The best part about performing in Moulin Rouge! The Musical for Albion Park export Ryan Gonzalez is getting to sing Lady Gaga every night.
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"My queer little heart is thrilled every time," Gonzalez told the Mercury.
"But my favourite element has to be the design. The set and costumes and lighting create such visual feast and transport you from the minute you step into the theatre."
The show is running at Sydney's Capitol Theatre until the end of January, and is the latest big casting for Gonzalez who has been hitting the high notes for years.
You may have seen them To Barbra, With Love (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), as Roy in Fun. Home (Sydney Theatre Company), and Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys (Newtheatricals).
Gonzalez performed to critical acclaim as Usnavi De La Vega in Blue Saint's In the Heights, winning a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Musical. In Moulin Rouge! The Musical, they are a key cast member who plays bohemian Santiago the Argentinean.
"The theatre industry in the past two years has gone from one extreme to another," they said.
"It was exhausting and disheartening to feel that theatre may not be a possibility anymore, that our industry had died. But Moulin Rouge! The Musical has been the complete opposite of that. We have enthusiastic audiences, who are passionate about live theatre, and hungry to see our show."
The first time they watched the Baz Lurhman movie they were about 16-years-old, at home in Albion Park with a bunch of mates, "utterly obsessed from first watch".
Now, transformed into an award-winning musical, audiences enter a world of splendour and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur and glory, where bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment.
Alinta Chidzey stars as the sparkling diamond, Satine, Des Flanagan stars opposite Alinta Chidzey as bohemian dreamer Christian, Simon Burke plays legendary club impresario Harold Zidler and Andrew Cook will play The Duke. Montmartre's resident artistes include Tim Omaji as Toulouse-Lautrec and Gonzalez as Santiago.
Gonzalez believes the Australian theatre scene is becoming more diverse in its representation of people (that is, who they cast) as well as showing more diverse productions - but there's still a way to go.
"There has been a push for more diversity in the Australian entertainment industry, not only onstage, but behind the scenes as well," they said.
"Whilst some companies definitely hear this and see the need to push, we're still waiting for quite a few members of our community to jump on board and truly listen. I am proud to be a part of the cast of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and what the show celebrates.
"The truth is, the more diverse the industry is, the more authentic and inclusive your creativity and artistry becomes, then theatre can do its job in not only entertaining and inspiring, but educating its audience members and the world surrounding it."
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is playing at Sydney's Capitol Theatre until January 28. For more details, visit visit moulinrougemusical.com.
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