Carousel is a typical Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration in the brawny style of the large Broadway musical. It is elaborately set and overtly didactic, with signature pieces of music aimed at piercing the heart. This year, it is one of the key non-Shakespeare productions at Stratford Festival.
But Carousel is a bit riskier in both format and content than most Rodgers and Hammerstein plays. It incorporates long sequences of ballet and pantomime in a manner not usually found in their other plays. And it tells its core story in darker tones than those usually associated with the vaunted musical duo.
Set in a sea-shanty town of turn-of-the-20th-century Maine, Carousel speculates upon the harm inflicted upon those close to him by a character lacking self-respect and restraint. Billy Bigelow, a carnival barker, and Julie Jordan, an unattached single woman in the town, fall in love. They marry. Sadly, neither can articulate his or her feelings to the other. Moreover, Billy’s constant frustrations with the world around him – and more to the point, with himself – damages him. He cannot control his anger. Indeed, an incident of spousal abuse – that we never actually see on stage – is mentioned frequently in the play. That incident brands Billy with the same searing irrevocability, as would a scarlet letter sewn onto his clothes for all to see.
Accusations of domestic abuse lurk menacingly in the vindictive hearts of the town gossips. That recurring hint of violence and Billy’s obviously troubled personality take the play into a murky, grey area that leaves the audience somewhat discomfited.
And yet, if the play’s subject evokes an element of discomfort, its musical gems and choreographic production values provide significant emotional counterweight to that uneasiness.
Jonathan Winsby and Alexis Gordon as Billy and Julie, respectively, pack the poetry and music of If I Loved You, with every ounce of melancholy, pathos and heartache that the song’s creators must have intended. In many respects the song is the sharply lit corridor that leads the audience through the rooms of heartbreak and sorrow to the play’s ultimate message. Billy and Julie are never able to say “I love you”, although their love is the single treasure that brings their lives sparkle and hope for a better future.
Alana Hibbert, as Nettie, emotionally powers her way through You’ll Never Walk Alone, the other widely known signature song of the play. Hibbert sings the song with a unique duality of tenderness and force. It achieves its intended result: it inspires.
By the end of the play we see clearly, if unhappily, that Billy is trapped on his own personal carousel of self-doubt and insecurity. The carousel spins ceaselessly round and round for him in an insidious cycle of recurring failure, disdain and social exclusion. He is held back by the cruel demons in his soul that, piece by piece, tear away his sense of possibility. He cannot jump off the carousel. He cannot steady himself even in Julie’s constancy and love for him.
But will that carousel of doubt and unhappiness continue in the life of his daughter? That is the question that brings the play some true poignancy, as it falls to the father to try, one last time, to help his daughter face life differently.