Moulin Rouge! The Musical | Boy George to join Broadway revival of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 classic film

Moulin Rouge! The Musical is set to arrive once again on Broadway in 2024, after the success of its run at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in July 2019 and the subsequent Best Musical award at the 2021 Tony Awards. But the production is set to freshen up its cast, with the announcement that Culture Club singer Boy George has been cast in the revival.

George, real name George Alan O'Dowd, is set to take over the role of Moulin Rouge club owner Harold Zidler, currently played by Tituss Burgess who is set to leave the role on December 17 2023, with the role set to be briefly occupied by Eric Anderson once again before George takes over the role in February 2024. 

The singer, 62, made the announcement on the Today show in the US this afternoon (Monday morning US time) saying that he had already seen the show a few times and was excited to join the show’s ensemble and learn about “fitting in” to the show, which has been running on Broadway since 2019. The role of Zidler was played by British actor Jim Broadbent in the 2001 film, which also featured Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

Though George might be more well known for his work with Culture Club and as a DJ for Ministry of Sound, his appearance treading the board on Broadway is nothing new. In 2003, the musical about his life, ‘Taboo,’ premiered with audiences taking on a journey, scored by George himself, throughout the club scenes of London in the 1970s and 1980s, during the singer’s rise to fame and subsequent worldwide success with Culture Club.

The show features direction by Alex Timbers, a book by John Logan, choreography by Sonya Tayeh, and music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine, with a score including many pop hits such as Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ and Sia’s ‘Chandelier’ to name a mere few.