CAROUSEL - Review: Wishaw Press

Carousel more than lived up to

reputation of a brilliant musical

May 9 2007 by Joe O’Brien

YOU’RE A Strange One, the cast sang to Julie Jordan during the production of Carousel at Motherwell Civic Theatre last week. And indeed she was.

Despite numerous pleas from friends to leave her “bad boy” husband Billy Bigelow during Our Lady’s High School FPs Light Opera Society’s version of the hit show, she never did.

Which is just as well, because there would have been no story and the audience wouldn’t have been able to witness a brilliant performance from such an all-round talented cast.

Carousel, a Rodgers and Hammerstein production, broke new ground in 1945 with its characters and true-to-life storyline. It was voted best musical in the same year, winning eight Donaldson awards as well as picking up five Tony Awards for the 1994 Broadway revival. It was also voted ‘Best Musical of the Century’ by Time Magazine.

But despite those potentially overwhelming past achievements, Our Lady’s more than managed to do Carousel justice. And sometimes attempts to nail the tricky American accent proved a trifle difficult. However, there were only miniscule blemishes in the outstandingly produced show.

And the performances from the principal characters were all strong. Principals were: Julie Thomson as Julie Jordan, Alan Currie as Billy Bigelow, and crowd favourite, Grant Campbell as Jigger Craigin.

…

Our Lady’s High School FPs Light Opera Society should be very proud of the show. The show was bursting with great performances from the entire cast and had the audience’s favourite musical songs.

The star of the show for me was Campbell as Jigger Craigen. He had the audiences in stitches.

All in all, a great night from an extremely talented line-up. Take a bow.