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Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Lindsay Posner.
Cast: Lesley Garrett, Jeremiah James, Alexandra Silber
Description: Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical on love and redemption, stars Lesley Garrett as Nettie and Jeremiah James as Billy Bigelow.
Trains: Tube/BR: Charing Cross/Embankment 
Phone: 0870 164 8787
Walk on part: Lesley Garrett, playing Nettie Fowler, sings You’ll Never Walk Alone while Alexandra Silber and Jeremiah Jame
Young love: star-crossed Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow at the Savoy Theatre
Despite Lindsay Posner’s old-fashioned production I was enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s bitter-sweet musical fantasy about missed life-chances in a 1870s New England village.
The climactic scene, when Jeremiah James’s emotionally disturbed barker, Billy Bigelow, returns from Heaven’s “waiting-room” for one last day on earth, strikes notes of overwhelming pathos. Carousel conveys a painful sense of the might-have-been for Bigelow and the wife and daughter he left behind, had they all not been victims of precarious, economic times.
Yet Nicholas Hytner’s famous National Theatre revival in 1992 far more than Posner’s romanticising, well-sung production, pierced to the show’s heart of darkness, stressing what an ambivalent picture Carousel paints of a just industrialised America.
Alexandra Silber’s mill-girl Julie Jordan and the swaggering girl-magnet, the eventually suicidal Bigelow, lead lives of chronic insecurity. By contrast Julie’s friend, Lauren Hood’s Carrie Pipperidge and the unappealing fisherman Enoch turn out life-winners. As the smug local doctor puts it, recommending American individuality. “Happiness? You’ve got to find it for yourself.”
That wonderful designer, William Dudley, initially summons up a fairground carousel that looks unprettily low-rent, with kids and loquacious townfolk gambolling around with fixed, beatific smirks of the sort that people only wear in musicals. Then, though, Dudley’s vivid back-projections offer ocean views, ships sailing and, with thrilling illusionary deftness, the spectacle of Billy ascending to heaven’s “back-yard”.
The vitality of the staging, especially the sexy athleticism and elegance of Adam Cooper’s exciting choreography, is not always matched by performance. But Silber as the unlucky heroine boasts a star-is-born quality of absolute naturalness, though she, like others, sometimes sounds and sings as if from England UK rather than New England. Silber impressively lives up to the accusation “You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan” making the girl an unsophisticated, shy and heart-felt exception to the prevailing mood of boisterous jollity. This Julie succumbs to James’s emotionally under-par Billy, to a brief marriage of violence, bullying and a thieving mission that goes wrong, thanks to Graham MacDuff’s Jigger, a charismatic wit of a villain in a shady hat and matching manner. She declines in poignant stages.
As Julie kneels by her moribund husband, Lesley Garrett’s Nettie Fowler launches into a full-throated warbling version of You’ll Never Walk Alone. Silber’s wonderful performance clashes stylistically with Miss Garrett’s gross, music-hall Nettie who busts out all over the stage like a flirtatious maiden aunt on a purple hearts’ bender. She waggles her voice, jiggles her elbows, mouth, hips, shoulders — oh every famous part of her — in a gross parody of high spirits, as if intent upon mass audience seduction. Lauren Hood’s pink-dressed Carrie, taking cues from this winsomely artificial performer, follows suit.
This duo do not, however, detract from Carousel’s impact. What a shattering impression James and Silber make, after the dead Billy returns to earth and realises his daughter is following in his unhappy footsteps. “I let my golden chances pass me by,” he sadly sings and returns to heaven, half his life lost. An experience to cherish.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Here's a sample of the latest reviews published.
Carousel is by far and away the best musical currently running in London. Although, it's over fifty years old, Rodgers and Hammerstein's sublime show packs more of a punch than anything else in musical theatre before or since. Alexandra Silber's sweet and plaintive Julie asks awkward questions and raises the uncomforatable spectre of domestic violence with the controversial argument that one may accept such unpleasantness if the perpetrator is one you truly love. This may be dated and, some would say, wrong, but it's certainly a candid point of view. Moreover, What's The Use of Wond'rin' and the heartbreaking reprise of If I Loved You are peaks emotional expression. However, this is far from a gloomy experience. Lesley Garrett's sprightly and joyous Nettie lets rip with a barnstorming June Is Bustin' Out All Over and rescues the gorgeous You'll Never Walk Alone from the tacky horrors of the football stadium. Adam Cooper's choreography is innovative and exciting, William Dudley's visual designs are a treat and Jeremiah James catches the edgy 'Angry Young Man' persona that Marlon Brando capitalised on a few years after the original Broadway production. Classic is a term too frequently used but Carousel is definitely in that rare category.
- Dj, London, England
The original theater scene was written by the Hungarian author Ferenc Molnár with the titel "LILIOM"
- Votisky László, Budapest,Hungary
My daughter and I saw Carousel in Edinburgh in October the Dance Sequences and singing were first class. Jeramiah James and Alexandra Siblar were both well cast as were Jigger and Carrie.
As Kirsty and I were playing Julie and Nettie in November we met both Lesley and Jeremiah between performances. I can not praise them highly enough for their generous giving of their free time. Both were delightful may the show have a long and successful run in London.
- Elizabeth Samuel, Gourock, Scotland
Saw the pre-West-End production in Edinburgh some weeks ago and thought it was terrific. Should work even better on the more intimate stage and auditorium of the Savoy - (the Edinburgh Festival Theatre has a massive auditorium and stage).
Thought Jeremiah James and Alexandra Silber were extremely well cast, and gave emotionally-charged performances, and Graham MacDuff, as Jigger, also gave a brilliant performance.
Intend to catch the show again first time I am in London
- Donnie Matheson, Inverness Scotland
