The Lincoln Center in New York, USA, has made their semi-staged production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's wonderful musical, Carousel, from 2013, available to watch for free from their website.
The New York Philharmonic, one of America's leading classical orchestras, under the direction of Glenn Dickerow assembled in their usual formation on stage whilst a single, multi-purpose set was built around them featuring Carousel horses, a boat sail, plenty of wooden crates, and a large fairground 'Carousel' sign. This combined with the costumes and effective direction (Glenn Weiss) was enough to capture the mood and scenes for the whole show, and worked surprisingly well.
The Muscial starts with a long overture, The Carousel Waltz, which was played expertly, however for me it was not sharp or clear enough. I wrote down the word 'mushy' when listening to it. The orchestra used broad brush strokes for this opening sequence instead of using a little of Georges Seurat's technique in there too to make a bigger distinction between a dotted note and a quaver. And sadly this music, reminiscent of a dance band sound at times, prevailed throughout; we never really heard anything other than broad sweeping and lyrical passages, and there are places in the musical which most definitely need a musical punch or two.
In general, the acting and singing was of an extremely high standard. It was however, again in my opinion, not a wise choice to cast Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn together. Individually their voices are amazing. O'Hara has a sweet and soft soprano, ideal for such roles as Julie Jordan, and indeed her performance here impressed greatly. Again, Gunn's voice is a wonderfully resonant, rich and commanding one, but operatic in sound and Gunn's acting was also more operatic and not as natural or real as O'Hara's. One instance where the two music theatre genres did not cohere. Gunn's voice was amazing though and I could have listened to him sing all evening; it was his gait and stance which was somehow too operatic, and so the two, despite both being consummate and excellent performers, didn't feel or sound right together.
O'Hara and Jessie Mueller however hit it off perfectly (Julie Jordan and Carrie respectively) - Mueller was, in a word, perfect. She not only understood the role completely but carried it off with aplomb. There was also a nice chemistry between the two leading ladies. Enoch Snow (Jason Danieley) also made for an excellent match with Mueller. Vocally complementing her with his mellow and soft tenor voice, and made much use of small, perhaps insignificant, gestures, building up a watchable and believable character.
Stephanie Blythe (Nettie Fowler) and Shuler Hensley (Jigger) both impressed. Blythe bringing the house down with 'You'll Never Walk Alone', and Hensley embodying the archetypal villain seen in many such shows... dark, brooding, rustic, uncouth, broad shouldered and quick-tempered.
There was more dancing in the second half, and indeed the production kept in the ballet which is sometimes either shortened or even cut altogether, and this was wonderful to watch as two members of The New York City Ballet took on the roles of Louise and Enoch Jnr. (Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild), and the whole musical finished with a very rousing and emotive denouement.
An extremely enjoyable rendition of this classic, sensibly staged and emotively portrayed by some undeniably talented individuals. It just could have been 'punchier' musically though.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 12/7/20
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