Carousel

Show Description:

“Oscar never wrote more meaningful or more moving lyrics, and to me, my score is more satisfying than any I’ve ever written…. It affects me deeply every time I see it performed.” These thoughts, penned by Carousel composer Richard Rodgers in his 1975 autobiography, have been echoed by just about everyone who has seen the show. Based on Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play Liliom, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical—in its integration of song, dance, and drama— picked up where their Oklahoma! had left off a few years before. Its waltz opening, soliloquy for carnival barker Billy, and extended love duet for Billy and mill worker Julie were daring in their musical elements.  No less pioneering was Hammerstein’s treatment of relationship abuse. Molnár had turned down requests from Giacomo Puccini, George Gershwin, and Kurt Weill to adapt Liliom for the musical stage—it was only after seeing Oklahoma! that he agreed to let R&H take a stab at it.  Rodgers, in the closest he ever came to writing a “true operetta,” created a bewitching score, highlighted by “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” “When I Marry Mr. Snow,” “When the Children Are Asleep,” and (have your tissues ready) “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”