Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Moulin Rouge

Ok, coming at you later on Thanksgiving to talk to you about the CBS performances. It took me a while to realize these existed and they still don't have the fun and nostalgia of the NBC, Macy's Square performances, but I do have to admit that sometimes they give pretty good performances. I'm pleased with how often they show us a new song and it's fun to sometimes see the new casts of shows that have been running for a while. Both were the case with this year's Moulin Rouge performance. I've been somewhat vocal about how I think Moulin Rouge is, like, fine I guess, but not worth the hype that it's gotten. Nonetheless, I was excited to see Derek Klena & Ashley Loren's take on the roles and thought it was great that they did a (somewhat) new song that wasn't Diamonds or Come What May.

I have to say that this was one of my favorite sequences in the original movie and I don't know that the update added anything necessarily, but I get why they wanted to flesh it out to fit with the vibe of the rest of the show. The new songs mashed in are fine and all in all it's still a strong number. I was a bit taken aback by how different Derek Klena's voice sounds to Aaron Tveits (and Ewan McGregor if we're being honest). I think he's technically still a tenor but his voice has this deeper, fuller quality that makes him sound older than Aaron, despite looking younger, so that was a bit jarring I think. Nonetheless, I thought Ashley was excellent and the song was fine. The staging wasn't super exciting, watching this didn't make me any more inclined to see the show live, but I did appreciate this reminder that the cast is wonderfully talented and the show is what it is, and has it's place, and I don't have to go too near that place.