INTERVIEW: Eric Anderson welcomes you to the Moulin Rouge
Photo: Eric Anderson portrays Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge the musical. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade / Provided by BBB with permission.
Eric Anderson, a Broadway veteran who has appeared in many shows over the years, is now welcoming audience members to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and the Tony-winning musical Moulin Rouge. In the show, Anderson plays the pivotal character of Harold Zidler, the owner of the theater and emcee of the seductive spectacle that’s on display every single night. For Anderson, joining the Moulin Rouge company was a full-circle moment.
“I was lucky to be instrumental in the development of the show, so having it come back into my life was a real blessing,” Anderson said in a recent phone interview. “Before it was a Broadway show, I did every reading and lab of it up until it went out of town, at which point I was also involved with Pretty Woman. And being a family man, I certainly go where the work is, but I was invested in both families and had a wonderful time developing the blueprint of this show. So being able to come back to it after it became the behemoth that it became is surreal, and also really lovely as I was able to continue to flesh out what I had already established in my journey with it. So it’s pretty cool.”
Moulin Rouge is wonderfully immersive. As audience members enter the Hirschfeld, they are met with a set and scenery that is eye-popping with glitz and glamor. One can easily believe they have been transported to the actual Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris, with its characteristic windmill and elephant buttressing the stage.
“It’s what differentiates us from cinema, being able to have eye contact with the people that you’re performing for, and being the ringleader in such a live circus is I think what makes live theater so magical in the first place,” Anderson said about the spectacle of it all.
The Zidler character was originally played by Jim Broadbent in Baz Luhrmann’s movie, and then Danny Burstein won a Tony Award for originating the role on Broadway. Anderson provides his own take on the role, seeing the many sides of the character. There is Zidler the showman who yearns for the applause in front of the audience, and then there’s Zidler the theater owner who is behind the scenes strategizing about the business prospects of the Moulin Rouge. He’s also a parental figure for many of the workers at the theater — he is, as Anderson called him, the “parent of this monster.”
“A lot of it they took from the film version, and then John Logan sort of fleshed out the script,” he said. “I came into it with the skeleton already … and then was able to, of course, add my own flesh to it. I replaced Danny Burstein’s Tony-winning performance, so I was certainly able to get good bits from him, wonderful guidance from him coming into it. Now that I’ve been with it for a good half a year, I’ve been able to make it my own.”
The show is high energy, with the cast singing bits and pieces of many pop songs about truth, beauty, freedom and love. They run around, dance and even swing from the rafters. Anderson’s most prominent part comes in the first 15 minutes when he leads the shenanigans on stage as the Moulin Rouge is first introduced to the crowd.
“I think Moulin Rouge has its own conditioning that the actors have to take part in,” said Anderson, an alumnus of Broadway’s Kinky Boots, Rocky and Soul Doctor. “The women who are kicking their faces while wearing corsets definitely have a different track than I do. Where a lot of my energy and a lot of my gymnastics with the role are the beginning and the end, funny enough, because that’s when we are actually in the show within the show, and I’m barking as the master of ceremonies. So after the first 15 minutes, I can be a little bit more cool-headed throughout the show. Of course, the show ends, and we have an encore that is just as strenuous as the opening for me.”
The many pop songs that Anderson and the company have to sing come at a fast pace, almost without the chance to catch one’s breath. The actor knew most of the sampled songs when he took over the role, but there were a few 21st century tunes he needed to look up on the internet. He considers himself well-versed on modern music, and Moulin Rouge definitely provides a crash course in the American songbook of the past 50 years.
The last six months have been fun for Anderson on stage, but they also came at a time of great uncertainty for the Broadway community. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters for a long time, and even after they reopened, cast members became infected with the virus and shows were canceled (or closed for good). Anderson seems to be taking it in stride, one day at a time.
“I think the most traumatic time was the pandemic itself,” he said. “I was doing a production out at La Jolly Playhouse at the time, playing Captain Hook in an updated Peter Pan musical. We opened the show and then were closed. … So, at this point, I think we’re all a little rougher around the edges and therefore able to take the hits as they come and flow with it and do our best to keep the show going.”
Just like Harold Zidler.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Moulin Rouge, featuring Eric Anderson, continues performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
