Justin Peck received the 2018 Tony Award for his choreography of Carousel. Here's why!
The story is told of an impressionable young teenage music student who sat enthralled at the opening night performance of a new musical at the Majestic Theater on Broadway in 1945. At one point, he looked across the aisle at a friend who was seated nearby and they both had tears in their eyes.
The student was Stephen Sondheim, then mentored by Oscar Hammerstein. The friend was Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers. And the show was Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, now considered a seminal work of the American musical theater.
Anyone who's ever witnessed a credible performance of Carousel knows why Sondheim and Rodgers and millions of others have been moved to tears. This story of carnival barker Billy Bigelow and mill worker Julie Jordan is so filled with yearning, struggle, passion and desire that it can't help but tug at your heart. From the moment the lead characters sing the haunting If I Loved You, you know they are star-crossed and you also know that there is nothing you can do to help them. As a later balled reminds you: What's The Use of Wond'rin? the troubled tale of Billy and Julie will have to unfold and ultimately reach its fated conclusion.
Carousel has been called a story of young love, a parable and a tale of redemption. But at its core this is a show about the American Dream -- the dream of a better, simpler, happier, more fulfilling life. That's really what every character in the show (set at the dawn of the twentieth century) seeks. And this dream is expressed in its most intense form within the story of Julie and Billy. Remember: this was an era of big, new, audacious dreams. And these dreams even touched the residents of a small fishing village in New England.
Broadway's newest production of Carousel (now at the Imperial Theater) is the first full-scale mounting of this landmark musical on the Great White Way since 1994. And this rendering of Carousel is grand and glorious in every imaginable way.
With a cast of 40 and a 28-piece orchestra this is a richly rewarding production that remains true to the original but also allows us to think about the topics and issues that Carousel raises in up-to-the-minute terms. And, along the way, the show loses none of its intimacy, none of its sweet moments, none of its heartfelt sentimentality.
Much of the credit for all this must go to the director (Jack O'Brien), the choreographer (Justin Peck) and the outstanding cast. The one bow to modern sensibilities is the casting of an African-American (Joshua Henry) in the role of Billy Bigelow. Inasmuch as Rodgers and Hammerstein's shows are all about tolerance and understanding (South Pacific itself featured interracial love stories) this would seem to be a natural progression.
Lindsay Mendez won the 2018 Tony Award for her portrayal of the irrepressible Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and she is astonishing. She reminds us of a young Ethel Merman. And Mendez is paired with the appealing Alexander Gemignani as Enoch Snow. When the two of them duet in When The Children Are Asleep, it's one of the sweetest moments in all of musical theater.
To hear Joshua Henry perform the Soliloquy (My Boy Bill) is to experience this full-throated marathon as you've never heard it before. It's truly acted in song and is so beautifully nuanced and well-paced that it takes your breath away. When the Metropolitan's Opera's RenéeFleming sings You'll Never Walk Alone, you're sure to put "hope in your heart" once again. And Jessie Mueller is perfectly cast as Julie Jordan. What's more, Margaret Colin is both menacing and comedic as Mrs. Mullin, Amar Ramsar literally and figuratively takes flight as Jigger Craig and John Douglas Thompson is full of gravitas as The Starkeeper.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's music is so robust, rich and melodic that it makes you wish that every Broadway musical could sound like this. Bravo to Jonathan Tunick for his orchestrations in this his 111th production and 50th year in the business. And the dancing! OMG! The movements tell the story with zest one minute and glorious ballet moves the next.
The opening of Carousel is a joy unto itself. Technically, the show has no overture because Richard Rodgers tired of having his music compete with the audience's tardy arrivals and chattering. So, instead, we get the lushly memorable Carousel Waltz, described as follows by author Ethan Mordden:
Other characters catch our notice—Mr. Bascombe, the pompous mill owner, Mrs. Mullin, the widow who runs the carousel and, apparently, Billy; a dancing bear; an acrobat. But what draws us in is the intensity with which Julie regards Billy—the way she stands frozen, staring at him, while everyone else at the fair is swaying to the rhythm of Billy's spiel. And as Julie and Billy ride together on the swirling carousel, and the stage picture surges with the excitement of the crowd, and the orchestra storms to a climax, . . . we realize that R & H have not only skipped the overture and the opening number but the exposition as well. They have plunged into the story, right into the middle of it, in the most intense first scene any musical ever had . . .Yes, Carousel is a true original. And now it's also a classic American pop opera. It is beautiful to watch, thrilling to experience and ravishing in every sense of the word.
Don't miss it!
