Carousel, Opera North, Leeds Grand Theatre, review

Opera North's production of Carousel at Leeds Grand Theatre does great honour to a rich piece of musical theatre.

Gillene Herbert as Julie Jordan, with Eric Greene as Billy
Freshness: Gillene Herbert as Julie Jordan, with Eric Greene as Billy Credit: Photo: Alastair Muir

Although I can think of more immediately exhilarating musicals than Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel – and perhaps some crisper, brisker ones too – I can't think of one more heartfelt.

Written and first performed at the end of the Second World War, when tears came quickly, its climax shows Billy Bigelow's ghost allowed briefly back to earth to witness the graduation of the daughter he never knew.

The scene must have hit a raw nerve in those who had lost husbands and fathers in the conflict, and even now it transcends mawkish whimsy to say something trenchant about life's uphill struggle.

Cynics and ironists look away now, Carousel isn't for you. Opera North has a fine record of presenting Broadway classics, and this new production does a rich piece of musical theatre great honour.

The director Jo Davies has made several cuts and pushed the original 1870–1890s setting forward a generation, but any temptation to glam it up has wisely been resisted. There's a hard, austere edge to her staging, and designer Anthony Ward's timber–framed vision of a New England port makes it clear that this is a story of ordinary working–class folk, for whom a merry–go–round ride and a clam–bake was the summit of worldly pleasure.

Davies cleverly skirts the problem of Billy's ascent into the ether – Heaven becomes a film studio, where St Peter at the gate is DW Griffith – and, helped by two choreographers, makes the big dance numbers exhilarating. The handling of Billy's pathetic attempt at a robbery and his sticky end is disappointingly am–dram, but Hammerstein's perfunctory script must be partly to blame.

James Holmes conducts with panache, and having the score played by a full orchestra rather than a pit band reaps dividends. So does the decision to take a risk on casting newcomers Gillene Herbert and Claire Boulter as Julie Jordan and Carrie Pipperidge: both of them are an absolute delight, radiating a freshness that puts all those telly talentshow girls to shame. Elena Ferrari sings Nettie Fowler's contrasting June is Bustin' Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone with assurance, Michael Rouse's Jigger Craigin is plausibly grotesque, while Joseph Shovelton does an endearing turn as Enoch Snow. Candida Benson and John Woodvine excel in speaking roles, and the chorus is cracking.

My one reservation relates to Eric Greene's Billy. The fact he is black could work well in terms of the character's outsider mentality, but Greene is too nice and his singing too operatic. Something more abrasive and angry is required if the tragedy is to make its full impact. Until May 19 then touring to The Lowry, Salford and Barbican Centre.

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