The magnificence of Massimo Romeo Piparo's new touring theater seduces audiences with the greatest international musical for the first time in Italy. Through Jan. 4, 2026 on schedule in Rome
By Rosalba Panzieri
Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love. These are not just words, they are the emotional manifesto that ignited the Sistina Chapiteau in Rome in the Italian Premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, a theatrical kolossal based on Baz Luhrmann's cult film. A show of pure stage vertigo, where theater became dream and desire. It opened on October 15 precisely with Moulin Rouge! The Musical, the Sistina Chapiteau is a massive touring theater, built and directed by Massimo Romeo Piparo, with a capacity of about 1,500 spectators, a stage of more than 30 meters and advanced stage technology. A joyous twin of the Sistina, designed for immersive performances in keeping with the tradition of the international musical.
In the Tor di Quinto district, then, under the big top of the Sistina Chapiteau, Piparo has brought a fin de siècle Paris to life, producing a production that is no match for Broadway or West End productions. It is not just a matter of lavish sets, dreamy costumes and breathtaking acrobatics, but it is this show's ability to speak to the present, to make deep chords vibrate, that returns to the audience an immersive and all-encompassing experience.
A cast of excellence for a worldwide success
The show is produced by PeepArrow Entertainment under license from Australia's Global Creatures, producer of the ten-time Tony Award-winning Broadway Musical. Piparo's direction reinterprets the film with intelligence and passion, bringing to the stage a tight-knit and technically flawless cast. Diana Del Bufalo is a seductive, fragile and finally rebellious Satine, while Luca Gaudiano gives body to young Christian with intensity and power. Around them revolves a pulsating ensemble. From Emiliano Geppetti to Gilles Rocca, from Mattia Braghero to Daniele Derogatis, each character contributes to building a theatrical universe that is both carnival and tragedy.
The acrobatic pre-show, with its suspended fabrics and aerial evolutions, is already a show within a show. But it is when the lights come on stage that the journey really begins, with140 minutes of music, dance, pathos and irony, in a continuous play between dream and reality.
Celebration as an act of courage
The Moulin Rouge is not just a place, it is an idea. It is a celebration of excess, of freedom, of sensuality as a form of resistance to the pains of life. In this musical, the party becomes a political act, a collective ritual, an invitation to live with intensity. Billy Mitchell's choreography, Teresa Caruso's set design, Cecilia Betona's costumes and Daniele Ceprani's lighting build a world that is both nostalgia and provocation, where the French Cancan becomes a cry for emancipation.
The soundtrack, a mas-up of pop-rock hits, with songs by Bowie, Gaga, Queen, Elton John, Rihanna and Madonna, is a bridge between generations, a hymn to cultural contamination, to the search for that which eternally stirs the human soul. The live orchestra conducted by Emanuele Friello is the beating heart of this sensory universe and offers itself to the viewer's gaze, thanks to the choice to put it on stage and not in the pit. Piparo draws a skilful direction, confirming himself as a master of the great live show, while,the singers, perhaps accomplice to the excitement of the debut, although very good, were not able to bring out the full tragic scope of the opera. We will have time to see them until mid-January to fully appreciate the dramatic nuances of the characters.
Freedom, truth, beauty, love, today
The four pillars of Bohemian philosophy, must give battle to the economic power that seems to buy everything, even the illusion of love. Yet when freedom breaks the shackles it saves all that appeared preyed upon, bringing out truth, generating beauty, arousing love.
At a time when theater is struggling to regain its space, the musical proves that audiences are hungry for authentic emotions, for stories about love and freedom, for shows that are not content to entertain but want to transform. It is a musical that concerns us because it reminds us that beauty is a right, that truth can be sung, that love is still a revolution.
The Moulin Rouge in Paris
The Moulin Rouge in Paris, run by Jean-Jacques Clerico (CEO), is a dazzling and spectacular universe, a symbol of the Parisian way of partying since 1889. Born as a cabaret and popular dance hall, the venue became an iconic music hall in the Roaring Twenties, and then a theater where many famous French and international artists have performed. Today, the Moulin Rouge and its 60 performers present the show Féerie revue: two hours of amazement between cabaret and music hall in which dance scenes and surprise numbers alternate, not forgetting the Moulin Rouge's most emblematic dance, the French Cancan! Since its creation, the Moulin Rouge in Paris has always been an invitation to experience and share all the excitement and effervescence of a unique and extravagant party.
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