Carousel

My heart just, like, burst wide open for it, and I was obsessed.

And then the first show I ever saw live was Carousel, another Rodgers and Hammerstein classic.

My sister played one of the children in it, um, when she was in, like, first grade at the high school.

So I was, uh, in preschool-

What a first show.

Yeah

Carousel, yeah.

[laughs] I saw Carousel at Bendorf High School and was hooked.

Aretha Franklin sang it.

This is a song from the great, it's a Rodgers and Hammerstein song from Carousel.

It's a great American songbook hit.

And they have this singer from the Dingle, released it in 1963.

Like, OK, Oklahoma had been a phenomenon and.

And then Carousel was a big hit.

But this was also like a big hit that also won a Pulitzer Prize for a drama, which was like, that doesn't really happen every day.

Yeah, that is interesting.

That was South Pacific.

Yeah, there are some things to think about and talk about and consider, especially if you're going to do a revival of it.

But also, it's just much more fun than all the heavy stuff from Carousel.

So I'm like, yay, South Pacific! Woo!

[laughs]So two nominations, zero awards when all was said and done.

Keep in mind, this was also the season that gave us a highly acclaimed revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, which seems like awful timing.

Maybe don't play chicken with an honest to God revival of a classic when you have a piano bar revue up your sleeve.

No offense to piano bar revues, but, uh, if I have to pay Broadway prices, I know what I'm gonna go with.

Oh, what a gem.

Here is the first of four clips I have for you.

In this first clip, Jack Benny appears in a sketch about buying tickets for "Carousel."

How many, please?

It's been recorded by many, many people.

But of course, it's a Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the musical Carousel.

I think Frank Sinatra may have been the first person to have actually recorded it and had a bit of a hit with it.

But the performers who are going to participate in this, now we know, will be Amy Shark.

It's a Hungarian play.

written by Mollier, and it was the catalyst for what we know in America as Carousel.

And it's a commissioned score by Michel Legrand, who won many Academy Awards and Grammys.

And it's an incredible score.

him.

What's compelling to me is that, you know, we all...

People that are fans of Rodgers and Hammerstein, you know, we associate Carousel with this story, of course.

And that music is so beautiful that I would be hesitant to think that anyone could rewrite my idea of it.

If you put it down here, it'll be down to her shins.

Carousel.

Now, heard of it.

Heard of it.

One of my closest friends for over 30 years was John Raitt.

Heard of him.

This was his big break in Carousel.

And...