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

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 8:00am

From the Lincoln Center website FAQ:

Can I buy a "Live From Lincoln Center" broadcast on DVD or VHS?

"Live From Lincoln Center" broadcasts are not available for purchase. Our programs are cleared for broadcast only, and our agreements with artists, guilds and unions prohibit us from making them available in any other form.

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 8:59am

That's a shame! I would have loved to have owned this on DVD. However, if that is the case, how come the NY Phil COMPANY was released on DVD/Blu-ray, or wasn't that part of the LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER Series?

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:02am

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

Different licensing, different contracts, different rules.

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:31am

Does anyone know the music to Louise's ballet well enough to know if this was the original? It certainly differed from the film and the Lincoln Center revival recording. In those productions and every other one I've seen, Louise and the dream carnival barker danced to the melody of "If I Loved You." In the Philharmonic concert, the ballet started with that melody, which I thought was odd.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:36am

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

[Patash]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:42am

I'm fascinated by the discussion of Julie being "white trash" or a "bad girl". I think it's the thing that always distanced me from the show -- a prim and proper Julie being "ruined" by this rough guy. A few years ago I saw a revival in London at The Savoy in which Julie was really the "bad girl" -- she flirted from the start, and was so horny you almost expected her to hop right on to Billy from the start. While Carrie sings of a happy and bright future life, Julie just cares about getting laid. I LOVED the production.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 4:21pm

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

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 4:30pm

I've always wondered if Carousel's ballet truly did run over an hour in previews--though I've heard that before. It just seems like--well surely it had to be an exageration, no?

I just read it in Wiki, which we'll agree is hardly an unimpeachable source. Over an hour for a second-act ballet does sound like a long time, even if it did cover Louise's birth and entire life.

What I think of as "deMille-like" is the back and forth from flat, modern-dance feet (usually stomping for emphasis) to dancing en pointe. I often wish she'd make up her mind. (And again, I'm not a dance historian. Maybe everyone was doing that in the 1940s.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 6:09pm

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

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:02pm

You've convinced me, Eric. I too found the hour-long ballet a stretch, particularly in the second act and considering that while it shows time passing, it doesn't do much to advance the plot in the way the ballets of OKLAHOMA! and BRIGADOON do.

As for deMille's style, I trust you if you tell me that was the style of the period. I just don't find it very interesting. Where is Chita Rivera when you need her?

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:34pm

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).

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:39pm

Wow, I could believe 40 minutes, but in the various sources I've read (one a book specifically about DeMille's work, the other being various R&H books) they all claim the ballet in the film *is* DeMille's ballet--certainly length wise it corresponds with the revival's. And it's 10-12 minutes. So I wonder was it put back in, and then cut again? Or?

(I'm not doubting you at all Best, just even more curious now.) I wish there was a book about Carousel that is as exhaustive as that recent-ish making of Oklahoma! book.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:49pm

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.

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

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:51pm

"As for deMille's style, I trust you if you tell me that was the style of the period. I just don't find it very interesting. Where is Chita Rivera when you need her?"

And that's fine :P Sorry if I've implied that you *should* like her style. To be fair, even for the time it was pretty distinctive (ie her arm work that I mentioned is something I've never seen another choreographer do, except maybe as a DeMille pastiche,and her use of going between pointe work and non to try to create a more "realistic" American ballet was pretty revolutionary.)

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:57pm

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.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 7:29pm

Sorry if I've implied that you *should* like her style.

Not at all, my friend. I just like to be up front about something that is entirely a matter of my (bad) taste and not an objective argument. Her ballets don't destroy any shows for me, but I'll take Robbins' "Small House of Uncle Thomas" any day!

[mikey2573]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 8:39pm

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.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:48pm

After Smash, I never wanna see Jordan play Billy.

Gaveston--I agree 100% with you there, but Robbins' ballet in King and I is one of my top Broadway numbers ever--I'm not sure any of DeMille's are.

That said, I do think she deserves (nearly) as much credit for the early R&H experiments as the authors (as well as Rouben Mamoulian.) Even watching the UNC production of Oklahoma!, her contributions are far more extensive than the famous Dream Ballet, and she really integrated dance into the piece in a way I'm not sure had been done before (Balanchine's work with R&Hart still seems more segmented, but DeMille has characters moving in choreographed bits in and out of scenes and in the background.) I think, to an extent, that's been forgotten. And I know that apparently Hammerstein had to direct much of Allegro instead of her, in the end--and of course the experimental side of R&H sorta ended there and went into the nearly perfectly constructed form that SP and K&I took, but I sorta wonder if some of DeMille's bitterness was that in a way--aside from "creating" the dream ballet form that was briefly so used--because her contributions were forgotten.

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 8:30am

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.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 5:14pm

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.

What production did you see?

Billy is at least mid-30s. If he isn't, there's no excuse for him not learning a new trade and supporting his family. If he's mid-30s, he is "middle-aged" by the standards of his day and it makes more sense that no one will hire him to do anything but bark for a carousel.

Then there's his attitude toward Julie, whom I believe he refers to as "kid" several times. At the very least, it's clear he considers himself worldly wise and Julie naive.

Finally, the whole point with Billy is that he is an emotional adolescent in a man's body. The contrast is more dramatic (and tragic) the older he gets.

I don't have any trouble believing Hugh Jackman is 35 to 40. He's actually 45, so comparison to 70-year-old Streisand playing the mother of an 8-year-old seems silly.







Updated On: 5/2/13 at 05:14 PM

[LaLaLarlic]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 5:46pm

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

[DancingShadows]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 5:54pm

I have just watched the broadcast and I have to say WHAT an amazing production this was. I loved it a lot. I was especially amazed by Jessie Mueller and Jason Danieley - their chemistry was amazing and they were wonderful to watch :) I also liked Kelli O'Hara, of course. Nathan Gunn - not so much, although I adored his voice. Shame about his acting. Tiler Peck is a lovely dancer, but I didn't like her acting ... Still, her dancing was one of the highlights for me :)

Anyone knows why PBS never releases their broadcasts? I mean, I'm sure there would a lot of interest into buying those DVDs (I would definitely buy this one!).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 6:01pm

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.

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 7:58pm

I thought the original book described Billy as younger than someone in their 30's and Julie as someone barely out of their teens. So O'Hara and Gunn played younger for this semi staged concert production. I believe Michael Hayden was in his late 20's when he played at The Royal National Theatre and was exactly 30 when he opened the LCT revival.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 8:30pm

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.