Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow and millworker Julie Jordan.
About Carousel (musical) in brief
Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. The musical required considerable modification during out-of-town tryouts, but once it opened on Broadway on April 19, 1945, it was an immediate hit with both critics and audiences. Carousel initially ran for 890 performances and duplicated its success in the West End in 1950. Though it has never achieved as much commercial success as Oklahoma!, the piece has been repeatedly revived, recorded several times and was filmed in 1956. A production by Nicholas Hytner enjoyed success in 1992 in London, in 1994 in New York and on tour. Another Broadway revival opened in 2018. In 1999, Time magazine named Carousel the best musical of the 20th century. The show includes the well-known songs \”If I Loved You\”, \”June Is Bustin’ Out All Over\” and \”You’ll Never Walk Alone\”. Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals. The play was a success in 1921 with Joseph Schildkraut as Liliam, and the play was running 300 formances with the New York City Theatre Guild in 1921.
An English translation was credited to Benjamin Glazer, though there is a story that the actual translator, uncredited, was Rodgers’ first partner Lorenz Lorenz’ first major partner, Lorenz. The original Hungarian-language drama, Lilium, premiered in Budapest in 1909. The audience was puzzled by the work, and it lasted only thirty-odd performances before being withdrawn. It was not presented again until after World War I, and when it reappeared on the Budapest stage, it was a tremendous hit. Except for the ending, the plots of Carousel and Carousel are very similar. A subplot involves Julie’s friend Marie, who has fallen in love with Wolf Biefeld, a hotel porter—after the two marry, he becomes the owner of the hotel. After a robbery goes tragically wrong, he dies, and his spirit is taken to heaven’s police court. He is told by the magistrate that he may go back to Earth for one day to attempt to redeem the wrongs he has done to his family, but must first spend sixteen years in a fiery purgatory. On his return to Earth, he encounters his daughter, Louise, who like her mother is now a factory worker. He tries to give her a star he stole from the heavens. When Louise refuses to take it, he asks her if it is possible to feel a kiss with her mother. Not realizing who he is, Julie confronts herself, and Louise asks her mother to kiss her.
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This page is based on the article Carousel (musical) published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
