Carousel: No!

[Jay Williams]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 4:57pm

Tony voters:  Carousel is a giant mis step.  Awful: opening, one horse, people dancing around just to dance around, no feeling of a carnival at all, dark and dismal.  Julie Jordan: love Jessie, but she was far better as Carrie in another staging.  Where were all the snow kids?  Not here and not  in the ballet, which was not at all impressive.  The acting of Ms. Pollack as Louise was a mix of Liza and someone with a poor New England dialect; just annoying.  And for the first time, the finale did not make me emotional at all:  the director's staging of the last moments between Billy and Julie was awful.  Look at the National Theatre production of this moment:  Julie is left alone on the benches and Billy is able to take focus with her and encourage her to live, go on and triumph.  No such moment here.  It was a total  misfire.  Just so sad.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:06pm

I'm sure they will base their vote on this completely unnecessary post. 

[Jay Williams]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:10pm

Would love to know why you loved this production; happy to learn from you.

[BroadwayRox3588]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:15pm

I didn't really care for this production either, but a post on a message board will do nothing to sway the voters' opinions.

[Jay Williams]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:17pm

Discussion is always healthy!   Thanks.   What would be your choice for best revival of a musical?   Really interested in your opinion.  

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:22pm

I agree. The only way this is is winning is if My Fair Lady and Once on this Island split the vote.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:24pm

Lindsay Mendez is the only Tony this production deserves; her Carrie is a breath of fresh air. Otherwise, this Carousel is one of my least favorite Broadway productions ever. An utter disappointment of a revival. 

Updated On: 5/27/18 at 05:24 PM

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:27pm

Well, I loved the dancing.  Joshua Henry.  And the "Mullin's Carousel" shirt I purchased at the end of the show. That's about it. I am just saying, Tony voters make up their mind when they see a show, not when a random person on a message board posts about it.  That was my whole point.  Just like yours, my opinion doesn't count when it comes to Tony voters.  

Updated On: 5/27/18 at 05:27 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 5:42pm

Oh, please....do you really think the OP thought he was addressing the actual voters???

 

 

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 6:07pm

Jay Williams said: "Discussion is always healthy! Thanks. What would be your choice for best revival of a musical? Really interested in your opinion."

Between the Carousel review thread, the Carousel preview thread and the What would have fixed Carousel thread, there are probably over 1000 posts of people giving their opinions on the show. People can start whatever threads they want but there has been sooooooo much written about this show on this board already, I'm just curious what you hope to cover in this thread that hasn't already been covered dozens of times before in those and other threads?

[Solipsist234]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 6:14pm

UncleCharlie said: "Jay Williams said: "Discussion is always healthy! Thanks. What would be your choice for best revival of a musical? Really interested in your opinion."

Between the Carouselreview thread, the Carouselpreview thread and the What would have fixed Carousel thread, there are probably over 1000 posts of people giving their opinions on the show. People can start whatever threads they want but there has been sooooooo much written about this show on this board already, I'm just curious what you hope to cover in this thread that hasn't already been covered dozens of times before in those and other threads?"

I wholeheartedly agree with you, UncleCharlie. Jay Williams, whatever goal you were trying to acheieve when you started this thread was incredibly minute. Also, starting a BroadwayWorld thread definitely won't cause the Tony voters to change their votes. It isn't rocket science!

 

Updated On: 5/27/18 at 06:14 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 7:32pm

i love the name of this thread

[denali.fire]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 9:22pm

And lets say  No!  to drugs too as long as we're at it!

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 9:32pm

denali.fire said: "And lets say No! to drugs too as long as we're at it!"

Hey, now.  If I hadn't blazed before seeing Carousel, I would have audibly moaned in annoyance during a lot of this production.  

[MrPeach]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 9:46pm

I haven’t seen the revival. However, it’s sort of fascinating that Tony voters gave this show 11 nominations yet it’s one of the most panned shows ever discussed here at BW. The disconnect is curious. It would be like if “Amelie” has received 11 Tony noms last year (as it was panned as much as “Carousel” around these parts).

On the flip-side, BW rallied behind shows such as “Significant Other” and “American Psycho,” yet Tony voters shut out the former and gave two tech noms to the latter.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 10:01pm

I think the show has individual pieces that work. The cast is lovely even though their performances aren't focused. I was happy to see them recognized. I think it's telling that the individual pieces were nominated, but not the director who had the job of pulling all the pieces together. I think the 11 Tonys noms were expected aside for Roth's costumes which I found hideous and Gemignani who wasn't particularly memorable (simply because half of his role had been cut).

Yikes, I'm still upset about Glick being overlooked for Significant Other. He should have won the Tony.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 5/27/18 at 10:35pm

Has anyone on this board talked about the fact that Carousel was nominated for 7 Chita Rivera awards but lost all of them except for tying Best Ensemble with Mean Girls? It lost all the other awards including losing Best Choreography if a Musical to Summer. 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/29/18 at 3:10pm

MrPeach said: "I haven’t seen the revival. However, it’s sort of fascinating that Tony voters gave this show 11 nominations yet it’s one of the most panned shows ever discussed here at BW. The disconnect is curious. It would be like if “Amelie” has received 11 Tony noms last year (as it was panned as much as “Carousel” around these parts).

On the flip-side, BW rallied behind shows such as “Significant Other” and “American Psycho,” yet Tony voters shut out the former and gave two tech noms to the latter."

Please keep in mind that only up to 50 or so people are on the Tony nominating committee, and they vote on nominations. Actual Tony voters are the ones that vote for the winners.

 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/29/18 at 3:19pm

In a recent interview with Playbill.com, director Jack O'Brien talks about some of his decisions for the production.
http://www.playbill.com/article/stage-directions-why-a-decades-long-connection-to-carousel-led-jack-obrien-to-direct-the-2018-broadway-revival

How he got involved:
“I don’t know that it was something I wanted to direct. It popped up on [producer] Scott Rudin’s extraordinary radar, and he happily thought of me. But what he couldn’t know was that I had made my stage debut at the University of Michigan in 1959 as Mr. Snow in Carousel and it was a seminal moment in my life, because even though I had no ideas of continuing as a performer, it set the [need] deep in my throat and I never could shake it. Not so much just Carousel but the whole industry. I think that was probably the turning point in the early part of my life. I suddenly realized I was sunk. I belonged to this profession in some capacity, and I was going to have to work it out.

“Coming back to it many years later it was a great gift—a glimpse in a rear-view mirror I do not possess. I never really think of what’s past but only what’s in front of me. It forced me to look back over these years and these assignments and this remarkable career and take stock. It was great to embrace it and also learn to respect a new sensitivity, because our time is very different from 1945. And the issues are very different, and we had to listen with our ears to the ground to the heartbeat of this piece very carefully.

The Starkeeper:
“[Because it’s about redemption,] I focused very strongly on the latter third of the show, which is when Billy goes to heaven. I wondered why the Starkeeper was so lenient with him, why the Starkeeper gives him chance after chance to redeem himself when, in fact, he’s been a complete asshole through most of the evening. And I chose to keep the Starkeeper in the action from the very beginning of the show quietly through it, and you’re aware of him, so when Billy gets to heaven you know exactly who the Starkeeper is, and it actually balances the drama in a very interesting way.”

Cutting that famous line:
“[Director] Nicholas Hytner is a dear friend of mine, and he had said about his great [1994 Broadway] production, that he should have cut that line—the famous line, ‘It’s possible for somebody to hit you very hard and not hurt you at all.’ He said he didn’t know why he didn’t cut it. Well, we did cut it. And the thing is the intensity, the crime itself, the ineffable hurt on both sides of the ledger are even more readily accessible if you don’t point it up than if you did point it up. The connection is absolutely visceral, and you get it, but it doesn’t hammer it out. And you feel for everybody. We learned a great deal about editing, about thinking of our entire audience and trying to see the show from their perspective but not in any way interfere with the greatness of the piece itself.”

Updated On: 5/29/18 at 03:19 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/29/18 at 3:20pm

Janet Jackson's song "The Knowledge" went through my head when I saw this thread title.

Just an aside...

[robskynyc]

Posted: 5/29/18 at 3:45pm

uncageg said: "Janet Jackson's song "The Knowledge" went through my head when I saw this thread title.

Just an aside..."

in tearssss LOL... now im reading it in her voice. 
'whatcha really want?'

[Bwayfan292]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 12:30pm

For those of you who havent seen the production theres some short clips in this interview of Flemming, Muller, and Henry singing from the production. Starts at 21:28.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=InowLvXwE_c

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 12:32pm

This was easily one of the lowest points of the season for me. I have never left a theatre so angry in my entire life.

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 2:30pm

Wow, that interview with O’Brien was fascinating. He played Mr. Snow many years ago and then he actually cut chunks of Mr. Snow’s dialogue and song in the second act of this production?

I hope he sticks with the godawful Charlie and the Chicolate Factory and doesn’t screw up any more classic musicals.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 2:57pm

O'Brien needs to do us all a favor and retire.