CAROUSEL (2018) Reviews- Page 4

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 2:47am

What’s cut again? Geraniums and Stonecutters?

[bk]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 3:12am

Juggalo or whatever your name is, are you twelve?  What's wrong with you?  First off, many people have corrected your more than obnoxious assertion that Time Out gave this five stars - so, you can just apologize for starters.  Always amusing how one person, sitting alone in the fourth row, can know that every single person in the theatre had a smile on their face.  Seriously, pal, stop before you make a complete nitwit of yourself.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 3:32am

  "Um, FIVE stars. Not four. Can you count?"

   BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 6:26am

The Distinctive Baritone said: "What’s cut again? Geraniums and Stonecutters?"

Musically: most of "Give it to 'Em Good Carrie," "Geraniums in the Winder" and "Stonecutters Cut it on Stone."

Text-wise (*SPOILERS* for a nearly 80 year old musical) and this is from what I can remember from a week ago: The entire Act 1 closing scene post "Soliloquy," Mrs. Mullin coming back and seeing Billy's dead body and Julie allowing her to have her goodbye, Jigger's "seduction" of Carrie has been cut in half, the moment in "What's the Use of Wondering" when Julie discovers Billy's knife, the entire card game before the robbery when Billy gambles away his share of the money, and, infamously, the entire "It is possible, dear, for someone to hit you..."

 

There are also many, many more lines throughout the script that have been cut as well, but those are more annoyingly unnecessary, rather than wrong headed like some of the ones above.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 6:57am

Fascinating.  While a great many bww preview posters were severely disappointed in an egregious absence of romantic chemistry between Henry and Mueller, Brantley finds their match dynamic, galvanizing, an erotic powderkeg.

  

[JBC3]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 7:32am

I am willing to wager big money against any insights Ben Brantley has about what romance looks like lol.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 7:55am

I don't see the words "Critic's Pick" on the online version of Brantley's review. Has it been removed, or is it just not showing up there?

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 7:59am

newintown said: "I don't see thewords "Critic's Pick" on theonline version of Brantley's review. Has it been removed, or is it just not showing up there?"

^ Interesting... I am no longer seeing "Critic's Pick" on there either...

[Lot666]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 8:17am

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: ""The tragic inevitability of “Carousel” has seldom come across as warmly or as chillingly as it does in this vividly reimagined revival. As directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Justin Peck, with thoughtful and powerful performances by Mr. Henry and Ms. Mueller, the love story at the show’s center has never seemed quite as ill-starred or, at the same time, as sexy."

This is quite a different review of Mueller and Henry's chemistry from the ones I've been reading about on this forum for months."

Indeed. One of the most prominently criticized aspects of the show on this board is a perceived lack of chemistry between the leads. Brantley, on the other hand, says "the chemistry between this show’s leading, mismatched couple is so charged, that when tree blossoms fall mysteriously over their first meeting on a windless night, it makes perfect sense".

[newintown]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 8:21am

Nothing to remark on, really - "chemistry," in this context, is not a science. Different audience members will perceive its presence or absence differently.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 8:29am

newintown said: "Nothing to remark on, really - "chemistry," in this context, isnota science. Different audience members will perceive its presence or absence differently."

And even more broadly, we can all look at the way "romance" manifests itself in different eras. One would not be expected to behave the same in 1918, 1968 and 2018.

[Elegance101]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 8:45am

It no longer lists it as a Critics Pick on NYT. I assume there's been some sort of error, but is it possible that they accidentally listed it as a Critics Pick in the first place when Brantley didn't want it to be?

[newintown]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 8:47am

The review has more than enough negative aspects to make me wonder how it qualified as a "pick."

[Elegance101]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 9:20am

newintown said: "The review hasmore than enough negative aspects to make me wonder how it qualified as a "pick.""

I thought the exact same thing, which is why I asked.

[mc1227]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 9:21am

ND_2000 said: "Was watching clips of the Philharmonic production on YouTube and saw on the suggested videos that someone had posted the full 1994 Lincoln Center Production. Here is the link for those who are interested: https://youtu.be/_9bcEm289Ek
What an absolutely thrilling opening sequence. Say what you want about the current production (I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I see the reasons others would not), but what a joy it is to have this score on Broadway again. It doesn’t get better than this music."

Personally, I found the Lincoln Center production way too busy but I agree that nothing can take away from that beautiful music, regardless of whatever production is revived.  I do wish the current one did have a revolving stage, it would have made the production richer.

[Wick3]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 9:32am

newintown said: "Nothing to remark on, really - "chemistry," in this context, isnota science. Different audience members will perceive its presence or absence differently."

I agree. The first time I saw this production roughly 3 weeks ago, I sat in rear mezz and didn't really feel the chemistry between Billy and Julie at all. 

We saw this show again this past weekend but we sat in front side orchestra and definitely felt the chemistry between the two of them and certainly cried more.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 9:35am

Well, I bought two tickets before Rudin takes the discount code away. 

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 10:12am

Holy f*ckin f*ck, it didn't even occur to me that the Mullins scene during Billy's death was cut.  I was mostly dealing with my anger about the other cuts (WHERE WAS THE LAST SCENE OF ACT I?????) and wondering why (SPOILER) if Billy stabbed himself in the throat (cool image) he could still talk that much as he lay dying.  

I thought the performances were professional and well sung and the orchestra was gorgeous.  The dance was more mood pieces than actual moments of storytelling (which de Mille perfected in Carousel so that really, really hurts).  But the cuts to the piece damage the structure in ways that it's really no longer Carousel.  When you cut Geraniums and Stonecutters, What's The Use of Wonderin' becomes a pathetic moment of a woman enabling in her own abuse rather than a specific response to a specific problem presented in the moment.  When you cut Give It To 'im Good, June... becomes just another pre-Oklahoma light entertainment number.  And the rewriting of the end takes all the ambiguity out of it, as well as the gentleness Billy is actually supposed to find.  

The production visually and aurally is super solid.  That's not the problem.  The problem is they're not doing Carousel...a show that needs no fixing or cutting.  

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 10:21am

Mrs. Mullins was in Billy's death scene when I saw the show on March 24th.  I thought the same thing after Billy slit his throat.

Let's just keep Jack O'Brien away from the Broadway classics.  His cuts were absolutely disrespectful to the material.

[Dolly80]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 10:27am

I can’t believe the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate allowed these cuts. Unbelievable.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 10:43am

You and me both.  When Julie didn't feel the knife being carried by Billy, I just sat there shaking my head.  Carousel isn't dated when you actual do the show Carousel.  But if you cut the final scene of  Act I where Billy decided to go to the clambake, which lets us actually know he's going to go through with the robbery, then Real Nice Clambake (an easing in to a very dark Act II) loses the sense of revelry that is tinged with impending doom.  The show is so tightly, beautifully structured and to to make these cuts is to make Carousel dated and ineffective.  And yes...cutting Julie's line about how you can be hit and not be hurt is a terrible choice because then Billy doesn't feel the full weight of his choices.  So when, at the very end, he simply chooses to whisper to Louise 'Listen to him.  Believe him' and his final 'I love you, Julie' (these are paraphrasings, sorry), you don't get the full arc of brutality to a gentle form of grace and forgiveness.  Because THAT is what Carousel is all about.  It's not a romance.  It's a redemption story.  And even then, we aren't sure that he has redeemed himself enough to enter heaven.  But he, and Louise and Julie share a moment of grace.  That's what moves me to what I call The Color Purple sobs (formerly known as the Snoopy Come Home sobs).  And I felt none of that during this revival.  

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 11:10am

I very much missed the staging that I've seen in every other production of Carousel where Mrs. Mullins rearranges Billy's hair after he's dead, and then Julie gently puts it back the way it was. I wonder if one of the reasons this was cut was because Joshua Henry has close-cropped hair, and there is no way to rearrange it. As to the question about why the R&H Organization allowed all the cuts, I suspect that it doesn't have the same clout it did in olden days now that's it been sold to another organization and is no longer privately held. My guess is that it can choose to license a show or not, but up against a powerhouse Broadway producer like Scott Rudin, R&H is unlikely to pull rights back just because a (in my opinion, misguided) director wants to cut songs and dialogue.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 11:10am

The rights to the R&H catalog are no longer owned by the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate, hence they were able to get away with these ridiculous cuts.  Someone mentioned in the Carousel preview thread who owns the rights now.

SonofRobbieJ, I was shocked when Julie didn't react to the knife in Billy's pocket.  I've done this show before, and a lot of the nuances were gone from this production.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 11:23am

That moment is essential (as is nearly every other cut made for this production).  Lost is the moment of the chorus of women echoing Julie's words back to her after that moment.  This show does not endorse spousal abuse.  It underlines and highlights its insidiousness.  Without the complexity Hammerstein explored through the book and lyrics (and, of course, set to Rodgers beautiful, haunting music), of COURSE this show becomes one dimensional and dated.  But if you don't want to put the hard work in exploring the difficulties of Carousel, then don't do Carousel.  

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 11:31am

DottieD'Luscia said: "Let's just keep Jack O'Brien away from the Broadway classics. His cuts were absolutely disrespectful to the material."

And let Bartlett Sher show him how it's done!