| Thanks, Sergius. I'll never forget it. Until Hytner I had no idea that Carousel was anything other than an audition opportunity for a singer to make us weep for the special someone who is watching over us (oh wait, that's a different play). Of course, all I'd seen were HS & other amateur productions along with the movie; but I'd seen plenty of them. Walk Alone being so well loved, everyone wanted to prove themselves with it. In the Hytner production I discovered that musical theater could actually speak truth about life's hard parts, as well as the joyful ones. It was so honest. And so much more moving for that. I've always contended that its putatively weak vocals were one of the production's strengths, and decidedly not a weakness. Soliloquy was devastatingly gut wrenching. Topping it all off, there was Audra Ann showing us (save a peculiar critic) that the important differences among Down Easters has nothing to do with color and everything to do with character. That, of course is still true (and not only in Maine). |
