The announcement of a new production of Carousel has got me reminiscing about the wonderful productions I’ve already seen over the past four years and how much the show has meant to me over my teen years. Having turned 20 last Monday, it really is impossible to overstate the effect it’s had on me and how it opened up the whole world of musical theatre to me, while remaining my favourite throughout. I was about twelve going on thirteen when I was doing a project on musicals for my music class and realised that despite being the most famous writing duo in Broadway history, the only Rodgers and Hammerstein show I knew well was The Sound Of Music, so I decided to research Carousel since it’s one of my mother’s favourites and I liked the song If I Loved You, which I’d heard on a couple of “Best of Broadway” compilations, but didn’t know anything about the context. I got hold of a copy of the OBCR and was absolutely blown away by what I heard. I think I printed out all the lyrics and annotated them with my thoughts. I got an A* for my project, even though I realise now that my understanding of the show at that age was pretty naïve. There’s plenty for children to enjoy in this piece, but I really do believe that this is a musical for adults.

What is it that makes Carousel so appealing? For me personally, I loved the idea of a heroine who’s “quieter and deeper than a well,” as that could be my own epithet. There’s the score, which I believe to be one of the finest ever written. It’s a fantastic, unique love story between two flawed individuals (I think it’s a real mistake to approach Julie some kind of archetypal perfect woman who can magically eradicate Billy’s flaws as she’s can’t and she’s just as emotionally repressed as Billy is), as I seem to be drawn to things where the protagonists can’t quite express what they feel for each other and fall in love in spite of themselves. It’s so much more interesting. Also, I think it’s the most brilliant fusion of kitchen sink drama and fantasy, which I personally find absolutely fascinating. It’s the way the seemingly ordinary can become extraordinary. I know it isn’t fashionable these days to like the film adaptation, but I’ll always have a special soft spot for it, especially as it was my only visual exposure to the show for quite a while. I think Shirley Jones gave a beautiful, heartfelt performance as Julie (the best of her career, IMO) and Gordon MacRae may have been a bit miscast acting-wise (I’m allowed to say that, being one of his biggest fans as he’s been my all-time favourite singer since I was twelve) and not as hot as he was in Oklahoma! (his Curly is perhaps the love of my life thus far), but he certainly sings the part like a dream.

I didn’t see my first production of the show until a few weeks after I’d turned sixteen in May 2004 (I think there’d been another tour around the time I was discovering the show, but since it featured Darren Day as Billy Bigelow, I don’t feel too sorry I missed it- not that I’m a snob as Day couldn’t have been worse than Mandy Patinkin when he played it on radio), when my mother and I went all the way to Wimbledon, south London to see the final matinee of the touring production. I haven’t seen another UK Productions show since, and apparently they’re notorious for poor production values, but I was so excited to finally see my favourite musical on stage that everything looked lavish and gorgeous to me. I especially liked Julie’s dresses and the way that they were pretty without being fussy or cutesy. Former soap actor Sam Kane played an excellent Billy with a lovely and powerful voice, but for me, the true star was Jane Mark as Julie, who delivered a flawless performance as Julie Jordan. Jane is a truly beautiful and uncommonly intelligent actress who I’m now lucky enough to be able to call a friend and I loved the core of steel, the passion and the womanly femininity she brought to the role in juxtaposition with the innocence and girlishness. Perfection. I also adored Lynsey Britton and Richard Brightiff as Carrie and Mr Snow, and the way that they brought out the full comic potential of their characters and Jill Pert was the perfect Cousin Nettie. Despite all the flack that UK Productions get, this really was a first class production performance-wise and I’m sad it never got a West End transfer.

My second production occurred about six months later in December 2004, when I heard it was being performed at the Bridewell Theatre on Fleet Street by third year Mountview students and directed by Matthew Ryan. It was an absolutely fabulous surprise, which I saw twice during its ten day run. I loved the no-frills production and the small theatre worked like magic. Sarah Earnshaw was a delightful Carrie, and Laura Pitt-Pulford was the best ever Mrs Mullin, suitably vulgar and bitchy, but actually convinced me that Billy might be attracted to her and that she was a serious threat to Julie. Talk about chemistry in their scenes together, it was absolutely electrifying. The only weak link was a pre-Maria Connie Fisher, who was just dreadful in her turn as Julie Jordan (Laura Selwood was infinitely more appealing). She looked permanently bored and miserable, clearly had no idea what any of the words meant and had absolutely zero charm and aesthetic or sex appeal. I won’t elaborate further as that would just be petty. The only time I’ve ever wanted Mrs Mullin to get the guy. For me, that’s a bit like Rex Harrison (or was it Noel Coward?) saying that The Sound of Music was the only time he’d ever rooted for the Nazis.

Oh, and the best bit? Jeff Nicholson’s Billy Bigelow, who has since gone on to play the best-ever Grantaire and a brilliant Javert in Les Mis. There was something so refreshing about seeing a young man in the role (he’s only 24 in Liliom, which, yes, I have read) that’s so often played by men in their forties. He was like Hugh Jackman and Gordon MacRae, plus a pinch of Michael Hayden’s youth and vulnerability put in a blender, but better. Seriously. I think the scene when Julie tells Billy she’s pregnant is possibly the most difficult to pull off convincingly in the way that he goes from behaving like a complete creep to an excited expectant father in a matter of seconds, and Jeff’s the only actor I’ve seen to completely convince me. I think his mind-blowing Soliloquy will always be the defining moment of all my theatre going experiences. I just hope he gets a chance to play it professionally one day, preferably before he gets too old.

Production #3 was the one at Chichester in August 2006, just before I started university, which was bit of a disappointment. It was well sung and generally well acted in which Norman Bowman played a very solid Billy and Harriet Shore was a pretty, surprisingly convincing Julie, but it was the chocolate box version of Carousel that catered to those expecting a light-hearted, familiar musical. I’ll always remember it as the production swamped in pink gingham.

I’m looking forward to this new production, having thoroughly enjoyed Lindsay Posner’s Fiddler On The Roof and I’m very excited to see what Alexandra Silber, a most talented actress with a beautiful voice and a splendid blog brings to Julie. I love the way that there are so many different layers to the show and so many readings of the characters- perhaps there’ll never be a “definitive” version of the show because of this (though I’m inclined to think that the UK tour and the Mountview-Bridewell production sans the Fisher Woman magically spliced together would be pretty much ideal)? Or is this the case with all great works of art? Is it a good or a bad thing? Discuss!

I’d just like to finally share two absolutely gorgeous pieces of writing that sum up the show’s most beautiful scene far more eloquently than I ever could:

Of all the conditional love songs, the defining example, for me, is “If I Loved You.” To call it a number is really insufficient, because it is an entire scene, in which two people almost drugged by sexual attraction, manage to express themselves instead through romantic longing. The distance they travel in the course of this sequence, from strangers who are hot for each other through the slow dawning in each that this time it?s the real thing, is not just a great lesson in theater writing. The window into their souls is humbling to witness, adding immeasurably to the pure luxury of melody. And the catch at the end, after that magnificent crescendo in the penultimate line… the circumspection of the lyric and music on the last line is, well, so human that is simply breaks my heart. As if the “if” will somehow protect them from heartbreak. As if the “if” is the out they can always exercise, except for the undertow of love that has already pulled them under.

Gorgeous.
Rick Elice- Writer: Jersey Boys, Double Double, Father of the Bride (upcoming)

The most romantic show song would have to be “If I Loved You” from CAROUSEL. First, it’s a tease. They’re not saying they are in love, but they’re not fooling anybody, least of all each other. But, if played properly, the scene with Billy and Julie isn’t just a cute opposites-attract kind of romantic moment. You can feel the awesome force of Nature inexorably drawing them together. They’re standing beneath these blooming trees and the blossoms are falling all around them. And as Billy and Julie move closer together, they nervously note that there is no breeze to make the flowers fall. She breathes, “It’s just their time to.” And they’re in each other’s arms. It’s love, it’s death, it’s love in the face of death, which is what CAROUSEL is all about, and, really, what life is all about. Yow!
Robert Viagus- Editor of ‘The Alchemy of Theatre’ and ‘The Playbill Broadway Yearbook,’ both from Playbill Books

Oh, to be able to write that beautifully!