Theater Review by Myra Chanin . . . .
Marilyn Wick is simply amazing. She produces one wonderful entertainment after another on her perpetually twirling Wick Theater stage. Her latest? An enchanting production of Carousel. Great performances! Great sets! Great lighting! Great songs! Great musical arrangements! Unbelievable dancers! Gorgeous singing! And leading men that make your heart flutter in two directions, between Trevor Martin’s dangerously tantalizing Billy Bigelow and the irresistibly upright fatherly Sean Birkett’s Enoch Snow. Simon Coulthard, a highly regarded West End choreographer, presented his own original choreography in a waltz-packed overture that confirms Richard Rodgers mastery of that particular activity.
Jeffrey George, the unbelievably accomplished director of The Wick’s Carousel, gives us some background for this show, which was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s second effort following their first collaboration, Oklahoma, a smash hit that ran on Broadway for over five years. In Carousel they made a daring turn which differed from the happy endings (note the plural) of their first success, and built their second effort on the skeleton of a darker 1909 Hungarian drama called Lilliom, about a brutal circus barker who doesn’t know how to handle his desires or feelings of . . . could that be love?
The setting was changed from Eastern Europe to Coastal Maine, but the production made sure it adhered to Hammerstein’s original concept—that musicals needed a cohesive plot, believable characters and appropriate songs. I’m here to report that Carousel has all three. Billy Bigelow is a misogynistic bully and causes significant problems for everyone in the play, especially himself. But boy can he sing, and he owns the stage whenever he’s on it. The score is gorgeous, familiar and uplifting. Everyone in the theater left with a happy smile.
The actors and the set both look like they’ve been painted by students of John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer. And when the actors get up, it’s like watching them step off a canvas and into life. The first characters who make themselves known to us are two young unmarried women who work in the mill, Carrie Pipperidge (Carbonell Award-winning Wick regular, Mallory Newbrough) who is ready to share a secret with her dearest friend, Julie Jordan (Ascap Award winner making her Wick Debut, Julia Suriano).
Carrie’s secret? She has a beau, Mr. Snow, who is a very ambitious fisherman. Julie has a secret too. She’s waiting for Billy Bigelow (Trevor Martin) to make his move. Billy is tall, dark, handsome, insecure, and involved with his boss, the domineering Mrs. Mullin (Wick regular Colleen Pagano) who calls Julie a hussy. When Billy defends Julie, Mrs. Mullin fires him. Julie and Billy express their insecure feelings about each other in a very curious love song, “If I Loved You,” before Julie goes home with him, despite warning about Billy’s character, and knowing she will lose her job at the mill for missing curfew.
Time passes, and my favorite song in this show, actually one of my favorite songs in any show, follows shortly. It’s sung by Carrie and Enoch, both comfortable with whom they love, about their future lives. He’s a man with a plan. Right now, he owns a little boat and fishes for herring, but he plans to have a fleet of little boats and then a fleet of big boats, and lots of children; and these lines move me so, because I remember the times past when I felt exactly that way …
When the children are asleep, we’ll sit and dream
The things that every other dad and mother dream.
Finally, when Julie gets a few minutes alone with Billy, she tells him she’s pregnant. He’s thrilled at the thought of having a son, but then thinks if the baby’s a girl . . .
I got to get ready before she comes,
I got to make certain that she
Won’t be dragged up in slums
With a lot of bums—
Like me!
She’s got to be sheltered and fed and dressed
In the best that money can buy!
I never knew how to get money,
But I’ll try—
By God! I’ll try!
I’ll go out and make it
Or steal it or take it
Or die!
And as the first act ends, you’re left wondering: will Billy go out and make it, steal it, or take it . . . or die? But deep in your heart and mind, you know that that transformation is too difficult for him to conquer. There is a resolution at the end, except that I’m too cynical to believe in it.
Despite the jerkiness of the script, you can’t help being moved by the honesty of the performances, the beauty of the music, and the expansive Second Act ballet. I didn’t feel this was the best production of Wick’s 2024 season, but it moved me, despite my qualms. From the pleasure on the faces of my fellow ticket holders, I don’t believe anyone else in the theater, apart from me, had any qualms.
Carousel. Through March 24 at The Wick Theater (7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FLORIDA). www.thewick.org
Photos: Amy Pasquantonio
