CAROUSEL on Live At Lincoln Center Tonight at 9PM!! — Page 7

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COMPANY was part of the Great Performances series, not Live From Lincoln Center.

Different licensing, different contracts, different rules.

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Wildcard---Thanks for posting that video clip of the 1994 Overture staging. I remember it so well, and it was breathtaking.

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Patash, I think we need to have a talk about the difference between sex and love.

I could see it being over an hour--I guess--in rehearsal, but, as much as you hear about endlessout of town tryouts of Show Boat and Camelot--I stand byt my initial thought, there's no way an hour long ballet in Act II made it into performance and then within weeks was edited down to a ballet that ran only about 10 minutes (shorter than the previous Oklahoma! ballet.)

DeMille did like using flat footed ballet steps for her women--except for more stylized sections. Notably in the original Louise ballet, she wears flats for the pas de deux (in the film they have her bare footed) and it's only the "carousel horses" girls who are lifted in stylized poses who have toe shoes (they seem kinda similar to me to the "Pin-Up" girls in the Oklahoma! ballet.) But that's not really unheard of for ballet--a lot of Dhiaghilev's Ballet Russes's didn't use toe shoes or pointe (which was the tradition DeMille and early Ballet Caravan/Ballet Theatre came from), and of course back with the great Petipa/Tchaikovskly Russian ballets, as more faithful productions show, a good deal of the female chorus would wear flat character shoes, the pointe shoes only used to distinguish the upper level of the female dancers.

StageStruckLad--I think it was just edited for the concert? The ballet I believe starts off (with some dialogue from Billy over) with Louise entering to a variation of the "My little girl" section of the Soliloquy, then I believe that goes basically abruptly into a slightly discordant version of the Carousel Waltz--the pas de deux proper, when the rest of the dancers have left is to If I Loved You.

Here's the film version (with Jacques D'Amboise) which as mentioned is DeMille's choreography but was used uncredited and so she took up a lawsuit (you do notice how poorly it's filmed--the ballets for the film of Oklahoma had, much to Rodgers annoyance, DeMille supervising the filming and dictating camera angles--and come out much much better.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYY6DhNGJAk

It's virtually the same music as used for Kenneth Macmillan's version in 1993/94 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60gstVHOnyE

I just saw something about this recently.

The ballet was 40 minutes (which is still long). They cut it down to 20 during its run in New Haven.

De Mille threw a fit especially at Hammerstein. They put the full 40 minutes back in the next night, and it received a standing ovation. It stayed in the show, and Hammerstein, back stage, was seen giving De Mille a hug (rare for him) and said, "You were right" (also rare for him).

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Well, and I wish I could remember my source. It was a documentary (perhaps PBS?) that ran about Hammerstein recently.

EDIT: American Masters: Oscar Hammerstein.

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Updated On: 5/1/13 at 06:49 PM

Finally got to see it last night and found it an aural orgasm.

But, it's never been one of my favorites because it's just so depressing.

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Why would anyone cast Hugh Jackman as Billy? He is far too old. I think Jeremy Jordan would make a great film or stage Billy.

Mikey, there have been reports for years that Jackman was trying to get a film of Carousel going. I think it's been percolating ever since his Carnegie Hall concert. Yes, he is too old, although if it does happen perhaps Babs could play Julie.

Updated On: 5/2/13 at 05:46 PM

I watched this a couple days ago. Maybe it's because of what Besty wrote (perhaps a beautifully acted park bench scene would make a difference, and perhaps seeing it live is key), but something about the love story just doesn't work for me, I get why I'm supposed to care, I get why it's a beautiful, haunting story about redemption, but the whole doesn't work for me. Either way, as a concert version I thought COMPANY was better acted, but this was gorgeously sung all around. Jason Danieley's voice is a national treasure and I'll never understand why he doesn't have a career equivalent to Kelli O'Hara's, for example. I'd never seen Jessie Mueller in anything but now I get why everyone loves her so much, she's the real deal, her acting choices were spot on and that voice is glorious, I could listen to it for days. Gunn can't act, I'd rather see a brilliant actor go through the Soliloquy (Danieley would've been ideally cast), but at the same time his voice is a joy and it's a concert version. And then there's O'Hara, whom I used to call bland and boring, well, the joke's on me, her singing is out of the world and she brings such a lovely and sophisticated tone to the entire proceedings.

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ray- I beg of you, the first chance you get go to the Lincoln Center library and watch the video of the '94 revival. The love story works, but you need two actors who can actually bring something to the table. Not just beautiful voices.

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