Simpson College will showcase the first ever coproduction between Theatre Simpson and Simpson College Opera. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” is a favorite and some say it is one of the best musicals of the 20th century.
Clarke Community High School alumni Laura Swartz and Stacie Kjellsen are both in the ensemble in the show.
This is a synopsis of the show.
In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker Billy Bigelow captivates and marries the naive millworker Julie Jordan.
Billy loses his job as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery.
Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent “up there.”
Billy is allowed to return to Earth for one day 15 years later, and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless teenager, her father’s reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love.
“Oklahoma! is about a picnic, Carousel is about life.” – Stephen Sondheim
Performances are in Pote Theatre in the Blank Performing Arts Center at Simpson College in Indianola 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17, 3:30 and 8 p.m. Oct. 18 and 2 p.m. Oct. 19.
Ticket prices are; $20 for adults, $17.50 for non-Simpson students, seniors and children, $15 for groups of 10 or more and free for Simpson students, faculty and staff with Simpson IDs. To reserve tickets, go online to simpson.tix.com or call the box office at 515-961-1601.