STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
Carousel
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London
TO MAKE it resonate with a modern audience, a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1945 musical was always going to be a tall order. So it proves with this production.
Based on the 1909 play Liliom, many people simply don’t care about the explorations of marriage, women having lots of children and masculine pride in Ferenc Molnar’s work anymore.
So when meek and mild millworker Julie Jordan (Carly Bawden) falls for brutish carousel barker Billy Bigelow (Declan Bennett) and their love for each other causes them both to lose their jobs, we’re looking through what seems the lens of ancient history.
New releases from Kneecap, Sam Blasucci, and Juni Habel
WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed
WILL STONE is impressed by a tour de force rendition of three decades’ worth of orchestral chamber pop
WILL STONE applauds a comprehensive survey of love in its many moods and musical forms


