Carousel film on DVD

Carousel has to be my favorite of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals; I've seen the film version many times and actually been involved with three stage productions of it. I am very biased, but I think it has the best score of any R&H show. The music really reaches a new level, and the way the book leads right into the lyrics is masterful. If the story is a bit far-fetched at times, I don't mind when I get to hear "If I Loved You" or the "Soliloquy." Even the character songs like "When I Marry Mister Snow" and "When the Children Are Asleep" are high and away better than your average show's best songs.

The filming in Cinemascope works well in this film, with blocking and sets designed to take advantage of the wide angle, allowing for two-shots that don't seem static. And it shows off more beautiful wooden sailboats in the harbor, which is almost as important to me as the show itself!

Dance again is a big part of this show, which was originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille. The dream ballet works the best, but the chorus dancing is demanding stuff for the musical's chorus.

Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones are paired again as they were in the film version of Oklahoma! Rather than a happy ending, as in their first film, Carousel has a much darker side to its love story. If the perennially perky Jones doesn't give the most nuanced performance, I'll forgive her because her singing has just the right balance of legato in the more lyrical portions of the score. And later in her career, Jones will prove her acting chops in Elmer Gantry, for which she won an Oscar. I like to think that her efforts in Carousel lead to a more successful result in the later film.

Robert Rounseville as Enoch Snow is an interesting performer, who played quite a bit on Broadway as well as on more "legit" stages. He originated the role of Candide in Bernstein's operetta, and well as being in the original casts of Babes in Arms (Rodgers & Hart), Knickerbocker Holiday (Weill), and Man of LaMancha (Mitch Leigh). Not a bad career by that list of credits, and this doesn't even count his New York City Opera performances. Do cross over performers like that exist today? Maybe Audra McDonald?

Carousel
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
20th Century Fox Film from 1956
Directed by Henry King
Cast: Shirley Jones, Gordon MacRae, Barbara Ruick, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Rounseville

Man of La Mancha Original Broadway Cast Album

Today I get another of my favorite Broadway baritones--Richard Kiley. While he was in the original casts of several musicals, Man of La Mancha is his definitive role.

Alas, the powers that made movies in the 1960s and 70s didn't often feel compelled to cast singers when they cast the film versions of musicals, so Mr. Kiley's performance was not captured on film, but Peter O'Toole's was. I think I've put the film on my Netflix queue, so someday I'll write about that, but in the meantime I have Richard Kiley to keep me warm and remind me what good Broadway singing can be.

I've also put onto my Netflix list the television production of The Little Prince that Mr. Kiley, and Bob Fosse starred in. I have a vague recollection of seeing it as a child, but between the very manly Kiley and the very unitard-wearing Fosse, I'm sure my pre-pubescent-but-destined-to-be-gay mind was in a whirl.

But back to La Mancha.

I'd forgotten how much I like the ensemble numbers in this show. By that, I don't mean chorus numbers, but duets/trios/etc. From the opening number sung by Quixote and Sancho, through "I'm Only Thinking of Him", to "Little Bird, Little Bird", the writing for small numbers is wonderful and inventive. Of course I have to confess a long and unhealthly love of songs with quodlibet writing. I'm not certain if I'm using that term correctly, but I believe it means when two tunes are put on top of one another, like "Man of La Mancha" with "I'm Sancho, yet, I'm Sancho" over it. Irving Berlin was a master at this type of writing and I can't get enough of it.

What a difficult role Aldonza must be, sometimes belting, sometimes lyric, always with a large range.

The notes for this CD release are interesting, but perhaps overly long. I did like learning that La Mancha began as a camp show, as did Once Upon a Mattress that I listened to yesterday. And that composer Mitch Leigh started with WH Auden as his lyricist!

Man of La Mancha
Music by Mitch Leigh
Lyrics by Joe Darion
Book by Dale Wasserman
Original Broadway Cast Album recorded in 1965
CD release in 2000 by Decca Broadway
Cast: Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, Irving Jacobson, Ray Middleton, Robert Rounseville