“We will return to this emblematic place in the history of live entertainment that hosted the great Mistinguett revues for more than ten years,” Jean-Victor Clerico, general director of the Moulin Rouge, explained to AFP. The Parisian cabaret announced this Thursday that it will rehabilitate the room where the legendary Mistinguett performed for a long time in the roaring twenties.
A “great project”, for the Parisian temple of feathered magazines and the “French cancan”, estimated at “several tens of millions of euros” and which “will extend for several years between now and 2030”, he stated.
The cabaret, inaugurated 136 years ago, will continue to welcome the public for the duration of the work. “It will also be an opportunity to create a state-of-the-art stage tool for future shows,” he added.
“A highlight in the history of cabaret”
Located in the same building on the Boulevard de Clichy, north of Paris, and crowned by the famous mill, the Mistinguett room was inaugurated in 1924, after a fire nine years earlier.
In 1929, the Mistinguett room, where the artist performed for several years alongside the young Jean Gabin, then one of her “boys”, was transformed into a cinema. It remained dedicated to the seventh art until the 1980s, before becoming a venue for events and filming of television shows.
“This room represents a very strong moment in the history of cabaret, where the Moulin Rouge truly became the emblematic place of the music hall,” explained Jean-Victor Clerico.
Mistinguett, who first performed at the Moulin Rouge in 1907, was artistic director and leader of the revue for ten years with legendary shows such as “That’s Paris!”
The Moulin Rouge has 60 artists of 18 different nationalities and offers two shows per night, currently including the magazine “Féérie”, a tribute to the circus and the City of Light from 1900 to the present day.
Belonging to the same family for four generations, the Moulin Rouge, which has 600,000 spectators a year, last year created within its walls a “City of Artistic Crafts” that brings together the latest French feather and embroidery workshops, called Living Heritage Companies (EPV).
Source: BFM TV
