Voulez vous couchez avec moi, ce soir?

As an avid fan of the movie Moulin Rouge, it was definitely going to have to be a major tourist stop on my trip to Paris. Kimmy Helling and I got all dressed up and made our way to the Moulin Rouge! I was overly excited and wasn't really sure what to expect. We were running a bit late and made our way a bit frazzled over to the venue (this may or may not have included a kebab being eaten in 2.5 seconds). We checked our coats and were led to our table and given a bottle of champagne. The room was decorated with red cloths and the stage had the elephants statues on the side that I had pictured in my head. Sitting and waiting for the show to start was so exciting, I couldn't wait!
The lights soon went down and the show started. The Moulin Rouge is honestly nothing like the movie, which I did expect. It is a large cabaret show with more sparkles, jewels, and colors than you can possibly imagine. For an hour and a half, we were bombarded with dancing and singing and more. I can honestly say it was such an amazing show and soo worth the money. The costumes were completely out of this world. From the first number of silver sequins and jewels to the various pirate costumes and flamenco dancers to my personal favorite, the French flag cancan dresses. Everything was completely over the top and fabulous, which is exactly what I wanted. One thing that struck me was how much the nudity did not bother me. The French are obviously very comfortable with themselves, and majority of the women's costumes were topless. I honestly completely forgot that they were topless because it was not something that was featured in the show. It is not a big deal to them and everything was so tasteful and classy that I completely forgot about it.
The atmosphere in the crowd made the show even more amazing. Everyone was cheering along and having a great time, so I of course was cheering along and clapping, which I'm sure the bottle of champagne helped out with. One thing that I did not expect, but surprisingly loved was all of the other various acts. There was a man who juggled, a ventriloquist, and an amazing balancing act. I normally don't like juggling or ventriloquism, but it was so good! The performers fed off the crowd's enthusiasm and the ventriloquist even used audience participation and had people join him on stage. The balancing act was compltely out of this world; I was speechless at how strong the performers were. At one point, the woman was balancing upside on the man's foot as he lied down. I can't describe how incredible it was. All of the dancing was of course completely amazing and the show did not dissapoint.
The only part of the show I did not enjoy was how they handled the paying. Instead of paying before you went into the venue or when you ordered the tickets, they came around and handed you the bill in the middle of the performance. So, people were walking around with flashlights and paper and interrupting the show to settle the bills. It was a bit distracting and I wish they had handled that aspect differently, but other than that, I was completely in love. Kimmy and I left the show in such a good mood and could not stop raving about how amazing it was. The dancing was incredible, the costumes were fabuolous, and the whole experience was amazing. The Moulin Rouge was nothing but spectacular spectacular.

Leanne Kridl
UCSB