Carousel

Twenty-one years ago today, January 17, 1995, the musical, Carousel, closed its production at the Vivien Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City, after a successful run of 322 performances.  I took my family to see one of the 322.  Of course, this was a revival of a play that originally opened on Broadway in New York City at the Majestic Theater on April 19, 1945.  It has since become a classic.  The team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) adapted Carousel from Ferenc Molnar’s 1909 drama, Liliom, which is set in Budapest.

Carousel, on the other hand, is set along coastal Maine in 1873.  It is a love story between a young man named Billy Bigelow, a barker at a carousel, and a young woman named Julie Jordan, a millworker.  They meet while Billy is working and later, near the end of the day when they are alone, they start talking to each other, rather timidly at first.  Like many people, they are afraid to express their true feelings about each other for fear they won’t be reciprocated.  Fear of rejection is a strong fear, especially amongst people in love, perhaps the strongest.

Julie:  “But somehow I can see
Just exactly how I'd be-

If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go!
Longin' to tell you,
But afraid and shy,
I'd let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you'd leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.

Billy:  Well, anyway, you don't love me.
That's what you said, isn't it?

Julie:  Yes!
I can smell 'em, can you?
The blossoms. The wind brings 'em down!

Billy:  There ain't much wind tonight... Hardly any.
You can't hear a sound, not the turn of a leaf
Nor the fall of a wave hittin' the sand.
The tide's creepin' up on the beach like a thief,
Afraid to be caught stealin' the land!
On a night like this I start to wonder
What life is all about.

Julie:  And I always say two heads are better than one to
figure it out.

Billy:  I don't need you or anybody helpin' me.
Well, I got it figured out for myself.
We're not important. What are we?
A couple o' specks of nothin'
Look up there...There's a hell of a lotta stars in the sky,
And the sky's so big the sea looks small,
And two little people, you and I
We don't count at all.

You're a funny kid.
I don't remember meetin' a girl like you.
Hey, you tryin' to get me to marry you?

Julie:  No!

Billy:  Then what's puttin' it into my head?
I wonder what it'd be like...

Julie:  What?

Billy:  Nothin'.
No, I know what it'd be like.
It'd be awful! I can just see myself-
Kinda scrawny, and pale
Picking at my food,
And love-sick like any other guy.
I'd throw away my sweater, and dress up like a dude
In a dicky and a collar and a tie.
If I loved you.

Julie:  But you don't!

Billy:  No, I don't!
But somehow I can see
Just exactly how I'd be
If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go!
Longin' to tell you,
But afraid and shy
I'd let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you'd leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know
How I loved you
If I loved you.

Aha...I'm not the kinda fella to marry anybody!
No, even if a girl was foolish enough to want me to,
I wouldn't!

Julie:  Don't worry about it, Billy!

Billy:  Who's worried?”

After a quick courtship, they marry and live with Julie’s Cousin Netty.  Unfortunately, Billy loses his job at the carousel because the female owner is jealous of Billy’s new wife.  Julie loses her job as well because marrying is against her employer’s rules.  Sadly, Billy then rejects an opportunity to work on Julie’s girlfriend’s boyfriend’s fishing boat.  Unemployed and frustrated at not being able to support his wife, Billy resorts to hitting Julie.  What a bum! 

What a moment for Julie to be pregnant!  She tells Billy who at first assumes it will be a boy and is full of boastful pride.  Then he realizes it could be a girl and realizes the responsibilities he could face. 

“I wonder what he'll think of me

I guess he'll call me the "old man"

I guess he'll think I can lick

Every other feller's father

Well, I can!

I bet that he'll turn out to be

The spittin' image of his dad

But he'll have more common sense

Than his puddin-headed father ever had

I'll teach him to wrestle

And dive through a wave

When we go in the mornin's for our swim

His mother can teach him

The way to behave

But she won't make a sissy out o' him

Not him! Not my boy! Not Bill!

 

Bill, my boy Bill

I will see that he is named after me, I will.

My boy, Bill! He'll be tall

And tough as a tree, will Bill!

Like a tree he'll grow

With his head held high

And his feet planted firm on the ground

And you won't see nobody dare to try

To boss him or toss him around!

No pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully

Will boss him around.

 

I don't give a hang what he does

As long as he does what he likes!

He can sit on his tail

Or work on a rail

With a hammer, hammering spikes!

He can ferry a boat on a river

Or peddle a pack on his back

Or work up and down

The streets of a town

With a whip and a horse and a hack.

 

He can haul a scow along a canal

Run a cow around a corral

Or maybe bark for a carousel

Of course it takes talent to do that well.

 

He might be a champ of the heavyweights,

Or a feller that sells you glue,

Or President of the United States,

That'd be all right, too

His mother would like that

But he wouldn't be President if he didn't wanna be!

Not Bill!

 

My boy, Bill! He'll be tall

And as tough as a tree, will Bill

Like a tree he'll grow

With his head held high

And his feet planted firm on the ground

And you won't see nobody dare to try

To boss him or toss him around!

No fat-bottomed, flabby-faced,

Pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully

Will boss him around.

 

And I'm hanged if he'll marry his boss' daughter

A skinny-lipped virgin with blood like water

Who'll give him a peck

And call it a kiss

And look in his eyes through a lorgnette...

 

Hey, why am I talkin' on like this?

My kid ain't even been born, yet!

I can see him when he's seventeen or so,

And startin' to go with a girl

I can give him lots of pointers, very sound

On the way to get 'round any girl

I can tell him...

Wait a minute!

Could it be?

What the hell!

What if he is a girl?

What would I do with her?

What could I do for her?

A bum with no money!

You can have fun with a son

But you gotta be a father to a girl

She mightn't be so bad at that

A kid with ribbons in her hair!

A kind o' sweet and petite

Little tin-type of her mother!

What a pair!

 

My little girl

Pink and white

As peaches and cream is she

My little girl

Is half again as bright

As girls are meant to be!

Dozens of boys pursue her

Many a likely lad does what he can to woo her

From her faithful dad

She has a few

Pink and white young fellers of two or three

But my little girl

Gets hungry every night and she comes home to me!

 

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 o' 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, I'll try! I'll try!

I'll go out and make it or steal it

Or take it or die!”

Rather than look for honest labor, Billy participates in an unsuccessful attempted robbery and is killed.  What a bum!

Is this the end for Billy?  Well, no.  However, you must believe in some kind of super natural existence.  Some years later, Billy is given the opportunity to return to Earth for one day to see his child, now a teenage girl, who is suffering from low self-esteem.  Who wouldn’t suffer so having to live down the legacy of having a bum for a father.  He even slaps her after they argue.  What a bum!  But, Billy does leave her with some inspiration to live the rest of her life. 

“When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone”

My overall appraisal of Carousel is that the songs are wonderful, but I don’t understand why a sweet girl like Julie would love a bum like Billy.  Well, they say love is blind.