Trivia / Carousel

• Breakaway Pop Hit: Though the Broadway production was a hit, the movie version was a critical and box-office failure. However "You'll Never Walk Alone" became a hit and received many cover versions. It even became the anthem for British football team Liverpool FC and the theme for Jerry Lewis' telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: Ferenc Molnar, writer of Liliom, sat in on a few rehearsals. Rodgers & Hammerstein were terrified of what his reaction would be - only for the man to say he loved what they had done, especially changing the ending.
• Cut Song: "You're A Queer One, Julie Jordan" and "Blow High, Blow Low" from the stage version were recorded for the film, but were cut. They're still included on the soundtrack album however.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The movie took longer to receive an official home video release than the other Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations in 20th Century Fox's library did. Its first VHS release didn't occur until 1990, when CBS/FOX Video heralded the Silver Anniversary of the Sound of Music film version with a line of R&H-composed videos. While the VHS tapes, individual DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs^note sold only in a boxset with Fox's other R&H adaptations and the 1945 version of State Fair eventually went out of print, Carousel does remain available today on Digital HD, and in the 2006 Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection DVD boxset.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Shirley Jones preferred this to Oklahoma!, despite Carousel not being as well-received. She said this was her favourite Rodgers & Hammerstein score altogether. Richard Rodgers also considered Carousel to be his favourite score.
• Non-Singing Voice: Marni Nixon dubs Shirley Jones for one line of "If I Loved You" - and I always say two heads are better than one to figure it out.
• The Other Marty: Frank Sinatra was cast as Billy Bigelow in the film version, but left production a few weeks in rather than shoot each scene twice (once on 35mm, another on 55mm). A few weeks after Gordon McRae came on board, they discovered a conversion process between the formats.
• Production Posse: The movie shares two lead actors, Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones, with the movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, released only one year earlier.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The musical was going to open with an overture, but Rodgers changed his mind because he felt that the music could never be properly heard over the sounds of latecomers getting to their seats. So the show instead opens with a pantomime scene and "The Carousel Waltz".
• Refitted for Sequel: While not technically a sequel, the song "A Real Nice Clambake" was a reworked version of a Cut Song from Oklahoma (titled "A Real Nice Hayride").
• Viewers Are Morons: The film changes the musical's linear format to a flashback - where Billy is already dead - because producers were worried the audiences would mistakenly think the film was over after the death.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Initial performances of the musical included God and a wife (named Mrs God by Richard Rodgers later on) depicted as a New England minister and his wife in a parlour - and Billy would appear before them after his death. After a few performances, they realised it wasn't working. So the parlour was scrapped, Mr God was renamed the Starkeeper and put on a ladder, and Mrs God was dropped entirely.
  • The Dark Reprise of "If I Loved You" was added after Richard Rodgers felt the second act needed more music.
  • As mentioned above, Frank Sinatra was originally cast as Billy. Also, Judy Garland was almost cast as Julie but was passed over because she was considered too unreliable.
  • "Soliloquy" was originally just about Billy dreaming of a son. Richard Rodgers - who had two daughters - suggested the second part of the song where Billy suddenly considers that Julie might have a girl instead.

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