PARIS — At 125 years old, the Moulin Rouge sure does sparkle and shine from its nestling place along a busy commercial street in the Pigalle district of Paris.

The Blanche metro station is mere yards from the home of ornate musical numbers, acrobatic acts, can-can dancers and topless showgirls, but I chose to walk the few blocks from the station on the line closest to my hotel, the 12 to Pigalle.

I emerged onto the Boulevard de Clichy, where the pedestrian island in the center was a view to Paris’ red light district, a sea of signs for sex shops and massages, Le Folies Pigalle, La Diva and the Musee de l’Erotisme, before the telltale Moulin Rouge windmill came into view, benign and friendly in the light of day. It was early, and I had a dinner-show reservation, and I was never so happy as to see a Starbucks, which stood directly across the street.

After enjoying a latte and Wi-Fi, I made my way up the side street that borders the Moulin Rouge, Rue Lepic, toward Montmartre. Besides cafes and souvenir shops, the street was lined with small markets such as La Fromagerie Lepic, the Boucherie des Gourmets, Routisseurs du Roy, Primeurs Lepic … maybe next time.

This time, I had preordered the “Blanche Evening” dinner and the “Feerie” show — the least expensive combo at 172 euro ($183) -- weeks before online. Checking now, choices online start at around 190 euro ($205) for an evening show, less for matinees. Doors open at 6:45 for dinner; the show starts at 9 p.m. You don’t have to do both, but I wanted the full experience.

It can be a long, hot wait on the steps — lined with posters of can-can dancers — leading toward the 850-seat Belle Epoque-style theater, but people were chatting and taking pictures until they were escorted to a seat.

Being alone, as it turned out, was a good thing. There were two vacancies in need of occupants at one of the up-front tables, so I wound up three seats from the stage, opposite another solo, Jim, an enthusiastic 21-year-old from Newcastle, England. We got along famously.

The only sour note of the night came from the stage during dinner, when a band of what we might call wedding singers entertained with English lyrics sung phonetically — let’s move on.

The chicken dinner, with an appetizer, dessert and wine included, was flavorful and filling, a good start. Then the curtains opened, and ooh la la.

The current spectacle titled “Feerie” consists of a troupe of 80, recruited from around the globe, costumed in an ever-changing array of feathers, rhinestones and sequins, to varying degrees of coverage. Musical numbers marched by for nearly two hours, interspersed with acts as death-defying as any I’ve seen at a Cirque show. These included roller skaters in a tight space and a strong man and a female gymnast. In both acts, the strength, control and agility on display were remarkable, and I wondered how often they wound up in medical need. A trio of male tumblers near the end of the show was as much about the comedy as the tumbling, but the entertainers shined as well.

The freakiest moment was when a woman, stripped to just a V-shaped panty, jumped into a pool of live snakes — four of them, each about 6 feet long. When they wouldn’t tangle themselves around her, she proceeded to tangle with them. One seemed to be trying to escape onto the stage, requiring the appearance of a wrangler and all too close to where I was seated.

After that, the French Cancan was a highlight. Its history, described in the program, dates to 1889, when for the first time, the Moulin Rouge stage included young girls dancing the Quadrille, “revolutionary movements, screams and boisterous rhythm,” and those scandalous leg lifts. A Brit named Charles Morton dubbed the dance the “French Cancan,” according to the program.

Nicolae Denes Jr., a handsome guy who was the leading man in every number, seems to be as much quarterback as central attraction for the three lead female dancers, Jolene Slater, Galyna Kiktyev and Georgia Webb — their names a good indication of the international troupe. 

The color and sparkle and array of 1,000 costumes was almost numbing — Las Vegas on steroids. Certainly the Moulin Rouge’s “Feerie” gave me my money’s worth. Musical numbers with pirates and exotic settings and the circus — including miniature ponies and a parade of the famed Doriss Girls — came in seemingly endless succession.

The Doriss Girls, 60 strong, are the French version of the Rockettes, descended from a quartet organized in 1957 by then-choreographer Doris Haug. They provide the R-rated glamour of the Moulin Rouge that has kept it a packed Parisian attraction for more than a century and counting.

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter @SEberson_pg. 

First Published: April 19, 2015, 4:00 a.m.