Customer Reviews

Carousel: Selections from the Theatre Guild Musical Play: A Decca Broadway Original Cast Album (Original 1945 Broadway Cast)

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I don't remember the first time I heard John Raitt do the Soliloquy,I did not see the ORIGINAL PRODUCTION..(Wasnt born yet). I do know that he is the best! Several years ago he performed with the Boston Pops and of course he had to do that number. What a voice! Although this recording is in monaural, it is still worth the price! I am one of those people who think that Carousel was Rodgers and Hammerstein's best work, and there is always something magical and sad about cranking a recording of the OBC up on the stereo,especially "Highest judge of all". What a find,what a treasure!

This CD from the MCA Broadway-Gold range features the peerless original 1945 cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's CAROUSEL, regarded by the duo as their favorite of all their collaborations.

The 1945 cast featured John Raitt, in his Broadway debut, as the carnival barker Billy Bigelow with the lovely Jan Clayton as Julie Jordan. The role of Carrie is played by Jean Darling with the cast rounded out by Christine Johnson as Nettie, Eric Mattson as Enoch Snow, Murvyn Vye as Jigger and Connie Baxter.

Raitt's amazing voice perfectly inhabits songs like "The Highest Judge of All" and the breathtaking "Soliloquy". Jan Clayton is a perfect fit for Julie. Miss Clayton would go on to further distinction a few years later, playing both Magnolia and Kim in a landmark revival of SHOW BOAT. Jean Darling perfectly captures the breathless romantic longing of Carrie with the delightful "Mister Snow".

Sound quality is quite good for the age of the material. This cast album is naturally a must-own for all fans of musical theatre

"Carousel" is the great American musical. Try as they might, no composer (including Rodgers and Hammerstein) has surpassed it.

Having said that, I would recommend the 1993 recording of the Original London Cast of the Nicholas Hytner revival of "Carousel" over this one. While I am a bigger fan of the voices here (especially John Raitt and Jan Clayton), the truncated numbers and out-and-out cuts make listening to this album a tragic experience.

I am usually a believer that the original cast recording is the one to buy as it represents what the composer had in mind while putting the show together, but I do not believe that here. The 1993 recording is far better than this. While this 1945 recording does hold an important place in history, the 1993 recording should be considered definitive.

Due to the limitations of 12 inch 78-RPM sides (no more than 4:30 of recorded time) this operatic classic suffers in its original cast incarnation. The CAROUSEL WALTZ is truncated from its 7:15 full length to 4:21. Jean Darling (Darla of Our Gang) may sing off key in MR. SNOW but her interpretation of Carrie is right on the money. IF I LOVED YOU sounds rushed to fit on one side of a disk. Raitt sings wonderfully but cannot act the non-sung lines of dialogue. The SOLILOQUY is strongly done and contains lines that never made it to the final printed version of the show - "When I have a daughter...I always say" and never recorded elsewhere. The number is strangely placed out of sequence on the CD. JUNE is poorly sung by Christine Johnson but well by the chorus. Eric Mattson is only "acceptable" as Snow in WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE ASLEEP - once again Darling carries the song. Murvyn Vye as Jigger has no voice in BLOW HIGH or THERE'S NOTHIN SO BAD, but the chorus is rollicking and there are lines for the women in the latter recorded nowhere else. A REAL NICE CLAMBAKE is well done as is Jan Clayton's plaintive WHAT'S THE USE OF WONDRIN. Raitt gives a powerful interpretation of HIGHEST JUDGE, but YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE is disappointing vocally and dramatically. All in all, even with the truncated numbers, some fitting two to a side, and the rushed quality of some interpretations, it is important to have this document of the show in one's collection. The immediacy of a live initial performance of what has become a classic of the American Musical Theatre is fascinating. The show ran for 26 months, racked up 890 performances. The album totals 41:01 minutes. Highly recommended!

Although i like the movie soundtrack a lot,i was glad to get the original cast album that includes one track:THE HIGHEST JUDGE OF ALL that was not in the movie.CAROUSEL will always remain a great show that had it all to become a classic.If you consider the age of this record 1945,it's still a treat to hear JOHN RAITT,JAN CLAYTON and company do their numbers.Probably because i am a fan of this show,i think it holds up very well.Anyway,if you are a RODGERS and HAMMERSTEIN enthousiast,you simply must include the original CAROUSEL cast album in your collection.

Easily one of the greatest musicals of all-time, Carousel offers quite a bit! John Raitt makes his best Broadway appearance in this musical! This musical is easily comparable to Oklahoma! because of the style of music and a somewhat similar plot. Even musically, the beautiful IF I LOVED YOU echoes Oklahoma's PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE is the most powerful tune of this musical. JUNE IS BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER is a robustious and happy song! Despite some hiss in the sound, the album is still a winner!

Most of the complaints lodged here by other listeners are quite valid. The score of CAROUSEL was not as easily truncated to fit the old-format 78 RPM records: The middle section of "The Carousel Waltz" is skipped (and the alternate take is still missing this section...just adds 4 bars of transition music prior to the second waltz tune.); the "Bench" scene is shorn of its recitative section and much of the middle section between the two verses. On the other hand Decca did give 2 full sides to the "Soliloquy" taking it down complete. (ODDITY: On the original 78 set this was put on the 5th record so that if you stacked the records the stack had to be flipped half-way through this number...right after the lines "my kid ain't even been born yet." When Decca transferred the 78 set to LP they decided to use the "Soliloquy" to close off the first side of the Lp thereby placing it much earlier in the song program than it would be heard in the show. The CD puts most of the songs back in their proper sequence.) The sound on this CD (taken from carefully maintained 16" glass-based transcription records long filed away in the Decca vaults) is very good, but as with all Decca records of the era there is a harsh, flat sound that is especially unflattering to the female voices. Still, the Cd sounds much much better than those horrible fake-stereo Lp pressings! More complete versions of the CAROUSEL score are herad on the recent London cast album, the 1994 Broadway revival and the 1965 Lincoln centre cast with Raitt recreating his original starring role. And, really, the best sung CAROUSEL is probably the movie cast with Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, but for all its flaws, this is a historic document of how this classic show sounded when newly minted.

"Carousel" was the second musical collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein and this 1945 album "featuring members of the original New York production" has the virtue of being the first record with "selections from the Theatre Guild musical play." However, it terms of both the quality of the voices and recording, this is the least impressive version of "Carousel" out there. The musical from Ferenc Molanr's fantasy drama "Lilom," with the setting moved from Budapest to a coastal New England town in 1873. Lilom, the Budapest bouncer, is transformed in Hammerstein's book into Billy Bigelow, an amusement park barker. Julie Jordan, the sweet, small-town girl is attracted to the rough, worldly Billy. Everyone in town warns them against the marriage, which ends in tragedy with Billy's suicide. However, at the backdoor of Heaven he is given a second chance to perform one good deed. John Raitt and Jan Clayton as Billy and Julie are solid Broadway performers and the rest of the cast is serviceable. However, this album does sound like it was recorded almost 50 years ago. There are times I want to go over and dust off the needle.

The music in "Carousel" certainly holds up, although the idea that a slap from someone who loves you can feel like a kiss is a horrific idea even without the dictates of current political correctness. The score is a varied mix of great and average songs. "The Carousel Waltz (Prologue)" is Rodgers finest instrumental piece outside of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," "If I Loved You" is as good a love duet as "People Will Say We're In Love," "June is Bustin' Out All Over" is one of the finest choruses from Rodgers & Hammerstein, and it is good to remember the original context of "You'll Never Walk Alone" before Jerry Lewis appropriated it. However, for me the greatest song in this musical has always been the 7:26 "Soliloquy," for which I heartily recommend the Frank Sinatra cover on "Sinatra: A Man and His Music." If you pick up this CD for your collection, it is more out of a sense of completeness than anything else. I would still express a preference for the movie soundtrack with Shirley Jones, although Barbara Cook's studio album would be a close second.

Carousel is to many R & H fans, their best show/score and it is one of their more popular shows. It opened on April 19, 1945 at the Majestic Theatre and ran on for 890 performances making it another successful for the famous songwriting team. I would concur that this is a fabulous musical with one of my favorite scores.

This original Broadway cast recording is a mixed bag. One of the reasons is that this was recorded for 78s resulting in most of the score being truncated and/or sped up to the fit the time limits the recording format posed. As a result, the most famous scene of the musical: the twelve minute bench scene is cut down to 4:21 with most of the recitative section cut and whatever's left feels so rushed. So John Raitt and Jan Clayton are still very good on this song, but a better and more complete performance of them in this scene can be found on video from The General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers & Hammerstein ( a special feature on the 50th anniversary edition of the so-so film adaptation.
John Raitt sings gloriously in "Soliloquy" and "The Highest Judge of All" giving both songs an operatic thrill not matched, but sounds dull when speaking his dialogue. He would improve dramatically very much so in the later 1965 Lincoln Center Cast recording even if the operatic thrill disappears there. Jan Clayton is dramatically and vocally satisfying as Julie and comes off better in "If I Loved You" and gives "What's the Use of Wond'rin" a first class treatment.

The supporting cast is mixed too. Jean Darling is right on as Carrie and gives "Mister Snow" and her portion of "When the Children Are Asleep" first class treatments. However Eric Matterson and Murvyn Vye are dull as Mr. Snow and Jigger. Christine Johnson fares better as Nettie, but her performance of "You'll Never Walk Alone" is rushed probably once again due to the time limits on the 78s and "Geranuims in the Winder" is left off the recording which is fine especially seeing Eric Matterson isn't quite so good. Perhaps they were better on stage.

Overall, it's a fine recording and great to keep for the history and fine performances of some on here and the sound is pretty good (not to mention for the orchestrations that Robert Russell Bennett did for some of the songs before he got sidelined), but I would recommend not making this your only recording of this fabulous musical.

Despite being radically shortened to fit on ten sides of a 12" 78rpm record album, Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest score has not been better served on disc than this original 1945 Broadway cast recording. One may yearn to hear the entire bench scene ("If I Loved You"), but what's there is both powerful and delicate (and has never been better performed). John Raitt and Jan Clayton are the best Billy and Julie on records; and Jean Darling and Eric Mattson match them every step of the way as Carrie and Mister Snow. Murvyn Vye and the late Christine Johnson also add strong vocal support.

I recognize that this lengthy, complex score cries out for a complete recording, but even when one finally emerges it will only be a supplement to this peerless original.