Christian Douglas Is Playing His Name-Twin in Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! and Loving It

Age: 32

Hometown: Towson, MD

Current Role: Christian Douglas has traded in his tour bus for the subway as he transitioned from playing Christian in Moulin Rouge! on tour to playing the role on on Broadway.

Previous Credits: Douglas has been touring the U.S. as Christian in Moulin Rouge! before stepping into the role on Broadway. His first lead role was playing Charlie Price in the off-Broadway remount of Kinky Boots at Stage 42, a role he said was good preparation to playing Christian considering how both characters follow similar arcs. His other credits include playing Tony in West Side Story at The Muny and appearing in the national tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical.

His Name is Christian. So is the Role.
Playing Christian in Moulin Rouge! feels like fate for Douglas, who also happens to be a romantic, dreamy songwriter named Christian. “It’s definitely meant to be,” Douglas says. After spending a year and a half in the role on the tour , taking the stage at Broadway’s Al Hirschfield Theatre felt like a natural step.“I'm so grateful that I have the foundation of 500+ shows under my belt from the road because I think without that, making my Broadway debut as Christian would've been nuts,” he says “I mean it was already so much on opening night, especially amidst the added pressure and newness of being on Broadway for the first time.” He describes the energy shift between the tour and Broadway as significant, especially in moments when he breaks the fourth wall. “On Broadway, they're right there—especially the cancan seats. It just feels so much more immersive and intimate.” Taking his first bow on Broadway was a mix of disbelief, joy and intense relief. “I was so keyed up the whole show,” Douglas says. “I couldn't get my heart rate to come down so it was relief and excitement and joy.”

From Choir Nerd to Broadway Star
Theater wasn’t always in Douglas’ sights. He’s always loved to sing, calling himself a “choir nerd” throughout middle and high school. He studied classical music at the University of Maryland, but as a classically trained singer, he was made to believe that musical theater was not for him. “The magic of musical theater was always something that intrigued me,” he says, recalling his childhood love of The Sound of Music and listening to the album before bed. That interest grew, and in his junior year of college, he auditioned for Spring Awakening. “That was the first musical I did and I had a blast, and it sparked something,” he says. Before he moved to New York, Douglas played Eddie Birdlace in Dogfight, a role originated by Derek Klena, who also played Christian in Moulin Rouge!“It kept scratching this little itch,” he says. “Like maybe I could do that.” After college, he spent a few years in the U.S. Army Chorus, but the routine started to wear on him.. In 2021, he made the jump to the city, got an agent, and soon booked the Pretty Woman tour.“I’m so grateful that I took that leap and chased that curiosity,” Douglas says. Safe to say it led him to some incredible places.

Creative Crossroads
After two years on the road, Douglas took the summer to rest and refocus on songwriting. “I did so much writing on the road. It became part of my routine,” he says. Now working in his home studio, he’s finding his rhythm again. “I can split my brain a little bit and put on my writer hat during the day and performer hat at night.”He’s also composing for The Sound, a developing musical by Charlotte Cohn and Jason Odell Williams, based on Cohn’s grandfather’s 1943 escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark. “Charlotte’s vision was for it to be a tapestry of styles and to not sound like a typical musical theater score, so that was a really great challenge for me,” he says.“It's been a really wonderful project and I think the story and what it's saying, especially now—community, helping those in need, acceptance—I think it's just a timely story and I'm really proud to be a part of it.“Douglas is inspired by some other Broadway songwriters, and he’d love the chance to do their shows. He has his eye on roles like Dr. Pomatter in Waitress.“In high school I was obsessed with Sara Bareilles. Her music is so special—her writing is so truthful, beautiful and poetic,” he says. “Sara is definitely somebody who I've always looked up to as a writer.” He’d also love to play Fiyero in Wicked, the first show he ever saw on Broadway, and hopes to perform in something by Jason Robert Brown, especially The Bridges of Madison County. While says “he doesn’t think [he] can do The Last Five Years,” he emphasizes just how much he loves the music in that show. “I used to belt that in my apartment in college.”

The Heart of It
There’s a lot of things Douglas enjoys about portraying his name-twin, but what resonates most is the arc of the character. “What I love about Christian as a role is the journey from ‘deer in the headlights’ in Act I where everything feels really high octane and exciting and then getting to transition to Act II, we get to see a darker, more grounded version of him,” he says. That evolution also shapes Douglas’ favorite moment in the show. While the “El Tango de Roxanne” may be the dramatic peak, “Come What May” holds more weight for him. “In Act I, the love declaration is in ‘all caps’ as it were,” he says. “In Act II, during ‘Come What May,' it feels like you can really tap into the reality of [Christian and Satine] and the intimacy between them,” he explains. “I just love that song and Ashley [Loren] and I have a great time singing it together.”