Age: 63
male
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962) is an Australian filmmaker and actor with projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries. He is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design, and musical components of all his work. He is the most commercially successful Australian director, with four of his films in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films of all time. On the screen he is best known for his "Red Curtain Trilogy", consisting of his romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom (1992), and the romantic tragedies William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001). Following the trilogy, projects included Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), Elvis (2022), and his television period drama The Get Down (2016) for Netflix. Additional projects include stage productions of Giacomo Puccini's La bohème for both the Australian Opera and Broadway and Strictly Ballroom the Musical (2014). Luhrmann is equally known for his Grammy-nominated soundtracks for Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby, as well as his record label House of Iona, a co-venture with RCA Records. Serving as producer on all of his musical soundtracks, he also holds writing credits on many of the individual tracks. His album Something for Everybody features music from many of his films and also includes his hit "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)".
If Anaïs Mitchell's folk musical had instead begun as a movie musical in the late 90s---primarily because I kept coming back to Andráe Crouch as Yertle the Turtle when I thought of Hades--where Orpheus and Eurydice came of age in the Harlem Renaissance. I imagine the world of the living as a vibrant, thriving underground jazz club in Harlem, where a musician like Orpheus could be looking for a break, with Eurydice being more from a Hooverville, suffering from the turmoil of The Great Depression and hoping to find kinder, more generous souls among the creatives. I see Perspeohone running a gorgeous Art Deco speakeasy in both worlds, and Hadestown reflecting the Rust Belt future of automobile cities. Everything in Hadestown looks like Depression-era Detroit, but with 50 years' coating of coal dust and crude oil. (Everything outside of Hades's plush, old men's club vibe office, that is.) His office is located skybox style over Hadestown, where he often watches the workers as a factory manager might, from behind a clean, safe wall of windows.
