Baz Luhrmann won’t be in Sydney on Saturday for the opening of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, an adaptation of his 2001 film, but the musical’s director will still feel the pressure of a proprietorial audience.

“People in Sydney definitely feel proud of Baz’s movie, and even possessive of it, so the weight of expectation here is a little heavier than the other cities we’ve opened in,” says Alex Timbers, who last year won a Tony Award for his reimagining of the jukebox celluloid hit for Broadway, where its pandemic-interrupted run continues after opening in June 2019.