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'Carousel' is bustin' out in Hudson
It's easy to love this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with its well-known melodies and achingly sweet romance.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2001
HUDSON -- Between them, composer Richard Rodgers and librettist-writer Oscar Hammerstein II wrote more than 30 Broadway musicals, including the classics The King and I, South Pacific and Oklahoma.
Still, both men always said that 1945's Carousel was their favorite.
The show's creators weren't the only ones who loved it; in 1999, Time magazine named it the "Best Musical of the Century." It won dozens of theater awards, including five Tonys.
On Friday, the Show Palace Dinner Theatre opens its version of Carousel for an unprecedented eight-week run, compared with the usual four-week to six-week run. "This seems to be a show that everyone wants to see," said producer Nick Sessa.
Based on Ferenc Molnar's 1921 fantasy Liliom, Carousel is a sometimes dark, but always hopeful story about an impulsive carnival barker named Billy Bigelow (Joe Lawrence, whose Show Palace credits include The King and I, The Music Man, La Cage aux Folles), who falls in love with moody young factory worker Julie Jordan (Laura Lynn Tapper, Some Like It Hot; Hello, Dolly).
They marry, and two months later, just as Julie tells Billy she is pregnant, Billy loses his carnival job. Desperate for cash, Billy agrees to help commit a robbery, but is killed, leaving Julie alone.
The Heavenly Starkeeper (Tom Bengston, Some Like It Hot, Can-Can) lets Billy return to earth for one day to try to square things.
Carousel doesn't have a happy-go-lucky ending, but it is a warmly satisfying one made triumphant by the show's best song, You'll Never Walk Alone.
Other show favorites are the whimsical If I Loved You, exuberant song-and-dance number, June Is Bustin' Out All Over, and Billy's sweet, dramatic (and lengthy)Soliloquy about impending fatherhood.
Director Steven Flaa's 23-member cast also includes Patti Eyler (Dolly in Hello, Dolly), Matthew McGee (Fyedka in Fiddler on the Roof), Elizabeth Brandel (Mary in Wonderful Life), Adrienne Phillips (West Side Story, Hello, Dolly) and Sara Del Beato (Doatsey Mae in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas).
Choreographer is Scott Wright (Some Like It Hot, Hello, Dolly).
Carousel has sometimes stirred controversy, especially for the scenes of domestic abuse, particularly when Billy slaps his daughter, and her mother says a slap can sometimes seem like a kiss.
Others see the story as a victory of love over adversity and forgiveness over vindictiveness.
Either way, audiences have enthusiastically embraced the bittersweet love story and the music for more than half a century.
PREVIEW
Carousel, at Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson, through May 20. Shows at 1:30 p.m. Thur. and Sat.; 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; 3 p.m. Sun. Doors open two hours before each show for buffet and cash bar. Dinner and show, $35.95; show only, $24.94. Ages 12 and younger, $19.95, $14.95. Call (727) 863-7949; toll-free 1-888-655-7469.
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