Carousel - 1993 London Cast Recording [Cast Recording]

Joanna Riding, Michael Hayden, Katrina Murphy, Clive Rowe, Meg Johnson, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Carousel (Related Recordings) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 15, 1994)
• Original Release Date: March 15, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: RCA Victor Broadway
• ASIN: B000003FO6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,673 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #32 in Music > Broadway & Vocalists > Musicals > Revivals
  • #84 in Music > Broadway & Vocalists > Musicals > Classic Musicals

Track Listings

1. Prologue

2. Mister Snow

3. If I Loved You

4. June Is Bustin' Out All Over

5. Mister Snow (Reprise)

6. When the Children Are Asleep

7. Blow High, Blow Low

8. Soliloquy

9. A Real Nice Clambake

10. Geraniums in the Winder/Stonecutters Cut It on Stone

11. What's the Use of Wond'rin'

12. You'll Never Walk Alone

13. Ballet

14. If I Loved You (Reprise)

15. You'll Never Walk Alone (Reprise)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great American Musical, July 26, 2001

By 

Bradley Cooper - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carousel - 1993 London Cast Recording (Audio CD)

"Carousel" is the great American musical. There's just no denying it. Nothing that came before and nothing that has come since can hold a candle to this show. It is Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterpiece and it is America's masterpiece. Although I can't say much that Arne Andersen and Tommy Peter haven't already said in their reviews, I'll sure try!

I was fortunate enough to see this phenomenal production of "Carousel" at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End in January of 1994 and no theatre-going experience has been so powerful or memorable. Although Michael Hayden had already left the production to open the show on Broadway, the rest of the cast was the same as is heard here. Personally, I have no qualm with Meg Johnson's rendition of either "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" or "You'll Never Walk Alone." In her defense, I can assure you that her voice rang with more purity on stage than it does on this recording.

While I am actually a bigger fan of the original cast of this show (1945), I am not a fan of that recording. I do believe John Raitt and Jan Clayton could sing circles around Michael Hayden and Joanna Riding any day of the week, but the score as preserved on this disc is far more pleasing than the truncated 1945 recording debacle.

Here at last is the entire "If I Loved You" scene (almost 12 minutes). Here is the entire "Carousel Waltz" and the full second act ballet. Here is the incredibly necessary "If I Loved You (Reprise)" -- the most important scene in the show. The only things missing from this recording are "Give It to 'Em Good, Carrie" (which can be found on the 1994 Broadway Revival recording) and the female chorus' response to "Stonecutters Cut It on Stone" (which can be found on the 1945 original cast recording). Otherwise, the ENTIRE score is intact!

I beg anyone and everyone who visits this page to purchase this CD. You will not be disappointed! This is as close as the American musical has come to greatness and should be on everyone's music shelf.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Young Leads a Revelation in Superb revival of classic., August 19, 1998

By 

A. Andersen (Bellows Falls, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carousel - 1993 London Cast Recording (Audio CD)

If this London revival of CAROUSEL had only had the brilliant stage and set designs and the enthusiasm of the young cast, it would have been a stunner but it is a revelation in for the first time casting a YOUNG Billy and a YOUNG Julie. For the first time the plot makes sense - these are abused and confused youngsters grappling at love. The acting by Michael Hayden and Joanna Riding in the leads is superb and their singing is full of beauty and emotional insight. This is the best interpretation of the leading roles ever recorded - poignant and full of feeling. Around them musically there are some hits and some misses. The CAROUSEL WALTZ is reorchestrated, slightly cut and too subdued and leisurely for my enjoyment. Katrina Murphy as Carrie is wonderful in MR. SNOW, superbly orchestrated by William Brohm and she and Ms. Riding fine in JULIE JORDAN. IF I LOVED YOU is nothing short of extraordinary - musically and dramatically. Meg Johnson disappoints as Nettie in JUNE IS BUSTIN OUT ALL OVER but the chorus is fine and this is the first recording of the dance music following the number (total time: 5:12). The MR. SNOW reprise is mixed - Clive Rowe is totally miscast as Snow and overprojects and overacts badly. Murphy is fine in this and in WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE ASLEEP and Rowe again disappoints. BLOW HIGH is done well with Phil Daniels providing the raspiest singing voice probably ever recorded. Hayden again is wonderful in the SOLILOQUY - acting full of joy, wonder and sensitivity. A REAL NICE CLAMBAKE is fine - again except for Rowe, who is only competent in GERANIUMS IN THE WINDER (only the third time this number has been recorded). STONECUTTERS CUT IT ON STONE is well done but the women's chorus reprise is not included. Ms. Riding does well with WHAT'S THE USE OF WONDRIN which here includes the dramatic end scene of Act I - first recording. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE is not well done (again Meg Johnson) but includes transitional dialogue that replaces the dropped song THE HIGHEST JUDGE OF ALL. LOUISE'S BALLET receives its first ever recording and it's fabulously done - coming in at 11:48. The sensitive IF I LOVED YOU reprise is well done by Mr. Hayden and the FINALE is well acted and sung. All in all a not perfect recording but considering the extraordinary lead performances and the never before recorded dance music, this is a must own album for all lovers of R&H and the show itself. Avoid the 1994 Broadway incarnation of this production which is below par.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I almost didn't buy this CD because of the negative reviews here..., August 14, 2007

By 

Hypoxy (Bath, ME United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carousel - 1993 London Cast Recording (Audio CD)

...and I'd have missed the most poignant, exuberant performance of this great musical I've ever seen or heard.

(And I've seen probably a dozen live performances of Carousel since my first one in Dallas in the late '40s. I own the orig. cast, the remastered orig. cast, the movie sound track, the Barbara Cook/Samuel Ramey, the John Raitt/Eileen Christy Lincoln Center recordings.)

I've been a voice coach and choral director for ~40 years. I know what great voices sound like. I also know when vocal virtuosity is secondary to a singer-actor's ability to draw an audience into his character and the story that's being told.

Clive Rowe isn't Eric Mattson, but he IS the love-besotted fisherman-with-big-dreams Enoch Snow. Jigger's gravelly voice is predictively sinister, Julie sounds like a sweet unsophisticated teenage girl. Meg Johnson's "You'll Never Walk Alone" is not the operatic aria it is in some hands; it's exactly what it was written to be: a tender attempt to comfort a grief-stricken youngster.

Michael Hayden's "Soliloquy" lacks the vocal grandeur of Raitt's, but it lacks nothing in its expression of the agony of a hooligan carny kid wrestling with utterly alien emotions.

Katrina Murphy is impeccable by any standard and that's as it should be. If I were a female singer with Broadway aspirations, the role of Carrie would be my ultimate dream.

The marvelous chorus is always attuned to the moment, the orchestra is exhilarating, the orchestration is simply inspired. The music is so perfectly integrated into the dialogue and action that you are unaware of any synapse.

This recording, with its wonderful generosity in including so much of the score and enough dialogue to allow even those who are unfamiliar with the musical to understand the characters and follow the drama, conveys the bittersweet story of this love affair more effectively than any performance in my experience.

Keith Allen's perceptive review nails it: this is not 1945. I think the London company pulled off a near miracle: a Carousel with the grittiness and realism today's audiences demand, yet with so-obvious loving respect for Rodgers' & Hammerstein's masterpiece.