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Article: FROM GRIMSBY TO THE MOULIN ROUGE; As the film Moulin Rouge opens with Nicole Kidman, what is the truth about the fishnet and fantasy lives of the British show girls who high-kick across that famous stage?
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- September 8, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: REBECCA FOWLER
THE red roses are wilting in the old orange juice bottle and the Marilyn Monroe poster is falling off the door. But an air of melancholy glamour still overwhelms the dressing room of the Moulin Rouge beside the stage, where the cancan is already in full flight.
Even now, 111 years after it first opened its doors to demi-respectable Parisian gentlemen in their top hats and white ties, the risque cabaret theatre sways between two worlds. It is fairytale mixed with nightmare, naughtiness with seediness, sparkling spectacle with sleaze.
If French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec were to fall through the ceiling of the red ...