I will never forget the first time I saw the film, Moulin Rouge! We were late to the theatre and Lady Marmalade was just beginning. The colors and the music and the swirling energy pulled my 12-yr-old heart all the way in. It was the first time I ever stayed through the credits (while I bawled). They say memory is connected to emotion, and I remember feeling heartbroken. That Satine was dead. That Christian had lost her. But most of all, that the movie was over. I obsessed over the 2-disk DVD set, not to MENTION the soundtrack. I found refuge in the Moulin Rouge; it was an escape. I must have watched it hundreds of times, always discovering new detail. Naturally, I devoured the rest of Baz Luhrmann’s films, and they all had this same effect on me. His name came to represent more than a man. Like the names Michelangelo, Shakespeare, or Balanchine, it evoked a feeling- a sparkling universe. This past Sunday, almost 2 decades after that unforgettable night at the movies, I had another night I won’t soon forget. At our final performance in LA, the giant, the genius, the GOAT himself, Baz Luhrmann was in the audience, and after years of watching and revering his work, he was out there in the darkness, watching ours. I got to meet him, shake his hand, hug him, THANK him. And he was so kind to me. I haven’t really expressed it here yet, but this experience of playing Christian in Moulin Rouge! has been one of those things that feels personally cosmic or something. I think my audition process, interrupted by the pandemic, followed by rehearsals, and the hectic nature of (my first time) being on the road- all these things kept me so focused on just continuing to put one foot in front of the other that I haven’t really taken a moment to zoom out and appreciate the audacity of where I find myself. The fact that I am actually IN the world that I used to imagine as my escape: that impossibly beautiful universe, which could have sprung only from the wonder of Baz Luhrmann’s mind. Meeting him brought me to realize again the unbelievable fated-ness of all of this. And I’m still seeing stars!!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU @bazluhrmann and @moulinrougebway