Thumbs Up! Chicago's Carousel, Featuring Career-Defining Star Turns by Laura Osnes & Steven Pasquale, Must Come to Broadway

Seventy years old, Carousel remains the rich jewel in the crown of songwriting titans Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, whose collaboration has given birth to 11 Broadway musicals. Although the rich, complex show has been gone from the main stem since Lincoln Center Theater’s ravishing 1994 revival, we keep crossing our fingers that it’ll be back, and the time may have finally come.

As the stars of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s staging, Steven Pasquale and Laura Osnes are delivering career-defining star turns as doomed lovers Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan. From the moment their eyes lock during the ravishing “Carousel Waltz,” the chemistry is unmistakable. Osnes is deftly navigating a darker world than her roles in Cinderella, South Pacific and, yes, even Bonnie and Clyde offered, bringing intriguing shades to the story of a girl drawn into a doomed relationship, especially during the pair’s gorgeous “If I Loved You” at the top of the show and her deeply felt “What’s the Use of Wond’rin.” And Pasquale (who was robbed of a Tony nomination for last season’s The Bridges of Madison County) is intoxicating throughout as Billy, delivering a towering “Soliloquy."

The leads are supported by great turns from an enviable cast that includes the warm Jenn Gambatese as Carrie Pipperidge (who previously played the role in another Broadway-worthy staging of the show at Goodspeed Opera House in 2012), Matthew Hydzik (of the late Side Show revival) as Enoch Snow, Tony winner Jarrod Emick as Jigger Cragin and Charlotte d'Amboise in the amped-up role of carnival owner Mrs. Mullin.

Director/choreographer Rob Ashford's production embraces the show’s dark, lush undertones with great style, but the big ballet needs storytelling focus and the decision to move the action from the late 1800s to the Great Depression feels more arbitrary than inspired. But these are minor gripes; it's the lovers that elevate this new Carousel. The pairing of Osnes and Pasquale already feels like a legendary Broadway coupling. Now someone just needs to actually get them on Broadway. Soon, please.