More dancing than walking alone in Carousel

This is the moment for London’s Open Air Theatre. Not just because a return to full capacity makes the audience grateful for the outdoor setting, but because the artistic team are at the top of their game, writes Christopher Walker.

This bold revival of Carousel will irritate some traditionalists, tampering with what Time calls “the best musical of the 20th century.” But it is a   thoughtful and touching production that has the theatre-starved audience gagging for more.

Carousel is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s second 1940s musical after the triumph of Oklahoma. They themselves were ready to take risks, and assert American supremacy in this relatively new art form.

They chose a Hungarian play about lowlifes “Liliom” and reset it in a New England fishing community. Having seen Ingrid Bergman play the lead role on Broadway they strong-armed the writer Molinar into letting them make it into a musical.

He’d turned down Puccini’s offer of an opera and it’s telling Rodgers later said “We came very close to opera (and) … There’s much that is operatic in the music.”

True to this brave spirit, director Timothy Sheader translates the action to an undisclosed seaside town in Lancashire with accents (largely) to match.

This works to some extent, the female lead works in a mill after all, but there are some jarring moments when mid-century American lyrics bump up against the “ecky thump” concept.

After all, carousel barker Billy Bigelow, here in a flat cap, sings of his son becoming President of the United States.

I am also not sure references to Gracie Fields and George Formby mean much to a contemporary London audience.

The concept infuses Tom Deering’s musical arrangements with banjos and brass bands, together with the odd weird electric instrument.

Other bold moves include successfully casting the self-styled “trans one” Jo Eaton-Kent as Billy’s boss Mrs. Mullin, and choosing an older Billy himself – Declan Bennett.

This makes his subsequent ‘going off the rails’ appear less about misguided youth and more just sheer idiocy.

And a boldly Welsh accented, Christina Modestou is a superb Carrie, from the moment she sings “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan,” onwards. She connects with the audience well and with the too-good-to-be-true Mr. Snow (John Pfumojena).

The strength of the original music shines through.

There are two key moments in the work which are both well executed here.

The first one, is the love scene between Billy and Julie Jordan (played by the accomplished Carly Bawden) which culminates in the wonderful “If I loved you.”

Stephen Sondheim described it as “probably the single most important moment in the revolution of contemporary musicals.”

The second is when Julie’s cousin Nettie blasts out “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Irving Berlin later stated that it had the same sort of effect on him as the 23rd Psalm, and thanks to the wonderful Joanna Riding it the same is true here.

Joanna played Julie in the highly successful 1990s revival (when the Carousel itself broke down on opening night and I had to repair to the bar for 40 minutes).

There’s no such danger here in Tom Scutt’s rather sparse staging, though we do get a suggestion of the Carousel at one point thanks to myriad gilded poles that are positioned for the dancers to navigate around.

Dance, or as Rodgers and Hammerstein termed it “ballet” was a crucial part of their original ambition, and so is it here.

Choreographer Drew McOnie pulls off a great   triumph   and   pushes   the   young   and talented   Natasha May-Thomas and   the able ensemble through some superb performances.

This is particularly true of the male dancers in “Blow high, Blow low” with Shay Barclay and Ediz Mahmut standing out.

For those feeling bold this is a perfect evening.

For tickets go to https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/carousel