New BroadwaySF Mural from Latino Artist Diego Gómez Celebrates MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco

BroadwaySF, part of the Ambassador Theatre Group, today unveils a new public mural on the Hyde Street Side of the Orpheum Theatre (Hyde Street at Market Street). Created by Tenderloin resident Diego Gómez, the mural was created to celebrate the four central “Bohemian Ideals” featured in the hit 10-time Tony Award®-winning musical MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL, which will play at the Orpheum Theatre from September 8 – November 6, 2022. The four Ideals featured on the mural are Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love. The mural will remain in place throughout the show’s run.

BroadwaySF worked with local artist Diego Gómez to conceive and paint the mural. Gómez is a multidisciplinary artist, muralist, performer, teacher and comic book artist that has shown and performed work in Paris, Mexico City, New York City, Hollywood, Providence, & San Francisco. In San Francisco, his work adorns an 180-foot property at 1000 Market Street as well as billboards at Oasis nightclub, as well as at private residences and other businesses throughout the city. Diego is known in art circles as “DesignNurd”, and their tag is seen on his art as well as across multiple social media platforms including TikTok, Etsy and Instagram – @DesignNurd. They have taught art & design at the California College of the Arts, various fashion courses at City College of San Francisco and fashion illustration for Apple.

“Public art is essential to a vibrant community and it was exciting thinking about what the four Bohemian ideals of Paris at the turn of the last Century would look like with a modern San Francisco twist,” stated muralist Gómez. “For each of the four arched panels, I incorporated a mixture of Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings of the Moulin Rouge, the 2001 “Lady Marmalade” sequence from the Baz Luhrman film of the same name, the opera La Bohème and chaotic maximalism of stencling and graffiti to match the energy of downtown San Francisco.”

The four panels include:

• The Leading Man! A Korean K-Pop musician (in Gold-tones) with a touch of Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, representing the bohemian ideal of TRUTH!

• The Can-Can Dancer! A Black performer (in Sapphire-tones) with a flourishing hibiscus skirt embodying the bohemian ideal of FREEDOM!

• The Painter! French Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (in Emerald-tones) intoxicated with absinthe’s green fairy and the bohemian ideal of BEAUTY!

• The Leading Lady! An Indian singer (in Ruby-tones) acting in a Bollywood scene, dancing to the bohemian ideal of LOVE!

“Discovering new talent, especially someone of the caliber as Diego, is very exciting,” stated BroadwaySF Managing Director Rainier Koeners. “When we first decided to paint a mural on our Hyde Street archways, we knew that we wanted to find someone from within the community that surrounds our theatres and we began researching local artists. One day, I was walking between the Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres and saw a new mural being painted at 1000 Market Street. We learned that the artist had taken it upon himself to take a heavily-tagged building and turn it into a piece of art. His goal – as is ours – is to beautify the Tenderloin neighborhood and make it a public destination to be enjoyed equally by our patrons and the many residents of the neighborhood. We knew instantly that Gomez was the perfect choice for this project. We are thrilled that we could create a piece of beautiful art with the timeless themes of truth, beauty, freedom and love for the people of San Francisco.