Carousel is a
musical by
Richard Rodgers (music) and
Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) that was
adapted from
Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play
Liliom, transplanting the
Budapest setting of Molnar's play to a
New England fishing village. The show includes the
hit musical numbers
If I Loved You, June Is Bustin' Out All Over,
and
You'll Never Walk Alone. Carousel was
innovative for its time, being one of the first musicals
to contain a tragic plot.The original production
opened on
Broadway on April 19, 1945, and ran for 890
performances. The musical has enjoyed award-winning
revivals (particularly the 1994 revival at the
Vivian Beaumont Theatre) and has been adapted as a
Cinemascope 55
film in 1956 and as a made-for-television special on
videotape in 1967. It is particularly well-regarded
among musicals by the theatre community, and Richard
Rodgers, in his autobiography Musical Stages,
said it was his favorite musical.
Time magazine named it the best musical of the
20th century.
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