Carousel

63 years old and given another revival - that’s Carousel, which is on this week at the Festival Theatre ahead of a November opening at London’s Savoy theatre. So how does this 1945 musical look and sound to a present day audience?
Pretty good, on the whole, although with a run time of almost 3 hours it seems a tad long by today’s standards. It is also much darker than the usual light hearted musical, with the hero Billie Bigelow killed off halfway through the show. To have Billy hitting his wife, and even in the after-life hitting his daughter, was possibly less shocking 63 years ago, and is certainly glossed over in the storyline. Certainly Jeremiah James - he of the singing group “Teatro” fame - plays Billy as a strong if rather pigheaded character, while Alexandra Silber as his calm and serene wife Julie has a voice of such pure clarity that none can doubt her character’s goodness and love. Together they are superb in the duet “If I Loved You”.
Lesley Garrett is the big name attraction in this show, giving a feisty performance as Nettie Fowler, the lively mother figure who runs the local seafront bar. “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as her two main musical numbers, delivered with great verve and aplomb.
Choreographer Adam Cooper (star of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake) has done a fine job on the dance sequences, particularly in Act 2 where Louise, through ballet, unknowingly expresses to her dead father exactly how life and her age group are treating her. There is also a very busy prologue to get the show off to a lively start, with much high spirits and horseplay acted out to the strains of The Carousel Waltz.
It is a musical of great contrasts - light hearted enjoyment, tender emotion, dastardly deeds and moments of wretchedness, but for all its darkness it ends with what must have been at one time a hopeful, life enhancing message - “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It’s just a shame that over the years the song has lost much of its resonance, as perhaps to a lesser extent the show also has lost impact.
Until October 11th - Edinburgh Festival Theatre.