Carousel

I'll assume that if you're looking for reviews of Carousel it means you're unfamiliar with it and want to knoe if it's worth your while. The short answer is: yes. Musically, Richard Rodgers has never been better. This is without question (in my mind and his) the best score he ever composed. And Hammerstein's lyrics are certainly up to the task, lending sympathy to characters and these that otherwise don't deserve it. Carousel is a show that time has not been kind to. And for good reason. It's terribly sexist and forgiving of behavior that modern audiences will find inexcusable. There is nothing whatsoever heroic about the so-called hero. No redeeming value. He fails at every attempt to atone for past sins and no matter how much we want to like him, he consistently makes the wrong choices. Nonetheless, this is probably my favorite musical. The themes are grand and operatic. The emotion of the show transcends the problematic shortcomings of its plot. It grabs you by the shoulders and sings irresitably compelling truths of univeresal human frailty that even the most cynical among us can't help being seduced by when no one's watching. The movie is not as good as the stage production for a number of reasons - chiefly for me that it opens with Billy already dead so there's great emotional shock when he suddenly dies at the end of the first act. Also that said death is accidental rather than a deliberate act of suicide: yet another (but not the last) in a long list of terrible, unforgivable choices our hero makes. But it's what we have and does a pretty good job of telling the whole story. No musical numbers are cut. Orchestrations and Choreography are top-notch. I'll always wish for a better version, but I don't think we'll ever get one given the conroversial nature of the story.

Carousel as other classic Rogers and Hammerstein musicals has an important social theme: domestic abuse. However, unlike South Pacific’s treatment of racism or The King and I’s theme of cultural difference, Carousel does not take it theme of domestic abuse seriously; it literarily “kisses it off.” In the last scene Billy Bigelow strikes his daughter hard on the hand but she tells her mother it felt like a kiss. The girl asks, can blows not hurt and her mother who was beaten several times by Bigelow, says that’s right; in effect saying beatings by a loved one must be accepted. Aside from the above, there is great music, some excellent dancing and an interesting plot Personally I don’t care for the after life part as a way to lead into to story and provide its happy resolution, but this was the way major entertainments in the United States were done in the 1950s.

The movie version of carousel is dulled down and spliced compared to the stage version. It seems as though the movie brightened up the story line. For its time, the original play was very dark and depressing. Billy Bigelow is a character that has to decide if he will provide for his family or not. In the play version, Bigelow kills himself rather than resorting to jail, yet in the movie verision he "falls" on the knife. Also, Jigger Craigin, who sings quite a few songs, appears as more of a dark, slimy, villianous, and self-rightous character that is not fully seen in the movie version and is necessary for understanding that Billy is really a good person. But, on the other hand, Gordon McRae definately is one of the best Bigelows up to date, and the same goes for Shirley Jones as Julie Jordan. All in all nothing is superior to the original, unadbridged version, but for a starting grasp of the show, the movie fulfils that duty.

Saw the play and finally saw the movie and both are great! These two r in Oklahoma too which is also amazing check it out!

Carousel is amazing both visually and musically. You will not regret this purchase.