CWC Arts Center Brochure 2021-2022 | Page 8

Carousel is the second musical written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . Based on the play Liliom by Ferenc Molnar . The story revolves around a swaggering , carefree carnival barker , Billy Bigelow , who captivates and marries the gentle millworker , Julie Jordan . Billy loses his job just 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 . How Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love . The musical includes the well-known songs “ If I Loved You ,” “ June Is Bustin ’ Out All Over ” and “ You ’ ll Never Walk Alone .”