Review
The theatre darkened, the curtain rose and the overture commenced. I sat entranced as, in slow motion and perfectly in sync with the music, a large fun-fair carousel was magically assembled in front of our eyes. It was the opening of a truly memorable production of arguably Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest musical, Carousel.
No, this was not 1945 when the production was first unveiled on Broadway. It was Nick Hyntner's stunning revival for London's National Theatre in 1992, a production which ran for almost a year before transferring for a further ten-month run on Broadway. In each city it visited, it picked up a stack of awards.
All the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals have seen many revivals since their premieres in the 1940s and '50s. That short period of only 16 years has been termed the Golden Age of Broadway, a time when Rodgers and Hammerstein conquered the world. As the more recent King of Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber, willingly concedes: "The partnership between Rodgers and Hammerstein has not yet been equalled; it probably never will be."
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About the author
- Writer: Nicholas Derek
- Position: Reporter
