Carousel - Arena Stage

I saw it earlier in the week. Copying and pasting what I wrote yesterday on ATC:

I found myself in Washington for work over the past week, and used the opportunity to take advantage of the city's (and surrounding areas) thriving theater scene. The highlight of the trip was the chance to take in an early preview of Molly Smith's new production of Carousel at Arena Stage -- a company that has distinguished itself as a purveyor of inventive takes on works from the American musical theater canon. Smith's Carousel reunites her with Nicholas Rodriguez, who starred as Curley in her acclaimed Oklahoma and now plays Billy Bigelow. He's ideal in the role. He wields a muscular voice, but he also adds depth and shades of gray that are sometimes lost in portrayals of this character. Rodriguez's Billy is not just a brute, or a charismatic charmer, or a small-time criminal. He's a three-dimensional person, and as an audience member, I felt I empathized with Billy in a way I never had before.

Rodriguez is matched with Betsy Morgan, who is simply astonishing as Julie. She boasts a limpid, shimmering soprano, as anyone who's seen her go on for Kelli O'Hara in King and I or caught her in First Daughter Suite at the Public knows, but like her male counterpart, there's an intelligence to her choices that feels so fresh and exciting. Julie's devotion to Billy -- from the opening scene, where she chooses to stay with him despite it costing her job, to her devastation at his death -- has never felt more immediate and absolute. I've heard some people describe Julie as an odd, cold character (she's a queer one, after all), but Morgan's interpretation is full-blooded and totally human.

Smith and choreographer Parker Esse find superb ways to tailor this production to the specifics of the Fichandler stage, which is set in the round, with the audiences flanking the stage on all sides. Their inventiveness is most obvious in their stagings of the Carousel Waltz and the Act II ballet, the latter of which is perhaps the most thrilling execution I've yet seen. There's something so undeniably urgent about encountering a work like this presented on a slightly smaller scale, yet with all the care and specificity you would hope any production would strive for.

Not everything in this production works. Some of the supporting roles are less felicitously cast, and one particular interpretive choice (which I won't give away) falls flat. Yet the good moments are many, and I would strongly urge anyone in and around DC between now and December 24 to get yourself a ticket.

Thanks for the reviews! I'm a big Nicholas Rodriguez fan and I may be going to DC on business and if so I'll definitely stay an extra night and see this.