Carousel

Carousel premiered in 1945, and was reputedly Rodgers’ favourite musical. Its songs were widely played on the radio in my youth, yet I doubt anyone under 50 knows them today, except of course the Liverpool anthem ‘You’ll never walk alone’. Its story of the ill-fated life and marriage of Billie Bigelow and Julie Jordan jars somewhat with modern day ideas of what is acceptable in a relationship. I guess one should view it as reflective of the time it was written, a kind of historical document. It is set in a New England town in around 1873.

Julie and Carrie are two mill workers, who eagerly rush off to the fair as soon as their work is done. They head to the carousel, and come across the loud, brash, yet very attractive jack-the-lad barker Billy Bigelow, and Julie finds herself fascinated in spite of herself. The two marry, yet nothing goes right. Her friend Carrie, on the other hand, seems to use her head more than her heart, and sets her sights on the rather stuffy yet hardworking and ambitious Mr Snow. The contrast between the decisions these two girls made is brought home very clearly, never more so than in the final act, when we see Julie bringing up her beautiful daughter alone in abject poverty, while Carrie leads a charmed life of luxury, with exotic travel, a lovely home and 5 beautiful children, as well as the adoring and wealthy Mr Snow for her husband.

Julie, who although she lets her heart run away with her head to marry her wastrel husband, nevertheless possesses a quiet intelligence and shows understanding towards Billy’s situation, and calmly accepts that he used violence towards her as he was unhappy due to having no work. This was a fine performance from Victoria Howard-Andrews, who also sang beautifully, and showed the highs and lows of Julie’s existence from delight to despair.

Her friend Carrie seemed at first to be the more sensible, but later she seemed a little too easily taken in by the wiles of Jigger, as he tried to seduce her, causing the upright Mr Snow to walk off  in a fit of pique. So maybe she was not so intelligent as Julie, in fact. She exuded a sense of fun though, and was a lively girl of character, and Alexandra Yates made this role her own.

Billy Bigelow, this n’er do well ‘bad un’, full of rage and frustration, unable to get on with life, and yet loved by all the ladies, is a character many of us have been attracted to in life in spite of ourselves, so we can understand Julie falling for him. Kevin Sampson gave a masterful performance as Billy, full of machismo, rage, rejecting the affection Julie offers, making us want to shout at him, bang his head against a brick wall, to make him see the error of his ways, especially as he gambles all his potential ‘earnings’ away. Sampson was in fine voice too, and enabled us to see the layers in Billy’s character.

His friend Jigger, who led him astray, and ultimately led to his ruin, was well played by Andrew Buz Burrows with great menace, extremely threatening in every situation he appeared in.

Enoch Snow was such a contrast to Billy, Snow was the man who took charge, provided for his family and generally flourished and did everything right. Not too much fun about him though, and he did seem rather a snob, encouraging his children to keep away from Julie’s Louise, even though his wife’s friendship with Julie seemed to survive. A good performance from Richard Young.

The whole team were in fine form, the ensemble numbers were well executed, the dancing was splendid, there were some great young dancers too. Lighting was very effective, especially in the nighttime scenes.

Musical Direction by Diana Vivian was very good, with an excellent balance of sound between orchestra and voices. I especially also appreciated Diana’s fascinating note in the programme.

Director Heather Legat should once again be congratulated on a great cast, and her direction of this show, enabling the audience to delve into the characters of the main protagonists. I also appreciated her thoughtful note in the programme.

Carousel provided food for thought, as well as a great evening of fun to brighten up a dull January.

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