Atlanta Ballet's fun, frothy ‘Moulin Rouge' sags from too many cliches

Atlanta Ballet’s production of “Moulin Rouge: The Ballet” is frothy entertainment, fabulously costumed and wonderfully danced -- an exuberant mix of classical ballet, can-can and the tango.

But the evening-length show – almost two and a half hours, with an intermission – feels a little hollow on its limp plotline and story-ballet cliches. Given the strength of the dancing and its joy of spectacle, the self-consciousness of “Moulin Rouge” brings a dash of cynicism to an otherwise fun and bright evening.

Opening Atlanta Ballet’s 81st season, “Moulin Rouge” premiered a year ago in Minneapolis, a product of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Choreographer Jorden Morris had to jump through many contractual hoops to use the trademarked Moulin Rouge name, including what’s been billed as “historical accuracy.”

Instead, the production peddles every cheap touristic icon of Paris, all jumbled together, from the Edith Piaf song “La Vie en Rose” to the sounds of the accordion, the illuminated Eiffel Tower, a basket of fresh-baked baguettes and, of course, the twirling red windmill of the red-light cabaret. Sets and lighting, by Andrew Beck and Pierre Lavoie, are both opulent and unsophisticated.

Still, I had to wonder how satisfying this show would be if it were danced by a less charismatic and virtuosic company than Atlanta Ballet.

The stars of the evening are the sexy club dancers, the chorus of leggy beauties in colorful, frilly long skirts (designed by Anne Armitt and Shannon Lovelace) and eye-catching culottes for when they bare their derrières.

On opening night, Nadia Mara and Jacob Bush danced the romantic leads. (The scheduled “A” cast leads, Christine Winkler and John Welker, were indisposed Friday night because of illness but will return during the “Moulin Rouge” run, through Oct. 31.)

Nathalie is a poor young laundress (the petite Mara could pass for a teenager) who is discovered by cabaret owner Zidler (Jonah Hooper) and made into a star. In the opening scene, she falls for Matthew, a callow painter just arrived in Paris, but the vile and violent Zidler soon wants her for himself.

Mara internalizes her character’s innocence, which reduces the power of her bravura solos. But with her lover Matthew (Bush), she is disarmingly tender and radiant in the pas de deux, dancing to “Clair de Lune” and looking like a snow princess in virginal white -- one of many inorganic cliches. (A quartet of live "street" musicians performed on stage for just two brief numbers; the rest of the music was canned.)

As Matthew, Bush never cut a fully rounded figure, perhaps because his choreography looked a lot like that of the waiters, tailors and gentlemen in top hats.

As painter Toulouse-Lautrec, Brian Wallenberg’s movements at first are exaggerated and quirky -- he’s a creative type, an “artiste.” Yet here, too, the deflated story line pulls down the choreography.

By act two, Toulouse-Lautrec is virtually indistinguishable from the other men on stage. It’s a pity: instead of creating unique characters from a legendary epoch, this “Moulin Rouge” feels like any old story, with balletic can-can its only raison d’etre.