Carousel - Kilworth House Open Air Theatre Leicestershire

Has to be better than the Regent’s Park production last year. I only stayed to hear Joanna Riding sing You’ll Never Walk Alone. It was one of my worst evenings at a musical

I disagree. I really liked it! 

She is Cousin Nettie but often played as Auntie Nettie.

A younger portrayal is closer to the script than the now traditional older casting

Charlotte Jaconelli had been cast as Nettie when this production was originally supposed to happen in 2020, so they went really young initially.

My advice would be to book and go regardless. It's a magical venue on a warm summer evening as it's getting dark, and I've yet to see a dud here. I'm booked for both shows this season.

Take a blanket for evening. Even on the hot days at night it can get chilly. You can borrow a blanket but first come first served

Agreed. The nearest bus stop is about a mile away on a route between Lutterworth and Market Harborough but it's a very infrequent service and the final bus does indeed leave before a matinee would finish.

Lutterworth is the nearest town four miles from Kilworth House, but isn't on the rail network. Buses run to Rugby and Leicester from Lutterworth.. Market Harborough over 9 miles away is I think the closest railway station. (Leicester as in the title of this thread is actually 18 miles away) 

We're seeing Carousel tomorrow evening. 

Perhaps it's the magical setting of the Kilworth House Theatre, but I always seem to be entirely won over by every production I see here. Perhaps they're just very good at putting on theatre?

It helps that Carousel is one of my favourite musical scores, and that, as a Liverpool FC supporter, I am only too familiar with its most famous number, (although we do sing "Hold your head up high" a la Gerry Marsden, rather than "Keep your chin up high" a la Hammerstein).

There is also the added curiosity of how the production will handle the problematic wife-beating material, and whether we can fully understand and empathise with the two alliterative leading characters. Personally, I find the reaction to Julie Jordan being struck, harder to fathom -- it feels like a kiss apparently, -- than the idea of having sympathy for Billy Bigelow, who knows no better than to lash out after all that life has thrown at him.

A large cast acquit themselves admirably with no weak links. Some of the voices are sublime. The choreography is well done. Even the ballet interlude is entertaining. (Are you watching Young Vic?!) The men here are all rugged and straight-acting and would not look out of place in small-town New England, and neither would the women.

The set suggests a derelict fairground, with the only carousel horses being two lying redundant, unwanted and unrepaired at the sides. When needed however, the ride does indeed spin into motion with the cast aboard. I rather liked the effect: it's of a time past and gone, but also echoing in the here and now.

By Act 2, I was entirely enraptured. It's strange that the love emanating from a dysfunctional relationship can be so much more powerful and moving than from a staid one. I'm not quite sure what came over me, but I was sobbing uncontrollably at times. Good musical theatre (and good music) will do that.

The only pity was that the Sunday night auditorium was barely half full.

Five stars.

Act 1: 19:33-20:50
Act 2: 21:12-22:19