As a setting for musical theater, Paris’s iconic Moulin Rouge nightclub is a natural. Baz Luhrmann knew that when he set his tragic, surreal Puccini-indebted 2001 movie (starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor) in the legendary, absinthe-soaked palace of Belle Epoch decadence. “Moulin Rouge” the movie was a gaudy, tawdry, glamorous, music-infused extravaganza that burned its way into a nation’s collective eye-balls and ear canals.

The 1899-set stage version, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” currently playing at the Nederlander Theatre, is based on the movie and arrives with a similar vibe. The 10-time Tony Award winner directed by Alex Timbers captures the fever-dream pace, the lavish excess and the irresistible music of its titular inspiration in countless spangly ways.

There are more than 50 songs covering 160 years embedded in this jukebox musical, many of them pop hits from the past half century, hilariously repurposed for a story set long before.

John Logan’s book is cheesier than Wisconsin and has more cliches than a catalogue for inspirational breakroom posters. It also manages to satirize its flaws via a bit of clever meta-theater: A play-within-the-play blatantly soaks the melodrama and cliches for self-referential laughs.

The plot is as basic as they come, the characters are about as subtle as the sexual innuendos tossed about: Moulin Rouge star Satine (Courtney Reed) is a “courtesan”-with-a-heart-of-gold. The Duke of Monroth (David Harris) is a nefarious, filthy rich arch-villain who insists on buying Satine from club emcee/manager/pimp Harold Zidler (Austin Durant). Without the Duke’s money, the club will close as will the musical its performers are attempting to stage.

Duke or no Duke, penniless composer Christian (Conor Ryan) and Satine fall in love. Through an ingenious melange of Gnarls Barkley (“Crazy”) and Adele (“Rolling in the Deep”), Christian devolves into the one of the most increasingly recognizable stereotypes of all: angry, manchild who conflates possessiveness with love.

The weight on Satine’s shoulders is oppressive: If she doesn’t do whatever the Duke wants, everyone at the Moulin Rouge will be out on “the streets,” we’re told repeatedly. This includes dancers Santiago (Gabe Martinez) and Nini (Libby Lloyd), a scorching tango duo that bring rage and eroticism to some Police-era-Sting (“El Tango de Roxane”), among other tunes. Another memorable club regular is Andre Ward’s Toulouse-Lautrec, who convincingly preaches the credo of Left Bank bohemians: “truth, beauty, freedom and love.”

Reed’s Satine capably captures both Whore and Madonna archetypes with numbers including a bubbly cover of Madonna’s “Material Girl” and a soaring rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” She’s best in Perry mode; when Reed goes for the extreme raunchy end of the spectrum, she still comes up wholesome.

Fortunately, “Moulin Rouge” barely needs plot and character development because the music is so fabulous. It’s a cavalcade of hits from iconic hitmakers–from Offenbach to Regina Spektor to No Doubt to Lady Gaga to Lorde to Bowie to the Commodores–their lyrics and melodies resonating audibly in ingenious new contexts from start to finish.

Arguably chief among them is “Lady Marmalade,” which opens the show. Labelle’s 1974 megahit is the number that defines “Moulin Rouge” arguably more than any other. Under music director Andrew Graham, it sounds as fresh and daring as it did when LaBelle originally gifted the planet with it.

Sonya Tayeh’s choreography captures the all the music’s powerful, lascivious beauty throughout with precise, explosive movements and an athletic grace that dares anyone to disrespect its blunt audacity.

The ensemble knocks one number after the other over La Tour Eiffel, so to speak. Britney Spears- (“Toxic”)-meets-Annie Lennox (“Sweet Dreams”) in a pile-driving, all-ensemble mashup about trying to quit an unhealthy relationship. When Ryan and Reed take on a melange of the Rolling Stones (“Sympathy for the Devil”), a-ha (“Take On Me”), Tina Turner (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”), Whitney Houston (“I Will Always Love You”) and Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes (“Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong”), to name a few, it’s a whole rom-com captured in a single montage.

The more-is-more sensibility is bolstered by Derek McLane’s brightly colored set and Catherine Zuber’s costumes. Christian’s artistic ambitions manifest with a jacket splashed in silver paint while Satine’s deep red-and-green show gown evokes the colors and textures of Lautrec’s paintings of dancers.

If you can ignore the story, you’re left with an inarguably entertaining night of music. This is a productionthat brings out the confetti cannons in the very first song and ramps things up from there. That rock-concert-adjacent, frenetic, hallucinogenic, sequin tsunami aesthetic is almost impossible to resist.

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LOS ANGELES — The Blackhawks trailed the Kings by only one goal late into Thursday night.

But the close score belied the true imbalance of the game –at least until a two-goals-in-15-seconds Kings explosion halfway through the third period matched it up with reality. In actuality, the Hawks showed virtually nothing in their eventual 4-1 loss.

“We had no energy,” interim coach Derek King said. “We had no emotion in the game. We were frustrated. The guys, everything they did, it just wasn’t working. And put on top of that, that [Kings] team came out and they were flying. They’re a desperate hockey team, they needed the points, and they showed.”

After the first period, scoring chances favored the Kings, 18-2. Halfway through the game, the Hawks had recorded just six shots on goal. The final statistics weren’t much friendlier: scoring chances were 42-13, shots on goal were 36-16. Both tied season lows for the Hawks offensively.

“You’re not going to win a hockey game with six shots,” King added. “And if you do, you start the bus and you get out of here real quick.”

The Kings’ big third-period minute, featuring a breakaway goal by Andreas Athanasiou and a two-on-one goal by Trevor Moore, initially seemed even more disastrous for the Hawks when goalie Collin Delia (31 saves) needed to be helped off the ice after Moore’s tap-in. But it turned out Delia was just cramping rather than injured, King said.

The win further secured the Kings’ hold on the Pacific Division’s third automatic playoff spot. They now lead the Golden Knights by five points; the Kings have three games left, the Knights have four. The Stars’ loss Thursday to the Flames makes them, not the Kings, now the Western Conference playoff team most vulnerable to a Knights charge.

The Hawks, meanwhile, fell 26-41-11 with — mercifully — just four games left. They weren’t able to muster much spirit for the second leg of the road back-to-back.

“The energy level was a little lower than a day we have off or a practice day,” Dylan Strome admitted. “[But] we’re all professionals. That’s part of the game. Everyone has to do back-to-backs throughout the season. So it’s just the way it went tonight.”

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Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki is off to a hot start — hitting home runs, reaching base in his first 12 games, winning NL Player of the Week Award in his first week in the major leagues and creating a much-needed buzz at Wrigley Field.

He entered Thursday night’s game against the Pirates at Wrigley Field with a .387 batting average, a .438 on-base percentage and gaudy 1.404 OPS. Suzuki isn’t expected to sustain that kind of production for the long haul. The league is just learning about him and figures to adjust as the book on Suzuki — who hit .315 with a .987 OPS in nine seasons in Japan — is written.

The question is how well will the 27-year-old Suzuki adjust back? It’s a chess game that is as old as the game itself.

“The first thing you want to do –you want the player to have success — he’s doing that,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “And teams will try to figure out what they think his holes are. And then he’ll have to adjust. That’s kind of the evolution of a major-league player.

“We have the information. You have things you tried. You find out where hitters have the most success and over time you find out where they do or don’t have weaknesses and try to exploit those. That’s what creates a big, long career.”

The challenge is to stay a step ahead of the scouting report. But Ross said the only solution is to wait for the adjustment and respond. And he’s confident Suzuki will do that.

“You never know until you get to this level,” Ross said. “But I think his profile coming over here [from Japan] and why we gave him the money and the contract [five years, $85 million], we believe strongly that he’s a really good major-league caliber player.”

Suzuki might be edging closer to that moment. Batting second as the designated hitter, he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a 4-3 loss to the Piratesbefore 32,341 fans at spring-like Wrigley Field. It snapped Suzuki’s streak of reaching base in his first 12 games with a plate appearance. Only Wilson Contreras (13 games in 2016) has had a longer streak to begin a Cubs career since 1901.

It was only one tough night, but Suzuki now is 0-for-7 in his last three games, dropping his average from .429 to .343. After getting 10 RBIs in his first 22 plate appearances –a franchise record — Suzuki has one RBI in his lsat 28 plate appearances. The Cubs (6-7) lost their third consecutive game to fall below .500 for the first time this season.

Suzuki truck out in the first, had an RBI ground out to third in the second and struck out in the fifth. And in his biggest moment of the game in the seventh inning — with Nico Hoerner on third, two outs and the Cubs down 4-3, Suzuki struck out on three pitches against Pirates reliever David Bednar.

Suzuki’s second-inning RBI gave the Cubs a 3-0 lead that would not last. Starter Mark Leiter, Jr., while much better than his first start for the Cubs, when he allowed seven runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Rockies at Coors Field, allowed a two-run homer to former Cubs prospect Dan Vogelbach in the third inning to cut the lead to 3-2.

That was the only blemish in Leiter’s four innings. But Ethan Roberts relieved him in the fifth and ran into immediate trouble — allowing two runs that gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead.

Roberts nearly was out of his jam, but with two outs and the bases loaded, Yoshi Tsutsugo hit a two-run double to left to give the Pirates the lead.

Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds made the play of the game in the seventh inning when he not only beat the shift with an apparent double to left field off Rowan Wick, but — with no one covering third base –alertly kept on going when the throw came into second and ended up with a triple on a hit with an exit velocity of 49.4 mph.

But after Wick walked Ke’Bryan Hayes, he induced Tsutsugo to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to keep the Cubs within a run.

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In the second half of game 2 of the first round series between the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks, All-Star guard Khris Middleton went down with a sprained MCL, which will knock him out of the rest of the series at minimum.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Middleton will be re-evaluated in two weeks. His injury is a huge loss for the Bucks. He is a great defensive player who they rely to slow opposing offenses down, in addition to being a gifted scorer.

The Bulls have momentum with the series coming back to Chicago this weekend for games 3 and 4 at the United Center. Even without their starting point guard in Lonzo Ball, there is hope for the Bulls to pull off the first round upset against the defending NBA champions.

If their big three of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic all have good games in the near future, the Bulls will be in good position to win their first playoff series since 2015.

Make sure to check out our Bulls forum for the latest on the team.

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The Chicago White Sox were hoping to continue their strong start in April as they faced the Cleveland Guardians for the first time this season. The first two games were postponed and a telling sign of the bad luck that was ahead for the White Sox.

The White Sox allowed 10 runs in the first two innings of the first game of the series. Afterward, the team couldn’t recover, and the Guardians outplayed and swept the White Sox. It’s early on in the season and it’s easy to overreact to a sweep. However, there are some issues from the roster that are going to become concerns as the season progresses.

Keuchel’s awful start

Last week, Dallas Keuchel started his first game of the season. The start wasn’t great but promising, as the 34-year-old starter limited the Seattle Mariners to three runs in five innings. The hope was that Keuchel could build momentum from the start and more importantly, provide stability to the backend of the rotation as the season progresses.

The White Sox received the opposite of what they were hoping for. Keuchel’s start against the Guardians was one of the worst in the MLB this season. After one inning with 10 hits and 10 runs allowed, Keuchel was taken out of the game forcing manager Tony La Russa to use the bullpen for the next 21 outs.

Moreover, Keuchel’s start displayed all the issues with his pitch selection. Keuchel’s sinker and changeup, two of his off-speed pitches that ideally force weak contact, were ineffective against the Guardians lineup. The cutter meanwhile was often poorly located, including on the grand slam against Jose Ramirez as the ball ended up over the heart of the plate.

The hope is that Keuchel can bounce back but the poor pitches are a concern for the White Sox, to say the least. Opposing hitters will make contact off Keuchel’s pitches and force the fielders to bail him out. In addition, the cutter, the ideal put-away pitch from the left-handed starter, is moving over the middle of the plate instead of out of the strike zone.

White Sox bats struggle

The White Sox scored five runs in the three-game series. After scoring 10 runs in the series against the Mariners and nine against the Tampa Bay Rays, the expectation was for the momentum to continue into the Guardians series. The White Sox are carried by their lineup and when the order struggled, the entire team falls apart.

The Guardians have great pitching, particularly starting pitching but the batting order was hapless. The notable concern however was how the lineup struggled against fastball-dependent pitchers. Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie primarily rely on their fastball-slider combination to dominate on the mound, both starters limited the White Sox to only one run. While Zach Plesac mixes in the changeup, he also heavily relies on the fastball and put together a strong start against the struggling lineup.

The White Sox lineup is one of the best in the MLB and tends to attack most starting pitchers early and often in games. It’s unlikely that fastball-first starting pitchers will become the downfall of the batting order. However, the recent series does raise the concern and leaves fans with something to watch as the team continues to develop in the first month of the season.

Where the sweep of the White Sox isn’t a concern

The three losses in a row to the Guardians were tough to watch. In addition, the Guardians proved early on in the season that they will be a competitive team this season. Cleveland might not win the division, but they will give the White Sox difficult matchups.

However, the sweep was a bump in the road. For starters, this is April baseball for the White Sox, and this is a team that is still trying to figure its roster out. The White Sox, like the rest of the MLB, are acclimating themselves to the marathon season. These losses happen and will continue to happen, especially early on in the season.

Moreover, the issues for the White Sox are straightforward and relatively easy to manage. The backend of the rotation is a weakness and Keuchel’s inconsistency doesn’t help. Keuchel had a rough outing but whether it’s pitch selection or location, he can easily bounce back. The White Sox struggled at the plate but in the cold weather with players still searching for their swing, it’s going to happen.

Ultimately, the White Sox had a difficult series and there’s no way around it. It’s going to be one where they burn the tape and move on. The White Sox play the Minnesota Twins over the weekend in their next series, a team that like the Guardians, looks to play competitive baseball early this season.

Make sure to check out our WHITE SOX forum for the latest on the team.

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Frank Schwindel had a tough act to follow in 2022. Not just Anthony Rizzo’s, but his own.

The 29-year-old first baseman was a revelation for the Cubs last season when he hit .342 with 13 home runs and 40 RBIs and a 1.002 OPS in 56 games (222 at-bats) after being signed off waivers from the Athletics.

Schwindel came into Thursday night’s game hitting .261 with two home runs and seven RBIs and a .748 OPS in 12 games this season. But he had a nine-game hitting streak, with three doubles, two home runs in that span.

“My mindset was to try and do exactly what I did last year,” Schwindel said. “Keep the same approach. Not put any extra pressure on [myself]. Treat it the same. Shortened spring, so we didn’t get as many at-bats. Kind of a slow start, but picking it up from there and now we go. [I’m] starting to swing the bat better the last couple of days. So just gonna build on that and go from there.”

All things considered, it’s a promising start for a player who set such a high standard last year. And it’s only 12 games into the season. And whether Schwindel is hitting .342 or .261, manager David Ross has a healthy appreciation for his dependability.

“I think he’s been a consistent bat in our lineup,” Ross said. “He’s come up with some big hits and in some big moments. Over time he’s going to be real consistent in that spot.

“Do I think he’s at his best right now? No. I’ve seen him at a pretty high level. That he’s not where he wants to be and where we’ve seen him I think is a real positive — because he’s a pretty good player right now just the way he is.”

Baseball weather

After a typically inclement early spring in Chicago, the Cubs played the Pirates in pleasant conditions — especially for a night game. It was 66 degrees at first-pitch.

Asked if he hated playing in April weather in Chicago, Schwindel had the right answer.

“I wouldn’t say I hate anything at the big-league level,” he said. “I’ll do anything — play in weather … to play up here. Yeah, some of those days aren’t easy — whether it’s playing in the rain [Wednesday] night or the freezing [temperatures] a couple of nights ago. But there’s no better place to be than Wrigley.

Newcomb-er

Left-handed pitcher Sean Newcomb joined the team and was available Thursday night after being acquired from the Braves for right-hander Jesse Chavez.

“I don’t want to pre-judge a guy before I’ve gotten my eyes on him,” Ross said “I know he’s had some major-league success. I know he’s had some adversity. We’ll get him over here and we’ll try to fit him into our plans and how he can help us win. I think he can helps us win and we’ll see.”

Did you know?

The Cubs have scored one or more runs in 58 consecutive games coming into Thursday night’s game –the longest current streak in the major leagues. They are 25-33 in those games.They haven’t been shut out since a 10-0 loss to the Brewers at Wrigley Field on Aug. 11 of last season.

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