Carousel is the first of six productions this season with other Broadway Series shows including How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Cats, Hello, Dolly!, Into the Woods and Phantom of the Opera.

Carousel was a strong start for this season's Broadway Series with an appreciative audience running the gamut from tears to laughs and back again. Carousel is based on the play Liliom written by Ferenc Molnar and tells the story of Billy Bigelow (Patrick Wilson), a carnival barker, and his marriage to a factory girl, Julie Jordan (Sarah Uriarte). Despite warnings from others about his reputation, she believes in him and then suffers the consequences as he continually lets her down. Bigelow keeps the company of an undesirable sailor named Jigger Craigin (Brett Rickaby), eventually leading to even more disaster for the young couple. Only when Billy discovers that Julie is going to have a baby does he attempt to turn his life around, but even then he elects to follow the wrong path with tragic results.

Wilson has previously starred in the National Tour of Miss Saigon and Uriarte has appeared as Eponine in Les Miserables on both Broadway and in the National Tour - and also as Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. Interestingly enough, it was Uriarte who succeeded Susan Egan after Egan created and portrayed Belle for two and a half years on Broadway. Egan appeared in Sacramento's Music Circus this summer as Maria in The Sound of Music.

Carousel was written over fifty years ago and the current production opened in London's West End in 1992, earning four Olivier Awards. The American production was presented at Lincoln Center in 1994 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival.

Sacramento's audience was treated to a special chemistry between a triad of couples in the show - Billy and Julie; Enoch Snow (Sean Palmer) and Carrie Pipperidge (Sherry Boone); and Louise (Dana Stackpole) - Billy and Julie's daughter 15 years later - and the Fairground Boy (Joseph Woelfel).

Each pair had their own special magic and delighted the crowd with their performances. Billy and Julie's tragic love story played out; Enoch Snow, a buffoonish fish-seller and Carrie's love for him; and Louise's beautiful ballet with the Fairground Boy at the site of the Carousel where her father used to work.

Some of the scenes in Carousel seemed to go on forever and really need to be shortened to better hold the audience's attention, but overall Carousel is an outstanding musical with nice music and lyrics in well-known songs such as "June is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone," and some outstanding sets that are constantly being changed on the fly as the performance continues.

The Carousel - seen in its entirety only near the beginning of the show - is a sight to behold and other sets like the beach for the Clambake and a grassy hill are simple, but extremely effective and well done.

I had never seen Carousel before this performance and only vaguely knew the story, so I went into the latter part of the production not knowing what to expect. While I am generally for happier endings, Act Two really grabbed my attention and came as such a surprise that I don't want to give it away here for those of you who haven't seen this Rodgers & Hammerstein classic. Reviewed by Joe Blenkle