Catherine Zuber: Last News

Frank Rizzo Passions were never in short supply in Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play “Intimate Apparel,” where loneliness, longing and hope hover in every scene. In the latest, long-in-the-making collaboration between Lincoln Center Theater and the Metropolitan Opera, those passions fly free, revealing the operatic heart of “Intimate Apparel” in a new opera adaptation of this story of a 35-year-old Black seamstress aching for love in 1905 New York.The tight construction of the play, with its spare two-hander scenes and focus on the lives of ordinary and overlooked people, makes it a natural as a stripped-down chamber opera.

For a jukebox musical stage adaptation of a jukebox movie musical inspired by an opera based on a novel, Moulin Rouge! The Musical (★★★★☆) stands as its own spectacular spectacle, while staying vividly true to its myriad origins.Currently repped by a vivacious touring production of Alex Timbers’ Tony-winning — and still running — Broadway hit, the show most vividly recreates the maximalist visual and musical style of Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-winning 2001 film (a personal favorite).Derek McLane’s multi-layered scenic design, dipped everywhere in red and tantalizingly lit by Justin Townsend, stirs a lush, tactile fantasy of the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret in Belle Époque Paris.And from the first sight of two scantily-clad sword swallowers beckoning us inside the club, to every last high-kicking chorine on the can-can line, Catherine Zuber’s costumes accentuate that atmosphere and inform each character.The colorful corseted frocks and bohemian-chic duds also boldly accentuate the performers’ lines and curves dancing Sonya Tayeh’s sultry choreography.