Posted: 11/8/15 at 9:43am
A few years ago, a community theater of mine tried to do Carnival, but they switched shows for some reasons. I'm listening to the score and it's ****ing gorgeous. How hasn't there been a revival yet?
Posted: 11/8/15 at 12:53pm
There was talk back in the day of the Encores production that Anne Hathaway starred in transferring, but that obviously never materialized.
It's a very difficult show to actually get right, mainly due to the casting of Lily. If you cast her too old then you question how she can't see through the puppets and you start to wonder if the character is supposed to be mentally challenged. I've seen this happen and one of the cast member's grandmothers said it best "I don't get it, was the woman not all there in the head?"
Conversely if you cast the role young enough that the premise of her believing in the reality of the puppets is still believable then it adds all kinds of creepy ick factors in with the potential romance between her and Paul, not to mention the sub-plot of Marco trying to seduce her when she first arrives at the carnival.
If we did see a revival on Broadway I would be willing to bet that it would most likely be at Roundabout or Lincoln Center. It's a show that a commercial producer would definitely be hesitant on without a huge star (the name recognition is not all that high), so having the built in audience of the subscriber base would be a big advantage for it.
Posted: 11/8/15 at 1:02pm
The other problem is that people hear "Carnival" and think it is "Carousel" - which happened to an amateur production I went to years ago. Lots of chatter at the opening number wondering what was going on - followed by disappointed people. Even the show was quite delightful!
Posted: 11/8/15 at 7:31pm
AEA AGMA SM said: "Conversely if you cast the role young enough that the premise of her believing in the reality of the puppets is still believable then it adds all kinds of creepy ick factors in with the potential romance between her and Paul, not to mention the sub-plot of Marco trying to seduce her when she first arrives at the carnival.
Yeah, that is what I am thinking. Because Lili is 11-12 and there are three (the merchant at the beginning, who tried to rape her) men who chases after her. They defientely have to change the age to 16-19 to tone the creepiness down. Also, I think they should revise the ending, which is not deserving. It is like Carousel (which I also mixed this show up with too). How could Lili, out of nowhere, love a man who beats her throughout?
Posted: 11/8/15 at 7:58pm
I think it is a show that has no relevance for todays audience and is not worth reviving. Better letting singers use some of the material in solo acts.
Posted: 11/8/15 at 8:09pm
I've seen several regional productions of CARNIVAL, as well as the Encores staging. It is a few good songs in a not-great show. That's why it hasn't been revived in New York.
Posted: 11/8/15 at 8:49pm
disneybroadwayfan22 said: " Yeah, that is what I am thinking. Because Lili is 11-12 and there are three (the merchant at the beginning, who tried to rape her) men who chases after her. They defientely have to change the age to 16-19 to tone the creepiness down. Also, I think they should revise the ending, which is not deserving. It is like Carousel (which I also mixed this show up with too). How could Lili, out of nowhere, love a man who beats her throughout? "
A few corrections: Lili is not 11-12. She is 16 in the film and maybe a year older in the stage show. Anna Maria Alberghetti and Leslie Caron were in their 20's when they played Lili and Anne Hathaway around 18/19. The attitude of Lili is meant to be that she comes from such a sheltered, neutered life in a small, small, colorless town that she's never seen a carnival or a puppet show, let alone the dark, troubled, sometimes lecherous people that work there. So when she's exposed to it, she takes most of it at face value. It's an idea that won't fly for modern audiences.
Also, no one "chases after her." There's the merchant who tries to sexually assault her, but before anything happens she is saved by Marco. After that, he does not chase after her. Quite the other way around, actually. She goes on pining for him and he doesn't give her much thought. Paul doesn't go chasing after her, either. He also doesn't "beat her throughout." Where did you see or read Carnival? He's rude to her, but I'm pretty sure he never actually physically harms her. The only way Carnival is like Carousel is that both shows open with a carnival and both shows are musical dramas.
Updated On: 11/8/15 at 08:49 PM
Posted: 11/8/15 at 8:53pm
wicked fan said: "Where did you see or read Carnival? He's rude to her, but I'm pretty sure he never actually physically harms her. The only way Carnival is like Carousel is that both shows open with a carnival and both shows are musical dramas. "
I found the libretto here:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/283027677/Carnival-Libretto
Weird enough, it must be an old version b/c they said that she's 11-12 on page 27
Posted: 11/8/15 at 8:57pm
Saw the line you're referring to. It seems to me that Marco is trying to placate Rosalie, talking up Lili as if she were a character out of Oliver. The line probably got a laugh on Broadway because Anna Maria Alberghetti did not look anywhere near 11 nor did she look like the Little Match Girl.
Posted: 11/9/15 at 4:48am
Paul does hit Lili, unfortunately; refer to page 92 of the linked libretto - "Paul raises his hand and strikes her hard across the face." There have been some productions with revisions to the libretto over the years, and I'm guessing some of them have removed the slap. Francine Pascal (sister of bookwriter Michael Stewart) did some revisions; I read somewhere that she added the line "I always knew it was you" from Lili to Paul towards the end, to push the interpretation (more prominent in the film source material) that Lili doesn't believe the puppets are real.
I like the show, somehow, but I don't think it's one of the greats. I think today it would probably play as a tragedy with incongruously cute music and dialogue. As others have said, there's little reason for an audience to be happy that this nice girl ends up with a guy who's basically in the early stages of becoming a Batman villain. Maybe if they'd gone more 'dark' with the story throughout, it might have worked in a Phantom of the Opera sort of way. Or even if the whole thing was done positively, but with more sophistication. Interestingly, I read once that Sondheim wished he'd thought of adapting the film 'Lili' into a musical. I also read that 'Carnival's creative team, independently and at a different time, were interested in Tom Jones (The Fantasticks' one) for the 'Carnival' libretto. Now that would have been a great show.
Posted: 11/9/15 at 11:29am
Carnival's libretto is clunkier than the screenplay for Lili. The same conversations keep cycling with little variation. Rosalie yells at Marco, Paul yells at Jacquot, Paul yells at Lili, rinse repeat. Everyone loves the puppets but they're crammed into two and a half scenes. A more ambitious adaptation might have woven them throughout the story instead of giving them a mega-medley at the top of act two.
http://threepanelmusicals.blogspot.com/2014/09/carnival.html
Posted: 2/16/16 at 11:53pm
I was listening to "Her Face" and I couldn't help, but thinking that Steve Pasquale or Santino Fontana would be perfect as Paul! Does anyone have a cast for this?
Posted: 2/17/16 at 10:25am
Totally disagree with the opinion that the show couldn't work today. It has been some years, but Disney did a workshop of it a while back, and Roundabout did a wonderful semi-staged reading with Howard McGillin and Sarah Uriarte Berry around the same time. There was a production in DC some years ago, but that never materialized here either. It is a beautiful show, a great Bob Merrill score, Gower Champion staged a truly magical production in the 1960-61 season (the Encores production really didn't work, and Anne Hathaway, although charming, was not up to the vocal demands, imo), and a revival really should happen.
Posted: 2/17/16 at 11:03am
I think that underplaying Paul's anger could go a long way. He's an emotional cripple, not a villain. He doesn't need to yell his way through the show. And I've never thought that Lili thinks the puppets are real. She's play-acting, possibly to bring some emotional warmth into her life and it's perhaps a subtle way of flirting with Paul - to make friends with the characters he's created. As others have opined, the score is lovely and lively (I could live without the ham fisted "I Hate You"
and the production possibilities are immense. By all reports Champion's original was sensational.
Posted: 2/17/16 at 6:38pm
I do love this score, but the libretto is outdated at best. I don't even think you could present the show in a dark enough way to make the ending work. There's not enough depth to Lili to do a grittier interpretation like the '94 revival of Carousel. If someone committed to a revival with a new book, it could work.
But then, why not commit to writing a new show about a young woman joining the carnival and finding love in unexpected places? It's not like the good elements of the story are so novel that someone else couldn't take a stab at it.
Love Makes the World Go Round is a lovely song, though, and we'll always have the Anna Maria Alberghetti recording to listen to.
Posted: 7/7/17 at 11:26pm
To whoever posted this, I love you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAknrk7FQkA
Posted: 4/6/25 at 6:07am
If anyone is interested, the semi-musical film 'Lili', on which the show 'Carnival' was based, is coming out on Blu-ray at the end of this month.
https://www.instagram.com/warnerarchive/p/DHCII9itCY5/
