Case study

Drapes and upholstery for Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Red velvet, saree work and tufted booths for the Regent Theatre

When Moulin Rouge! The Musical opened its Australian debut at Melbourne's Regent Theatre, every soft good in the production was ours: stage drapery, house curtains and swags, soft scenery, tufted booth seating and full auditorium dressing, cut, sewn and upholstered by Reveal through Melbourne's longest lockdowns.

5 minute read · Updated 22 July 2026

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Drape Selector

01What is the job?

House curtain

Masking legs

Cyclorama

02Which fabric?

VelvetIFR

Wool sergeIFR

MoltonNDFR

03How full should it hang?

Flat

75%

100%

04How does it open?

Traveller

Guillotine

Tableau

05What size?

FabricWool serge

FR classIFR

Size12.0 x 7.0 m

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Step 1 of 5 · The job

The brief

Big, bold and dressed to the last seat - in the middle of a pandemic. Reveal was engaged to deliver all soft goods for the production: stage drapery, soft scenery, upholstered furniture and full auditorium dressing, with additional builds for the show's future touring life. The timeline was tight, the scale was enormous, and Melbourne kept locking down around the work.

The design language was Paris nightclub excess: red velvet everywhere, swagged and gathered under chandeliers, saree work and metallic detail through the auditorium and foyer, and seating that had to read rich from the back row while taking stage life night after night.

One boundary worth stating plainly: Reveal's scope was everything sewn. The hard scenery - the set itself and the show's grand staircase - was built by other Australian workshops. This is the soft-goods story: the drapes, the swags and the seats.

Full stage view of Moulin Rouge! The Musical dressed in Reveal's red drapery and upholstery, with chandeliers and illuminated signage — The Regent Theatre dressed for Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Photo: Michelle Grace Hunder.

Making it in lockdown

With strict lockdowns, curfews and unpredictable shutdowns across Melbourne, delivering the project meant changing how the workshop worked, sometimes week to week. The team adapted:

Upholsterers worked from homes and garages. Booth and furniture builds kept progressing wherever a bench could be set up.
The sewing team ran a stop-start schedule. Output continued through every restriction window, with quality checks unchanged.
Design collaboration moved into the building. Layouts, saree work and fabric choices were finalised with the production's designers in unconventional settings, including the Regent Theatre's foyer.
Fabric sourcing was fought for. Global freight delays and flight shortages were navigated head-on to land the right materials on time.

Temporary manufacturing space set up for Moulin Rouge! The Musical soft goods during Melbourne's COVID shutdowns — The workshop, wherever it could be: a temporary manufacturing space during the shutdowns.

Saree fabric work for Moulin Rouge! The Musical laid out with the design team in the Regent Theatre foyer — Saree work laid out with the design team in the Regent Theatre foyer.

Nothing about the period was normal, and none of it moved the standard. The soft goods left the workshop finished the way they would have been in any other year.

The scale of it

More drapery and upholstery than any production we had worked on.

"This had more drapery and upholstery than any other production we've ever worked on. During lockdowns, we had to keep shifting how and where we worked. But the team pushed through."

Rory - Accounts Manager, Reveal Productions

What hung, and what it was made of

The primary stage drapes were red velvet: ornate house curtains, swagged and gathered drapery through the auditorium, and festoon string lights woven directly into the velvet so the room glows the way a Paris nightclub should.

Around them hung blue and gold accent drapes in silk blends with metallic detailing, patterned fabric across the cabaret tabletops, and, where the design called for fire-compliant stage fabric, molton and wool alternatives that carried the look without giving up the certificate.

The upholstery ran from tufted velvet booth and cabaret seating to glossy black faux-crocodile detail, with custom furniture built alongside the production's designers. Every fabric family we sew with lives in the fabric library.

Red, blue and gold silk drapes with metallic detailing made by Reveal Productions for Moulin Rouge! The Musical — Silk-blend accent drapes with metallic detailing, in the wings. Photo: Chris Parker.

The result

A stage and an auditorium dressed to the design, delivered complete and on time. From the ornate red drapes to the custom upholstery and the auditorium finishes, the soft goods carried the visual world of Moulin Rouge! from the moment the doors opened, and they have taken stage life night after night since.

Red tufted booth and cabaret table with patterned fabric from Moulin Rouge! The Musical, lit under stage lighting — Tufted booth seating and patterned table fabric. Photo: Stephen Heath.

Cabaret-style table covered in patterned red fabric and topped with a gold lamp, upholstered by Reveal Productions — Cabaret table upholstery, in the wings. Photo: Chris Parker.

Close-up of glossy black faux-crocodile upholstery with detailed tufting from the stage furniture of Moulin Rouge! The Musical — Faux-crocodile tufting up close. Photo: Vanessa Montalto.

Red velvet drapery and chandeliers forming the auditorium ceiling design for Moulin Rouge! The Musical — The velvet ceiling, in the wings. Photo: Chris Parker.

Craft, plus tenacity

Productions like Moulin Rouge! do not happen without teams willing to work around whatever the year throws at them. This project is the clearest proof of Reveal's soft-goods scope: one workshop carrying drapery, soft scenery, upholstery and auditorium dressing for a flagship musical, to a standard the audience reads from every seat. It is the same design and production support we bring to any brief - we have been making stage drapes in Melbourne since 2001, and this is the job that tested every year of it.

MJ the Musical's soft scenery came out of the same workshop, against a very different set of constraints.

Production photography by Michelle Grace Hunder, Chris Parker, Stephen Heath and Vanessa Montalto.

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