Since the initial release of Baz Luhrmann’s film Moulin Rouge (2001), a noticeable shift has occurred in the critical analysis of the portrayal of women in modern media. Contemporary musical theatre is no exception to this, with many of the latest theatre performances altering their content to challenge preconceived ideas about female characters and how they are represented on stage. This dissertation begins by offering a definition of the theory of the male gaze; the ideology that women are diminished to objects for the gaze of a male spectator. In her book Theatre and Feminism, Kim Solga states, ‘The gaze may be focused through individual viewers’ eyes, but it derives from those viewers’ cultural expectations about how men and women should each appear, act and speak’ (Solga 2016). Society is infiltrated with these patriarchal attitudes that promote misogynistic views and impact the way in which women are perceived by male spectators. This can be directly applied to my research, which aims to explore the male gaze in the screen version of Moulin Rouge and critically compare it to the recent 2018 stage version. My work surveys the differences between the two adaptations whilst discussing their relationship with the male gaze and how both ‘texts’ might be seen to invite and challenge the hegemonic male gaze. Although the original film of Moulin Rouge at times may be seen to challenge the primacy of the male gaze, ultimately, it is guilty of adhering to cinematic conventions of creating the female as a passive object, sexualised and exploited by the control of the camera. However, its musical counterpart complicates the idea of the male gaze in numerous ways, such as its use of theatrical space which allows the viewer to ultimately choose what they look at. In a chapter in Studying Musical Theatre Theory and Practice, it is stated that, ‘Theatre positions men and women on stage in front of us, thereby turning their bodies into objects of attention and causing us to regard them in particular ways’ (Symonds and Taylor 2014). This research project will analyse and critique how each version employs the use of such a gaze through its different audiences.
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