ABSTRACT
Carousel is another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written two years after Oklahoma! It begins in Scene 1 at an amusement park on the New England coast in 1873.
A working carousel is the focus of the scene. Billy Bigelow, the carousel barker, meets Julie, a local girl in an elaborate scene that is largely an unscripted visual sequence. The carousel is a metaphor for life, implying we get on the carousel and life spins on and on beyond our control. The carousel itself is only seen in this scene, but requires a strong technical solution that will make it easier to shift out of, as well as enough detail and importance to carry through, the play as a metaphorical image.
