CAROUSEL (2018) Previews- Page 10

[Golenboybway]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:40am

Do you think I have a shot of getting a rush ticket at like 3pm? I can't get there any earlier.

[BeadleDeedle]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:53am

I got there around 5 for the first preview and got 4th row far house left. I think you’ll be fine

[Golenboybway]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 2:00am

Ok! thank you so much!

[A Director]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 2:29am

 Dear Sally Durant Plummer: You wrote -
I'm not saying that all shows should deal with this every time we cast someone not white in a role. There are many shows - Hello, Dolly!, She Loves Me, etc. - that are just great fun and everyone deserves a chance to play those roles. I just don think that is true of Carousel, when the only actors of POC are cast as Billy and Jigger."

Have you seen this production?  If you did, were your eyes closed for the entire show? John Douglas Thompson who plays The Storekeeper is black. Yesenia Ayala, Rosena M. Hill Jackson,  Anna Noble, Antoine L. Smith. and Ahmed Simmons are black.  Andrei Chagas who plays the Fairground Boy is not white.

 

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 4:55am

BeadleDeedle said: "I got there around 5 for the first preview and got 4th row far house left. I think you’ll be fine "

How was that seat, btw? Obstructed? I am looking at a couple of dates that have that far side only maybe like  row seven or eight. I really prefer any aisle even if it's not perfect so I can stretch my knee a little. Thanks 

[BWAY Baby2]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 5:14am

Not every role is suited for color blind casting- a white MLK? A white Donna Summer? A black JFK? Sometimes you just gotta go with what is.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 7:55am

The less said about the Starkeeper, the better.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 10:10am

When Audra first played Carrie I don't remember any discussions about her race. All I remember is everyone saying how wonderful she was, how she was the best Carrie they ever saw.

Someone mentioned PASSING STRANGE, I don't think that is colorblind casting because the show was written for POC and they played all the roles. As with HAMILTON, that is NOT colorblind casting. Remember when they started casting the tour they said, no white Actors needed? (I think they eventually changed this unfortunate wording) You can't say colorblind blind casting and not include whites. What that is, is colorblind writing. It's written that way.

If the producers of CAROUSEL had the balls they would just say Joshua was the best Actor who auditioned and that's that.  I recently spoke to a famous Director who was asked to work on a workshop of a musical version of THE GLASS MENAGERIE. They asked who he saw as Amanda and he said Audra McDonald, they said, oh then we have to change this line or this casting and he said NO, we just cast the best singer Actress there is Audra McDonald, end of story.

I guess times have changed.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 10:23am

Joshua Henry probably is the best choice for this role regardless of his skin color, but I do think there is an opportunity for his appearance to inform the character and it seems that O'Brien isn't fully taking advantage of it. He's chosen to colorblind cast the role, and approach the character in a race-less sense, but Henry's race could add some interesting social commentary.

Another friend of mine messaged me this morning and said that the show is an absolute hack job with tons of great material just missing from the show.  Why are they cutting so much?  If you want to cut something, cut some of the dancing.  I guess the ending has been heavily changed as well as What's the use of Wondrin.  Apparently some songs were cut in half with stuff given to other singers.  The Rodgers and Hammerstein estate is ok with this?

Anyone know if Geraniums was put back in or if the whole second half of What's the use of Wondrin was still shortened and largely given to Renee Fleming?  I hope the creatives look at this board because if they do they really need to go back to the original, FULL script and score.  I don't care if it's 4 hours long, if it's good, I'll sit through it and I'm sure other people would as well.  With a cast this good, we want to see Carousel UNABRIDGED.

Updated On: 3/2/18 at 10:23 AM

[thegamesiplay]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 11:26am

I’m also curious to know if they will fix the score and put numbers back in. My major issue is how they severely cut down Louise’s ballet and the Carousel Waltz being cut down and rearranged just to make room for the pointless Blow High, Blow Low ballet section. It was so unnessecary, if it doesn’t advance the plot then don’t do it. It was so boring and tedious. The beauty of the Carousel waltz and Louise’s ballet is they tell a story. What a shame.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 11:26am

I think the production would be better if the production said Henry was the best actor for the role. As I stated before, this production feels very uncomfortable with the events of act 2 - specifically the scene where he hits Louise. It just feels very unthought-out.

[thegamesiplay]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 11:28am

Sally Durant Plummer said: "I think the production would be better if the production said Henry was the best actor for the role. As I stated before, this production feels very uncomfortable with the events of act 2 - specifically the scene where he hits Louise. It just feels very unthought-out."

There were serious gasps from the audience when he hit Louise, and earlier when the gun was fired. Both felt terribly out of place with the show. Awkward staging. 

[Mara Gottlieb]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 11:49am

I agree with this analysis 100%. What's so pioneering about putting men of color in the roles of abusive, bullying, criminal characters? The best of old Broadway musicals can remind us of easier, kinder times. That is not Carousel. This version kept the excruciatingly long pseudo-ballet dance numbers and did nothing to each now ledge the story's racist or sexist overtones even in a "wink" kind of way. I was deeply disappointed.

[daniellesf]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:03pm

The problem with this revival isn't Joshua Henry's skin color - it's the direction, design, choreography, music direction, and cuts. 

Whether Billy is played by a white or black actor, this production wouldn't work.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:14pm

Sally Durant Plummer said: "I think the production would be better if the production said Henry was the best actor for the role. As I stated before, this production feels very uncomfortable with the events of act 2 - specifically the scene where he hits Louise. It just feels very unthought-out."

As opposed to all of those other productions where they say that the actor they cast is NOT the best actor for the role??  Seriously, many of your comments throughout this thread are truly bizarre. Have you even seen it yet?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:22pm

Darling, don't question my honesty. It's insulting you would think I would comment on a show I have not seen as if I had seen it.

As for the topic at hand, I was referencing that this production neither ignores its casting choices nor digs into them. I.e, it's not "colorblind", which leaves a sour taste in the mouth for much of Act II. There's no digging into what it means for us as the audience to see a black Billy pull out a knife or beat his daughter. The staging is laughable. If you have more specific questions, I'm happy to go more in detail regarding my opinions. Just don't condescend or detract from my thoughts. It's not sporting.

[little_sally]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:55pm

Do we think Joshua Henry is still a lock for the Tony?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:55pm

I don’t believe there has been a Broadway revival of Rogers and Hammerstein show that hasn’t had at least some cuts and edits since the 1960s. So I don’t think we are necessarily advocating for a CAROUSEL that is exactly as originally written, but it would be nice to see that any changes made were to support the story and a very clear vision by the director for the material.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:02pm

I’m a bit confused as to what you mean when you say the production “doesn’t ignore” the casting choice. Is there someone in the show who points out that Billy is black? Do other characters treat him differently in this staging than they probably would a white Billy?

Updated On: 3/2/18 at 01:02 PM

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:04pm

But to cut such things as parts of the Waltz, Carrie's insults before June is Busting Out All Over, Geraniums in the Winter, the whole scene around What's the use of Wondrin, literally half of What's the Use of Wondrin, parts of the ballet and tons of dialogue that's critical to the show and has been used in just about every other production of the show is a bit ridiculous. Especially when Blow High Blow Low is a ridiculous 6 minutes long. I believe the recent New York Philharmonic Concert was unabridged and it played incredibly well and never felt too long. With such a great cast who all of such stunning voices, I don't think it's asking too much to hear the whole score.

[AlfredDrakeII]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:06pm

Colorblind casting rarely works in "reverse" because many plays centering around non-white characters feature ethnicity as a central facet of the given circumstances of the story. Ergo, "A Raisin in the Sun" would not work with any cast other than what was specifically called for by Lorraine Hansberry, whereas "Much Ado" holds up, regardless of multi-ethnic casting.

Anyway,

The only people worried about casting a Black actor in a brutish role are those that, THEMSELVES, see Black men in that way. The fact that Billy is Black should have no impact on how his humanity is portrayed and perceived, but since this is America and we are in the throes of PC panic, Mr. Henry's race must needlessly become a centerpiece of the conversation. If the aim of the production is to make some sort of commentary about Billy's "Blackness", I don't support that, unless such an approach illuminates something interesting about us as people AND about the piece itself.

I, for one, view Blacks as individual human beings, capable of any number of virtues as well as flaws. I find it fascinating that, as a character, Billy has incredible complexity, and is a GREAT role for an actor with the acting and singing chops to assail it in all it's beauty AND ugliness (must be said, that the combo of those two skills in great abundance is rare).

At the end of the day, it is not Mr. Henry's, nor anyone else's job, to make you all COMFORTABLE. It is his and everyone else's job to create a vivid and compelling production of a difficult yet classic piece of theatre that is worthy of people's time and money. 

(On a side note I also find it amusing that people are assuming that Mr. Henry is the "best" actor that auditioned for the role, rather than the one producers thought would be most marketable. Surely there are other leading men in New York that could sing and act the pants off the role, who didn't even get into the room to audition. In fact, we don't even know if Henry auditioned at all--he and Rudin worked together on "Shuffle Along", presumably there was already a relationship there, perhaps some conversations took place. Who knows? I don't. You don't either.)

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:11pm

I’d like to hear Joshua Henry’s views on this, since he’s the one who decided to take the role in the first place.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:12pm

I think it’s pretty obvious Joshua was offered the part... he didn’t audition.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:14pm

Well, darling, why don't you call him and get his opinion.

As for not "ignoring" his race, watch the second act of this production and decide for yourself. I'm sure others have differing opinions than me.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 1:18pm

????? What’s with the condescending tone? I was speaking out of curiosity, lol. People keep making a bunch of assumptions about this when I think it would be interesting to hear him in an interview or some other way talk about how he’s approaching the problematic side of Billy’s character. Clearly there was something that drew him to take the part in the first place.

Also, clearly you’re not interested in having a real discussion if you’re just going to go, “WELL, JUST WATCH THE SHOW YOURSELF!” after you make a bold claim and someone asks you to elaborate instead of just blindly nodding and accepting whatever you say. Excuse me for responding. 

Updated On: 3/2/18 at 01:18 PM