Darker than most other Rogers and Hammerstein productions, “Carousel” swept through Broadway in 1945 and eventually was adapted into a film in 1956.
While the play may have waned in popularity in mainstream pop culture after a few decades, the Reprise Theatre Company will bring the play to the Freud Playhouse for a two-week engagement, opening its 2010 season with a revival of what many have called the best musical of the 20th century.
The Los Angeles-based theater company chose the play because it touches upon sensitive subjects that transcend time: domestic violence, social-class differences and relationships with incompatible lovers.
Quoting famed Broadway music composer Stephen Sondheim, Robert Patteri said, “Oklahoma!’ is about a picnic. “˜Carousel’ is about life and death.”
Patteri plays the male lead Billy Bigelow, one-half of a doomed couple in a tragic tale set in late 19th-century New England, along with Alexandra Silber, who plays the female lead Julie Jordan.
Patteri said this is his first time working with Reprise, and he was excited to do a classic play with a reputable theater company, and to play a role he considered to be the musical-theater equivalent to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
“This is our 13th season, and we’ve been at the Freud the whole time. We’re not officially linked to UCLA … but because we’ve been there so long, we’ve built a really good relationship with UCLA, particularly with the theater department. … It feels like family,” said Danny Feldman, Reprise Theatre Company’s managing director and UCLA alumnus.
Now in its 13th season, Reprise has earned a reputation not only for the quality of its productions, but also for its specific style. The theater company specializes in reviving and reinterpreting classic pieces of musical theater literature. It also focuses on developing a play from the ground up.
“There are very few organizations that create musicals from scratch,” Feldman said. “I don’t mean new works but approach(ing) revivals or other shows with a blank page. That’s really what we do here that’s unique. We start every show as a blank page, assemble a creative team, they get to create their vision of what the show’s going to be, and then we implement it.”
Michael Michetti, the play’s director, was a major player in developing the show’s design and creative vision. Initially, however, Michetti had few ideas of what he could contribute to a production of “Carousel.”
“The more he started thinking about it … he came up with an interesting concept, which is to completely pare it down,” Feldman said. “We have a unit set, which is basically wood planking and looks very much like a drab New England kind of dock scene. And there are lots of chairs and crates, and that is it. The rules of the production ““ the creative team rules ““ say that everything comes from these chairs or stools.”
In addition to the barebones set, Reprise expanded the role of the Starkeeper, played by M. Emmet Walsh, to serve as a narrator. These changes, Feldman said, allow the audience members to really see and experience the play in their minds.
Feldman also explained that the Freud Playhouse is the ideal venue for Reprise’s productions because it is extremely intimate. Although it seats more than 550, it is only 16 rows deep, allowing the entire audience to sit rather close to the large stage.
UCLA theater professor Gary Gardner said that although Reprise’s origins lie in highlighting lesser-known musicals, he still admires and likes what the theater company does with bigger productions like “Carousel.” He explained what makes the tumultuous romance between Julie and Billy so enduring.
“We’ve all been young and in love with the wrong person. Julie is attracted to … danger. She decides she loves Billy. Billy can have any girl around he wants, but suddenly this girl sees something in him that nobody else did. She makes him see something in himself that nobody has made him see,” Gardner said.
Carousel’s endearing and timeless qualities are reminiscent of Shakespeare’s works, a comparison Patteri noted. Rogers and Hammerstein’s script and score connect with the audience by bringing up the themes of faith, redemption, forgiveness and love.
“Julie goes, “˜you’re worth giving myself to.’ I think every single person in the audience felt that in some way,” Gardner said. “This is love.”