Review- Carousel
November 11, 2008
Date Reviewed: 11th November, 2008
Venue: Opera House
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical Carousel continues to be one of the most performed musicals in the repertory by both amateurs and professionals alike. It is endlessly revived and forever seems to be touring the UK. Attendance for the opening night of this brand new production in Manchester was poor, with the gallery being entirely shut to the public. Maybe this is a sign that this is just one revival too many.
The famous story concerns the love affair between carousel barker Billy Bigelow and demure Julie Jordon. When Bigelow is sacked by the carousel owner Mrs Mullin for flirting with Julie the pair quickly fall in love and marry. Lodging with Julie’s cousin, Nettie Fowler, Billy soon grows frustrated with married life and falls in with petty criminal Jigger Craigin who, after Billy discovers he is to be a father, persuades him to take part in a doomed robbery which results in Billy taking his own life rather than face the consequence of his actions. At the gates of heaven he is given a final chance to redeem himself and he returns to earth for a final day fifteen years after his suicide where, unseen, he finally confesses his love to Julie and encourages his rebellious and angry teenage daughter to have confidence in herself. This good deed is the redemption he desires.
Anyone looking forward to seeing opera star Lesley Garrett in only her second ever musical theatre role was met with disappointment last night as Miss Garrett was indisposed. Instead her understudy, Kathryn Akin played the underwritten role of Nettie and whilst Akin’s acting cannot be faulted it is shame that her singing isn’t of comparable quality to Garrett’s.
In the leading role of Billy Bigelow is Jeremiah James, one quarter of musicals singing group Teatro. Despite high expectations James’ performance is nothing more than adequate. His singing is pleasing to the ear but not as impressive as his credentials would suggest and his acting injects nothing new into the character of Billy. He is not helped, however, by his leading lady Alexandra Sibler whose performance as Julie Jordon is frustratingly lacklustre. She throws away her lines seemingly forgetting that there are people at the back of the theatre who have paid to hear the script and her diction when singing is atrocious. The two leads share little chemistry and therefore the deeply romantic “If I Loved You” sequence left me cold.
The supporting cast fare much better with Graham MacDuff as a suitably creepy Jigger Craigin. Alan Vicary scores success as Enoch Snow, the ambitious and respectable suitor to Julie’s best friend Carrie Pipperidge who is played by Lauren Hood in a show stealing performance. Hood is magnificent and captures the innocent naivety and silly girlishness of Carrie perfectly. Her and Vicary’s When the Children are Asleep sequence where they dream of their future together is a real treat.
The excellent ensemble complement the leading cast and the chorus singing is superb. However, some of the dancing isn’t terribly slick and the dancers seem to struggle to inject real passion into Adam Cooper’s unexceptional choreography.
Lindsay Posner’s direction ensures that this overlong show doesn’t drag and he makes good use of the small performing area available.
William Dudley’s set, however, is a huge disappointment and is reminiscent of the designers ridiculed work on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ill fated musical The Woman in White. Chief amongst the problems is that the projections don’t actually fill the whole back drop leaving obvious white spaces above and to the side of the projections and the presence of one single painted scrim towards the end of the show is out of synch with the rest of the set and suggests poor planning.
Musically, though, this is a difficult show to beat. David Firman conducts an outstanding seventeen piece orchestra who make the most of Richard Rodgers‘ wonderful score and it is this element of the production that provides the greatest pleasure of the evening.
-Malcolm Wallace
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An enjoyable if long evening
The supporting cast were excellent. Superb singing and dancing
Lauren Hood is excellent
The leads were OK but hardly inspiring
The sets in particular the projections i felt were good and added a different element to other musicals I have seen
Not sure if it will last in the West End but strange things happen there so you never know
Thoroughly enjoyed the show. A little disappointed not to see Lesley Garrett but understudy was fine.
Both Lesley Garrett and Jeremiah James were ‘indisposed’ on 15.11.08
These things happen but as we really only booked because of Lesley Garrett and we travelled from outside Manchester (Sheffield) we couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Yes the show is good and the understudies did their best, but
not the hair on the back of the neck singing which we were looking forward to.
Agree that Lauren Hood stole the show as Carrie.
Went twice last week mainly because I am producing the show for LADOS in Lancaster. Leading lights were missing both nights: they must have been very ‘indisposed’ rather suspiciously in my view. Some of the cast were excellent especially Jigger Craigen (Graham MacDuff). If this production is to work in the West End it needs to improve a lot: it is too long so some shaving is needed, it is essential that Billy and Julie do appear to be passionately in love at the beginning and this did not seem to be the case last week, the technology of film clips was weak for a professional show in my view and some of the sets were amateurish, especially the penultimate scene with Louise, Billy and Julie where they had hardly any room to ‘act’. On wednesday night there were hardly any Snow children - where were the others? Overall, I felt rather short changed.
I also saw the show on Saturday the 15/11 and there were five understudies!
I thought Manchester Opera House and the shows producers were using Manchester as a dress rehersal for London. Lesley Garrett was ‘too ill’ to appear on Saturday night but only 2 days later she’s on the Paul O’grady show looking fine and well - although his show is also in London where Carousel opens shortly!
The cast probably did their best but for the cost of the tickets I expected the real cast!