Pared down 'Carousel' gets to the heart of the matter
The scant whimsy that Court Theatre's gracefully unadorned "Carousel" evokes comes in the form of a small, gilded horse suspended above John Culbert's sparse, wood-plank stage. Lovely and inaccessible, it symbolizes the happiness that eludes carnival barker Billy Bigelow and millworker Julie Jordan, the ill-starred lovers in the bittersweet 1945 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
Among the first tragic musicals, "Carousel" wraps its sublime score around a tale of love, loss and redemption adapted from the Ferenc Molnar play "Liliom." A show that deals with class conflicts, poverty and gender clashes, frustration that erupts in domestic violence (a troubling element of the show too easily dismissed) and desperation that leads to suicide, "Carousel" doesn't really lend itself to cheery, Technicolor spectacle. (Hollywood adaptations notwithstanding).
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Director Charles Newell and music director Doug Peck understand that. And Court's well-acted, heartily sung revival, co-produced with Connecticut's Long Wharf Theatre, reflects it. Newell reduces the scale, paring the cast to 15 and setting the action on Culbert's nearly bare stage, whose small patch of sand suggests the New England coast. Jacqueline Firkins' plain, sturdy costumes are muted. And the only bright spot, aside from the glittering pony, are Mark McCullough's vivid lights (the carousel's sole physical manifestation) flashing from behind the washed-out, blue-gray slats of wood that make up the upstage wall.
Together they suggest a hardscrabble existence that makes for stoic women, frustrated men and lots of sexual tension, which Newell does a fine job of finessing. The sexual subtext is also reflected in Randy Duncan's aggressive choreography, including the liberating carousel pantomime; the rough, stylized movements of the fisherman and millworkers; and the feisty, balletic pas de deux between Billy and Julie's teenage daughter Louise and the young carnival barker (exuberantly danced by Laura Scheinbaum and Tommy Rapley).
What Malcolm Ruhl's inspired re-orchestration did for American Theater Company's re-imagined "Oklahoma" last year, Peck's reworking of the score -- reconfiguring the orchestra as an octet consisting of a string quartet, piano, bass and woodwinds -- does for Court's "Carousel."
"You'll Never Walk Alone," a hymn Jerry Lewis turned to treacle thanks to his mawkish performance on his annual Labor Day telethon, becomes a moving testament to hope and faith in the hands of Ernestine Jackson, whose touching performance brings a tear to the eye. The delicate violin tremolo that accompanies Nicholas Belton's and Johanna McKenzie Miller's sensitive "If I Loved You" duet suggests the first tentative steps on a rocky romantic journey.
And while it may lack the aural punch of a conventionally scored production, this unamplified and unvarnished version makes for an affecting show.
Credit also rests with the fine chorus and strong performances from the principals, including Nicholas Belton's robust, volatile Billy and Johanna McKenzie Miller's wise and temperate Julie. Belton plays the smooth-talking womanizer with the combination self-loathing and defiance of a man used to getting the short end of the stick. Miller makes a substantive Julie, playing her with the quiet strength of a woman who knows her own mind.
Jessie Mueller and Rob Lindley play their comedic counterparts: sweet Carrie Pipperidge and her straight-arrow fiance Enoch Snow. Mueller's Carrie is no simp. She has depth and courage, in the wake of Billy's death, to express the harsh truth no one wants to acknowledge. As for Lindley, he gives Mr. Snow a kind of dignity that keeps him from becoming a caricature.
Jackson's maternal innkeeper Nettie; Hollis Resnick's jealous, conniving carousel owner Mrs. Mullin; and Matthew Brumlow's Jigger Craigin, a sailor with criminal intent whose robbery scheme results in Billy's death, also merit praise.
"Carousel"
3#189; stars out of four
Location: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago
Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; through April 13
Running Time: About 2#189; hours, with intermission
Tickets: $32-$54
Parking: Free parking adjacent to theater
Box office: (773) 753-4472 or www.courttheatre.org
Rating: For most ages