I reinvented the musical: Baz Luhrmann

LONDON - “Moulin Rouge!” director Baz Luhrmann has claimed he “reinvented the musical” genre.

“I go towards things that are challenging for me and scary for me - but I want to see them up there. If I’d walked away from that, I wouldn’t have tried to reinvent the musical or had a go at making Shakespeare popular or done a ballroom-dancing film. Nobody turns around and goes, ‘Yes, ballroom dancing, definitely! We want that!’,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted him as saying.

Baz believes his interpretation of “Moulin Rouge!” which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewen McGregor and grossed $178 million worldwide - led to the success of musical TV show “Glee”.

“‘Glee’ co-creator Ryan Murphy has been very nice about acknowledging that it was ‘Moulin Rouge’ that inspired him. I wish I had a dollar for everyone that said, ‘The musical will never be popular in America’, 10 years ago,” he said.