The stage musical has now arrived on Broadway with an updated soundtrack but the same love-it-or-hate-it results.

In a three-star review, The Guardian's Alexis Soloski asks: "Can Moulin Rouge deliver? Yes it can-can."

But the FT's Max McGuinness compared it to "a school disco with fancier costumes and more exuberant dancing".

The new adaptation had its official press night at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York City on Thursday night.

Adapted by John Logan and directed by Alex Timbers - who's had recent success with Beetlejuice - the cast includes Les Miserables star Aaron Tveit as writer Christian (played in the film by Ewan McGregor), who falls in love with the beautiful courtesan Satine.

She is played by Karen Olivo, a role which earned Nicole Kidman a best actress nomination at the 2000 Oscars.

film paired Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman as star-crossed lovers

"The genius of the movie was not its narrative," continued The Guardian's review. "It was its lavish design... its deep knowledge that popular music unpacks our hearts and help us to feel our feelings.

"When Satine and Christian proclaim their love for each other by trading snippets of song, a set piece of the movie neatly rendered here, the effect is Shazam for the soul. Here, the original soundtrack - Lady Marmalade, Your Son - has been updated and enlarged with hits from Adele, Beyoncé and, to introduce the duke, the Rolling Stones."

However, the paper had faint praise for the show's leading man Tveit adding "a handsome face attached to a rich lyric tenor, has... all the sexual charisma of a baked potato. His scenes with Olivo seem friendly, nothing more."