From Carousel at Regent’s Park to the rest of The Great White Way
What IS worth the use of wond’rin’ about as theatre returns in 2021 and beyond?
Seeing the new production of Carousel at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London this summer has prompted me to ask some challenging questions, both of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s much beloved Golden Age classic itself, and also more widely as to the surrounding theatrical climate as theatre returns in 2021 after this protracted period of absence.
What shows are we staging, and why? How do we go about staging these shows or revivals? And who is responsible for staging them? – to list a few.
Some theatregoers are praising the joyous return to the escapism of classic musicals after such a long period of hardship. And some are banging on doors demanding change and betterment. Considering this production of Carousel and how much alteration has been done to a classic musical in this modern age speaks more broadly to the degree of revision accepted as being required as productions begin to return. Closer and more detailed examination of this new production might well raise more questions than there are answers for. But they are questions and aspects that are potentially worthy, or necessary, of examining nonetheless.
Ultimately, the inescapable verdict with this starting example is that a Golden Age musical centring on domestic abuse is unavoidably on very precarious ground in this modern climate, 75 years after it was written. And that’s even before you consider trying to stage it as one of the first shows emerging from a pandemic that has foregrounded a rise in domestic abuse and violence against women during its last two years.
Clearly it would be foolish to expect current audiences to tolerate being made to unironically swallow infamous lines, like “He hit me, mother, he hit me hard, but it didn’t hurt – it felt like a kiss”. Not least while they’re all sat with programmes on their laps that brazenly open with a two-page spread addressing the “epidemic within the pandemic” on domestic violence abuse crimes.
So, much retooling has been done to the exposed story of a problematic and abusive relationship in attempts at countering some of these issues – as one of the many revisions that has occurred in trying to ‘update’ this production for more modern audiences.
The show’s handling of Billy Bigelow’s character as it’s abusive male protagonist renders him no longer completely repulsive for his actions or attitudes. He is denied upwards ascendency to some heavenly realm at the beginning or the chance to return and perpetuate the same violence with his daughter and the end. Moreover, it is female not male voices that now reckon with his judgement in purgatory, and the infamous and problematic lines regarding Julie and Louise’s exchange on domestic violence are quietly eliminated. As such, Billy is not allowed redemption in spite of his sins, and the women glean a more fortified and less meek presence.
But the show potentially takes out more than it adds in these changes, and loses some dimension. It seems it is aware of itself as being a show about domestic abuse, but it doesn’t really seem to have anything other to say about it than: “it exists”. Billy is also denied any chance of reflection to either open or close the show, which means he doesn’t get the chance to exhibit any trace of genuine familial care and concern for the fate of his wife and child. This is a change that noticeably causes the show to lose some of its impact, as he thus appears entirely unlikeable and there’s no longer any reason to care for him in the first place.
The new alterations are wise. But they’re not faultless.
