The new Australian production opens in March 2027, with Global Creatures assembling its company following more than 2,300 audition submissions.

Erin Clare and Nigel Huckle will play star-crossed lovers Satine and Christian in the new Australian production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, with comedian and cabaret performer Reuben Kaye joining them as nightclub impresario Harold Zidler.

The casting announcement brings the company closer to completion ahead of the production’s return to the Sydney Lyric in March 2027. The performers playing the club’s Lady Ms are still to be announced.

For Clare, whose musical theatre credits include Beetlejuice, We Will Rock You and Heathers: The Musical, the production offers an opportunity to take on one of contemporary musical theatre’s most demanding leading roles: the celebrated performer whose public glamour conceals an increasingly precarious private world.

“Satine is one of those roles you dream about,” Clare said. “She’s dazzling and powerful, but underneath the diamonds and glamour there’s this incredible vulnerability and a woman fighting for the freedom to choose her own life.”

The NSW-born performer added that she was eager to step onto Derek McLane’s set, with its signature red windmill and blue elephant.

Huckle, who was born in Sydney and is based in Melbourne, brings experience playing another pair of musical theatre’s romantic leads — Chris in Miss Saigon and Tony in West Side Story. His credits also include the international tour of Les Misérables and concert touring with Lea Salonga.

He will play Christian, the young writer whose arrival in Paris leads him into the seductive world of the Moulin Rouge and an affair with its greatest star.

“Christian is a role that I really resonate with because he’s an optimist like me,” Huckle said. “He arrives in Paris fully invested in these bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom and love, and then suddenly finds himself living all of them.”

“The music is a massive and exciting challenge, the scale of the production is extraordinary, and getting to tell this epic love story with Erin is such a dream.”

Kaye’s casting is perhaps the announcement’s most intriguing prospect. His commanding voice, flamboyant stage presence and sharply honed comic instincts offer a natural foundation for Zidler, the showman responsible for keeping the Moulin Rouge’s doors open. The role also gives him room to explore the vulnerability beneath the character’s extravagant exterior.

“Zidler is an absolute gift of a role,” Kaye said. “He’s outrageous, cheeky, hilarious and completely in command of this extraordinary world, but underneath all of that spectacle there’s real heart and humanity.”

“I think people who know my work might think they know what I’m going to do with him — I’m very excited to show them another side to me!”

The principal casting follows six weeks of open-call, in-person auditions. The production received more than 2,300 submissions and auditioned over 500 performers for 34 places in the company.

Carmen Pavlovic, Global Creatures CEO and producer of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, said the process demonstrated the depth of Australia’s performing talent.

“The calibre of artists we saw throughout this audition process was so impressive,” she said.

“Erin Clare and Nigel Huckle are two outstanding musical theatre talents and together they bring the passion, vulnerability and undeniable chemistry at the centre of this great love story. Reuben Kaye is a singular talent and one of Australia’s most captivating live performers. He will bring charisma, wit and heart to the role of Zidler.”

Pavlovic added that Zidler’s emotional significance was as important as his showmanship.

“While Harold Zidler is one of theatre’s great showmen, he is also the beating heart of the Moulin Rouge, and Reuben has the unique ability to embody both.”

The return also underlines the sustained commitment of Pavlovic and Global Creatures to a production that has taken Australian producing expertise onto the international stage. Developing a screen property as distinctive as Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! for live performance required more than reproducing its familiar images: the musical expanded the film’s pop vocabulary and built a theatrical world capable of delivering its own spectacle.

That appetite for innovation runs through Global Creatures’ work, from the large-scale puppetry and engineering of Walking with Dinosaurs — The Arena Spectacular and King Kong to Australian stories such as Muriel’s Wedding The Musical and Strictly Ballroom The Musical. Its investment in a newly assembled Australian Moulin Rouge! company gives local performers another opportunity to make an internationally established production their own.

Tony Award-winning director Alex Timbers said the incoming cast possessed the range the show requires.

“From our principals through to our ensemble and swings, we have assembled a cast with incredible vocal, acting and dance ability, but also the charisma and fearlessness that Moulin Rouge! The Musical demands,” he said.

“I’m particularly excited for audiences to see these artists make the roles their own — there are some genuinely thrilling and unexpected performers in this company, and I can’t wait to see them bring Moulin Rouge! The Musical back to life in Sydney.”

Clare, Huckle and Kaye join previously announced principals Ben Hall as the Duke of Monroth, Tim Omaji as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Tyler Chapman as Santiago and Thalia Smith as Nini.

Calista Nelmes will serve as Satine alternate, with Joshua Russell covering Christian and the Duke, and David Duketis covering the Duke, Santiago and Zidler.

The ensemble also includes John Rex Berry, Sarah Bourke, Bridgette Coach, Emma Feliciano, Louis Fontaine, Anthony Garcia, Alfie Gledhill, Sebastian Johnston, Adam Lyon, Sebaga Neumann, Bella Runnalls, Jordan Tomljenovic, Lucas Van Rhijn and Jennifer Wolfe.

Bayley Edmends, Brittany Ford, Sara Haruta, Lachlan Inwood, Jayden Prelc, Emma Russell, Callum Ryan and Nicole Vella complete the announced company as swings.

The Sydney season follows the production’s original Australian tour, which played Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane between 2021 and 2024. According to Global Creatures, that tour attracted 1.4 million theatregoers.

Winner of 10 Tony Awards in 2021, including best musical, Moulin Rouge! The Musical adapts Luhrmann’s 2001 film, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Its score incorporates more than 70 songs spanning over 160 years of music, retaining favourites from the film while introducing material released after its premiere.

The production features a book by John Logan, choreography by Sonya Tayeh and music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine. Alongside McLane’s sets, the design team includes Catherine Zuber on costumes, Justin Townsend on lighting and Peter Hylenski on sound. Australian casting is by Lisa Campbell.

The musical is produced by Carmen Pavlovic and Gerry Ryan OAM for Global Creatures, and Bill Damaschke. Dawn Martin is executive producer of the Australian production.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical opens at the Sydney Lyric in March 2027. Tickets are now available for performances from March 9 to May 30, with prices starting at $89 and no additional booking fees, according to the production. Tickets purchased through Ticketmaster are covered by its flexible exchange policy.

Bookings and further information are available at moulinrougemusical.com.au.