Carousel, at Barbican, Seven magazine review

Opera North’s new production of the world-famous Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, Carousel, is thoughtful and well-judged

A merry go-round: 'Carousel' by Opera North at the Barbican

Packed full of juicy tunes, none more famous or more abused than "You’ll Never Walk Alone", Carousel deserves its popularity. But whether you feel it deserves to be hailed as the best musical of the 20th century, as voted by Time magazine, or dismissed as a mawkish and sentimental piece about a wife-beater, will depend on personal responses to the genre itself.

Somewhere in between there must be room to agree that it is on the overlong side; but whatever one’s view, Carousel is best treated seriously, which it is in Opera North’s new production now playing at the Barbican.

James Holmes conducts with a musicianly care that few musicals receive, and Jo Davies’s thoughtful staging (in Anthony Ward’s handsome designs, making flexible use of the revolve) alleviates most of the question marks that hang over this piece.

Even the fact that it was premiered on Broadway in 1945, in seemingly blissful denial of a disintegrating world? Yes, Davies’s production reminds us that Carousel – based on a Ferenc Molnár play once contemplated by Puccini for its operatic potential – is about making good from bad, and must originally have touched those who lost husbands and fathers in the war.

Everyone ought to be allowed a little escapism, and Rodgers and Hammerstein waited until their next collaboration, South Pacific, to make the war a backdrop.

It is a treat to hear Carousel neither over-amplified nor sung in voice-lacerating, musical theatre “belt”. Yet even the more experienced opera singers here (such as Yvonne Howard, a warm Nettie Fowler) never sound “operatic”.

Playing one of the least appealing romantic leads in musical theatre, Michael Todd Simpson is a superbly self-conflicted Billy, aware of the danger he presents. Katherine Manley’s Julie and Sarah Tynan’s Carrie are ideally balanced.

There are strong performances from Joseph Shovelton (Mr Snow) and Michael Rouse (Jigger), and the dancer Beverley Grant (Louise) delivers a deeply affecting portrait of the orphaned daughter.

To Sept 15; www.barbican.org.uk

This review also appears in SEVEN magazine, free with the Sunday Telegraph

Follow SEVEN on Twitter @TelegraphSeven