atown fair, jugglers, a dancing bear, and especially a carousel,
where the local girls flirt with the handsome barker. This is the
opening action, the pantomime having been taken from the
source play, Liliom, but the orchestra’s waltz transforms this
opening into a grand piece of Broadway assertiveness. Not for
a moment does anyone in the theatre think that the music re-
ally represents the sound of the carousel, for no carousel organ
sounds so magnificent, and everyone knows the convention by
which the orchestra plays from beyond the plot, out of the
blue. Yet having the orchestra sound a bit like a hurdy-gurdy
or a town band (Rodgers insisted on a tuba to keep the beat) is
jolly and interesting. In fact the orchestra is playing a full-
throated European waltz above the oom-pah-pah beat, remind-
ing us that Molnar’s play was European, showing us that trans-
planting it to America is Broadway self-confidence at a high
pitch, and above all impressing us with music that sounds a lot
like Budapest or Vienna and a little like a hurdy-gurdy at the
same time. The musical is having its way with European cul-
ture, and there is no question from this moment on that the
theatre world is going to receive the plot of Liliommainly in
the form of a Broadway show.^2
The wordless energy of this pantomime-overture is distrib-
uted between the unseen orchestra and the activity on stage.
Without any book dialogue, characters are being presented
and plot is being advanced. The barker notices one mill-girl in
particular, the one who does not sway in motion to his spiel
but stands still and gazes at him. The barker places the girl on
the carousel and gets his arm around her, to the annoyance of
an older woman who seems to be in charge of things. The girl
is ecstatic, the older woman furious, the barker nonchalant.
We have not yet heard their names. They have said nothing. A
plot is underway, and it is happening in this opening number,
which does not have a book to interrupt. Integration would be
THE ORCHESTRA 129
(^2) For a good discussion of the waltz as a main source of the musical material
in Carousel, see Swain, The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey,
pp. 99–127.