a b c Hammerstein, Oscar II. "Turns on a Carousel; an account of adventures in setting the play 'Liliom' to music. The New York Times, April 15, 1945, Arts and Leisure, p. X1. Retrieved on December 20, 2010. Fee for article. Spellbinding and beautifully written--a galloping ride into love, relationships, and friendship, and the burdens of family history." If set to true, autoplays the carousel after the user manually cycles the first item. If set to "carousel", autoplays the carousel on load. Dear Reader: This novel contains evil Siamese cats, total disregard for Chekhov's gun theory, much French without translation, a madhouse in Cape Cod, several carousel horses named Napoleon, Bertrand the secret knitter, waffles, a merry-go-round, a marriage in crisis, a crazy mother, and references to Les Nessman. What more could you ask for in April Ford's debut?"

Calta, Louis. "'Carousel' to end run on Saturday". The New York Times, February 28, 1949, p. 15. Retrieved on December 21, 2010. Rodgers considered Carousel his favorite of all his musicals and wrote, "it affects me deeply every time I see it performed". [52] In 1999, Time magazine, in its "Best of the Century" list, named Carousel the Best Musical of the 20th century, writing that Rodgers and Hammerstein "set the standards for the 20th century musical, and this show features their most beautiful score and the most skillful and affecting example of their musical storytelling". [119] Hammerstein's grandson, Oscar Andrew Hammerstein, in his book about his family, suggested that the wartime situation made Carousel's ending especially poignant to its original viewers, "Every American grieved the loss of a brother, son, father, or friend... the audience empathized with [Billy's] all-too-human efforts to offer advice, to seek forgiveness, to complete an unfinished life, and to bid a proper good-bye from beyond the grave." [120] Author and composer Ethan Mordden agreed with that perspective: Note: The Tony Awards were not established until 1947, and so Carousel was not eligible to win any Tonys at its premiere. [124] 1957 revival [ edit ] Year Options can be passed via data attributes or JavaScript. For data attributes, append the option name to data-bs-, as in data-bs-interval="". Name In seeking to establish through song Liliom's motivation for the robbery, Rodgers remembered that he and Hart had a similar problem in Pal Joey. Rodgers and Hart had overcome the problem with a song that Joey sings to himself, "I'm Talking to My Pal". This inspired " Soliloquy". Both partners later told a story that "Soliloquy" was only intended to be a song about Liliom's dreams of a son, but that Rodgers, who had two daughters, insisted that Liliom consider that Julie might have a girl. However, the notes taken at their meeting of December 7, 1943 state: "Mr. Rodgers suggested a fine musical number for the end of the scene where Liliom discovers he is to be a father, in which he sings first with pride of the growth of a boy, and then suddenly realizes it might be a girl and changes completely." [24] The opening carnival scene in Liliom inspired the pantomime that begins Carousel; 1921On touch-enabled devices, when set to 'hover', cycling will pause on touchend (once the user finished interacting with the carousel) for two intervals, before automatically resuming. Note that this is in addition to the above mouse behavior. Hischak, Thomas S. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 978-0-313-34140-3. As options can be passed via data attributes or JavaScript, you can append an option name to data-bs-, as in data-bs-animation="{value}". Make sure to change the case type of the option name from “ camelCase” to “ kebab-case” when passing the options via data attributes. For example, use data-bs-custom-class="beautifier" instead of data-bs-customClass="beautifier". Atkinson, Brooks. "Eloquent musical". The New York Times, June 13, 1954, p. X1. Retrieved on December 21, 2010. Fee for article. Cheever, Susan. "A lost boy makes good". The New York Times, March 6, 1994. Retrieved on December 21, 2010.

Mordden, Ethan. "Rodgers & Hammerstein". New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992. ISBN 978-0-8109-1567-1.

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The casting for Carousel began when Oklahoma!'s production team, including Rodgers and Hammerstein, was seeking a replacement for the part of Curly (the male lead in Oklahoma!). Lawrence Langner had heard, through a relative, of a California singer named John Raitt, who might be suitable for the part. Langner went to hear Raitt, then urged the others to bring Raitt to New York for an audition. Raitt asked to sing " Largo al factotum", Figaro's aria from The Barber of Seville, to warm up. The warmup was sufficient to convince the producers that not only had they found a Curly, they had found a Liliom (or Billy Bigelow, as the part was renamed). [35] Theresa Helburn made another California discovery, Jan Clayton, a singer/actress who had made a few minor films for MGM. She was brought east and successfully auditioned for the part of Julie. [27] I began to see an attractive ensemble—sailors, whalers, girls who worked in the mills up the river, clambakes on near-by islands, an amusement park on the seaboard, things people could do in crowds, people who were strong and alive and lusty, people who had always been depicted on the stage as thin-lipped puritans—a libel I was anxious to refute... as for the two leading characters, Julie with her courage and inner strength and outward simplicity seemed more indigenous to Maine than to Budapest. Liliom is, of course, an international character, indigenous to nowhere. [18] The New York Times called the movie a "beautifully turned out film, crisply played and richly sung by a fine cast that is fully worthy of the original show". Crowther, Bosley. " Carousel is worthy of original show". The New York Times, February 17, 1956, p. 13. Retrieved on December 25, 2010. Miller, Daryl H. "Powerful Carousel Leaves Ahmanson Audience Spinning", Daily News (Los Angeles), July 12, 1996. Retrieved on December 26, 2010

Irving Berlin later stated that "You'll Never Walk Alone" had the same sort of effect on him as the 23rd Psalm. [99] When singer Mel Tormé told Rodgers that "You'll Never Walk Alone" had made him cry, Rodgers nodded impatiently. "You're supposed to." [100] The frequently recorded song has become a widely accepted hymn. [101] [102] The cast recording of Carousel proved popular in Liverpool, like many Broadway albums, and in 1963, the Brian Epstein-managed band, Gerry and the Pacemakers had a number-one hit with the song. At the time, the top ten hits were played before Liverpool F.C. home matches; even after "You'll Never Walk Alone" dropped out of the top ten, fans continued to sing it, and it has become closely associated with the soccer team and the city of Liverpool. [103] A BBC program, Soul Music, ranked it alongside " Silent Night" and " Abide With Me" in terms of its emotional impact and iconic status. [101] Recordings [ edit ] It's kind of an updated Jane Eyre, accelerated for the twenty-first century, with smartphones and texting."Billy's defiant spirit ("The Highest Judge of All") is taken Up There to see the Starkeeper, a heavenly official. The Starkeeper tells Billy that the good he did in life was not enough to get into heaven, but so long as there is a person alive who remembers him, he can return for a day to try to do good to redeem himself. He informs Billy that fifteen years have passed on Earth since his suicide, and suggests that Billy can get himself into heaven if he helps his daughter, Louise. He helps Billy look down from heaven to see her (instrumental ballet: "Billy Makes a Journey"). Louise has grown up to be lonely and bitter. The local children ostracize her because her father was a thief and a wife-beater. In the dance, a young ruffian, much like her father at that age, flirts with her and abandons her as too young. The dance concludes, and Billy is anxious to return to Earth and help his daughter. He steals a star to take with him, as the Starkeeper pretends not to notice. A major concern with the second act was the effectiveness of the characters He and She (later called by Rodgers "Mr. and Mrs. God"), [47] before whom Billy appeared after his death. Mr. and Mrs. God were depicted as a New England minister and his wife, seen in their parlor. [39] [48] The couple was still part of the show at the Boston opening. [39] Rodgers said to Hammerstein, "We've got to get God out of that parlor". When Hammerstein inquired where he should put the deity, Rodgers replied, "I don't care where you put Him. Put Him on a ladder for all I care, only get Him out of that parlor!" Hammerstein duly put Mr. God (renamed the Starkeeper) atop a ladder, [49] and Mrs. God was removed from the show. [39] Rodgers biographer Meryle Secrest terms this change a mistake, leading to a more fantastic afterlife, which was later criticized by The New Republic as "a Rotarian atmosphere congenial to audiences who seek not reality but escape from reality, not truth but escape from truth". [39] Rodgers designed Carousel to be an almost continuous stream of music, especially in Act 1. In later years, Rodgers was asked if he had considered writing an opera. He stated that he had been sorely tempted to, but saw Carousel in operatic terms. He remembered, "We came very close to opera in the Majestic Theatre.... There's much that is operatic in the music." [89] Richard Rodgers The original production ran for 890 performances, closing on May 24, 1947. The original cast included John Raitt (Billy), Jan Clayton (Julie), Jean Darling (Carrie), Eric Mattson (Enoch Snow), Christine Johnson (Nettie Fowler), Murvyn Vye (Jigger), Bambi Linn (Louise) and Russell Collins (Starkeeper). In December 1945, Clayton left to star in the Broadway revival of Show Boat and was replaced by Iva Withers; Raitt was replaced by Henry Michel in January 1947; Darling was replaced by Margot Moser. [53] [54]

Other characters catch our notice—Mr. Bascombe, the pompous mill owner, Mrs. Mullin, the widow who runs the carousel and, apparently, Billy; a dancing bear; an acrobat. But what draws us in is the intensity with which Julie regards Billy—the way she stands frozen, staring at him, while everyone else at the fair is swaying to the rhythm of Billy's spiel. And as Julie and Billy ride together on the swirling carousel, and the stage picture surges with the excitement of the crowd, and the orchestra storms to a climax, and the curtain falls, we realize that R & H have not only skipped the overture and the opening number but the exposition as well. They have plunged into the story, right into the middle of it, in the most intense first scene any musical ever had. [34] Casting and out-of-town tryouts [ edit ] Rich, Frank. "London makes a revelation of Carousel". The New York Times, December 17, 1992. Retrieved on December 24, 2010. Fee for article.The amount of time to delay between automatically cycling an item. If false, carousel will not automatically cycle. The animation effect of this component is dependent on the prefers-reduced-motion media query. See the reduced motion section of our accessibility documentation. Rodgers early decided to dispense with an overture, feeling that the music was hard to hear over the banging of seats as latecomers settled themselves. [31] In his autobiography, Rodgers complained that only the brass section can be heard during an overture because there are never enough strings in a musical's small orchestra. He determined to force the audience to concentrate from the beginning by opening with a pantomime scene accompanied by what became known as "The Carousel Waltz". [32] The pantomime paralleled one in the Molnár play, which was also used to introduce the characters and situation to the audience. [33] Author Ethan Mordden described the effectiveness of this opening: