amount of [rehearsal] time.
What I could say for Hadestown and Gatsby, those are roles where whatever is going on in your day, you can throw yourself at it, and this one you really have to be a lot more measured with your energy and you have to be very regimented with your life outside of the show. This has been a show that requires me to be really on it, which is amazing. Preparing for this has been like, “OK, what are the things in your life that you can no longer do? Like eat after 5 o’clock.” [Laughs.] Coming into this has been very humbling because I’ve been learning a lot about myself and what I need. Just breathe, be smart with your energy, be smart with your voice.

How has it been, building your relationship both on and off stage? Did you know each other before joining the show?
SP: We didn’t, but we are like one degree of separation from every single person. We went to a birthday party the other day and every single person there was a friend of John’s. I was like, “How did this happen that we’ve been on the periphery of each other for maybe more than 10 years now?”
JC: This one time when I first moved to New York, I was working the front desk at a yoga studio, and I checked Solea into a yoga class. And that was maybe the first and only time I’ve ever actually met her in person.
SP: There we go! I don’t remember this … but John does. [Laughs.]
JC: Well, I was working the front desk with one of her friends from school!
SP: That was an amazing time when I could go to Pure Yoga for free. That was our first chance encounter, was across the counter at Pure Yoga where I was gonna take the class where you just lie down and sleep. [Laughs.]
JC: We’ve been having a lot of fun. She’s one of those people in this business who any time people are like, “Oh, I hear you’re in Moulin Rouge!” They’re like, “Oh, you’re gonna be working with Solea, you’re gonna love her.”
SP: It’s the same with John! I think I told you the first day I met you, I was just like, “I don’t know anyone with a reputation as sterling as you.”
JC: But I think it allowed us to just come into the room and have fun, you know? She is very easy to trust, and I have so much respect for her work, her process, for just the energy that she brings into a room.

John, you’ve taken over from Broadway’s original Christian, Aaron Tveit. Did you have a chance to chat with him?
JC: It was such a cool moment for me, coming into the show, getting to take the reins from someone like Aaron, who was such a prominent figure when I was in high school, my formative years of discovering theater. He was having this moment with Next to Normal and Catch Me If You Can. He was really coming up in this industry and was an inspiration and a beacon for a lot of young guys who were getting into theater.
I was really happy to find him to be as kind as he has been inspirational, and that was a really cool moment for me to be able to have some one-on-one time to talk with him about this role in this show.
Solea, did you connect with JoJo or any other former Satines ahead of joining?
SP: Yes, well, so many of the former Satines are actually friends of mine. Courtney [Reed], we’ve been Instagram friends for a long time. One of my best friends in the entire world, Liisi LaFontaine, originated Satine on the West End, and seeing her in the show was one of the most amazing moments as a friend.
And then JoJo, who, similarly to Aaron, that is a voice that I’ve been listening to since I can remember. Her songs really are important to the growth and development of a lot of people, so it actually felt pretty surreal. I didn’t fan out or, or go crazy. She was so giving with her time. She even left bone broth for me which I was having at intermission for a while. She could not have been more supportive from jump, and messaging me as soon as the news was out. A class act.

The show recently celebrated five years on Broadway. What about the show do you think continues to enchant audiences?
JC: The show encapsulates every corner of what Broadway is and can be. If you want to come and get the spectacle, you can. The set is worth the price of admission alone. The lighting, the design of the show is impeccable. The costuming. It is unreal. The choreography. It really left no creative stone unturned. And then on top of it, we just come in every night and we do what we can to deliver the most grounded human story, the most Broadway vocals that you can eight times a week. There’s really something in there for everyone.
SP: This show is such a feast for the eyes, a feast for the ears. At the end of the day, there is a huge need for escape and fun and love. And I think that there’s nothing wrong with needing just to laugh, maybe to cry a little bit. And with this show, you get to really feel all that and just let the world outside disappear for a little while and just come see some people give their life. Sometimes you need to see two people twirling on either side of a miniature Eiffel Tower. [Laughs.] I, for one, need that in my life — and I get it.