Catherine Martin won Academy Awards on March 24 for both her costume design and art direction for Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge." She shared the former prize with Angus Strathie, the latter with Brigitte Broch (for the film's set decoration).

Luhrmann will direct the upcoming Broadway re-imagining of Puccini's La Boheme. Martin, Luhrmann's collaborator-wife, is designing sets and co-designing costumes for La Boheme.

Martin was previously nominated for "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" (1996), also directed by Luhrmann.

"Moulin Rouge," the postmodern movie musical that uses an eclectic score and a frantic visual language, was up for a 2002 Best Picture Academy Award. "A Beautiful Mind" won the prize.

The nod for "Rouge" marked the first time in over a decade that a musical had been up for the Best Picture prize. The last musical to win the Oscar was "Oliver" in 1968. The last musical to be nominated was the animated Disney effort, "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991. Other Best Picture musicals include "An American in Paris" (1951), "Gigi" (1958), "West Side Story" (1961), "My Fair Lady" (1964) and "The Sound of Music" (1965). Other Oscar winners were Halle Berry as best actress for "Monster's Ball" (beating out Nicole Kidman of "Moulin Rouge") and Denzel Washington as best actor for "Training Day."

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Luhrmann will stage the American premiere of his 1950s-set La Boheme, in Italian with English surtitles, beginning previews Nov. 21 and opening Dec. 8 at the Broadway Theatre.

The production will reportedly use three different rotating casts and incorporate a walkway that wraps around the orchestra pit. The staging was a smash in Australia a decade ago.

—Robert Simonson
and Kenneth Jones