Carnival!

In December 1958 producer David Merrick announced his intent to produce a stage musical based on the 1953 film Lili, a concept suggested to Merrick by that film's screenwriter Helen Deutsch. Originally Deutsch was to write the musical's book while the score was assigned to Gérard Calvi, a French composer—Lili was set in France—who authored the revue La Plume de Ma Tante which Merrick produced on Broadway. Calvi's lack of expertise with English lyrics would result in his dropping out of the Lili musical; on Deutsch's recommendation Merrick hired Bob Merrill to write the score.[2]

After seeing the musical Bye Bye Birdie which opened on Broadway in April 1960, Merrick recruited the production's stage director/choreographer Gower Champion to act in those capacities for the Lili musical. Helen Deutsch would soon be dropped from Merrick's project, as Merrick was finding the drafts she was submitting unworkable for the stage. Feeling he could get the desired result more expediently working with a writer with stage musical experience, Merrick recruited Bye Bye Birdie writer Michael Stewart in September 1960, the invitation being made through Gower Champion. (In its final form Carnival would credit its book to "Michael Stewart based on material by Helen Deutsch".) A month after Stewart submitted his first draft for Carnival!—as the Lili musical project was entitled by November 1960—the writer was fired by Merrick; however he was rehired thirty-six hours later.[3] Magician Roy Benson was the magical adviser teaching Marco the magic used in the show.

Carnival has not played on Broadway since the original production closed. There have been two Off-Broadway revivals, the first a production by the New York City Center Light Opera Company which began a month-long engagement on December 12, 1968. Peter Howard, who had been the dance arranger for the original Broadway production of Carnival! was the musical director for the City Center production whose cast included Victoria Mallory (Lili), Leon Bibb (Paul Berthalet), Richard France (Marco), Karen Morrow (Rosalie), Carmine Caridi (Schlegel) and Pierre Olaf who reprising his Broadway role as Jacquot.[13] The City Center production is seemingly unique among major productions of Carnival in making the show's love story an interracial one by casting an African-American actor in the role of Paul.

Carnival again played at New York City Center in 2002 as an Encores! production directed by Kathleen Marshall which starred Anne Hathaway as Lili and featured puppets by the Jim Henson Company, New York Muppet Workshop; the cast also included Brian Stokes Mitchell (Paul Berthalet), Douglas Sills (Marco), Debbie Gravitte (Rosalie), David Costabile (Jacquot) and David Margulies (Schlegel). Ben Brantley in his The New York Times review praised the Encores! concert, describing Hathaway as convincing in the role even though "Lili may be the most unworldly heroine ever in a Broadway musical, dangerously blurring the lines between innocence and mental deficiency".[14] It was announced in January 2004 that Julian Schlossberg planned to produce a revival of Carnival to run on Broadway. Schlossberg hoped to feature the principal actors from the Encores! concert production in a full-scale rendering of the play, and also hoped that Encores! director Kathleen Marshall and the Jim Henson puppets would come on board for the revival. The announcement also stated that the book for this revival of Carnival would be reworked by Thomas Meehan.[15] This revival did not materialize.

There have been two Off-Off Broadway revivals of Carnival, the first a 1977 Equity Library Theatre (ELT) production which ran November 3 – November 20. This was the first musical directed by Susan H. Schulman; the production featured Sue Anne Gershenzon (Lili), Ross Petty (Paul Berthalet), Joel Craig (Marco), Laura Kenyon (Rosalie), Jack Hoffman (Jacquot) and Carl Don (Schlegel). Schulman subsequently mounted Carnival for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (CLO) in the summer of 1982 with Gershenzon, Petty and Hoffman reprising their ELT roles; the CLO production also featured Keith Curran (Marco) and Lenora Nemetz (Rosalie). In reviewing the CLO production, Terry Hazlett of the Observer-Reporter observed: "On paper, perhaps, [Carnival] is a lackluster piece. The show contains only one memorable song: 'Love Makes the World Go 'Round', has few production numbers and asks the audience to believe a young woman is so naive she doesn't make the obvious connection between a puppeteer and his puppets. But director Susan H. Schulman and choreographer Steven Gelfer infuse a great deal of life into 'Carnival' by making it just that – a carnival."[16]

Carnival also played at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco in 1961 starting in late Aprilz It was part of the national tour though shorter than other runs within the California segment of its run.

In 1993 the York Theatre company revival of Carnival played at theatre at St. Peters Church March 31–May 2. This production was directed/choreographed by Pamela Hunt and featured Glory Crampton (Lili), Robert Michael Baker (Paul Berthalet), Paul Schoeffler (Marco), Karen Mason (Rosalie), Robert Lydiard (Jacquot) and William Linton (Schlegel). In his New York Magazine review of the York Theatre production John Simon characterized the original Carnival! as "a ramshackle production of a sentimental movie [that] was saved on Broadway by Gower Champion and adept casting" and opined: "The York Theatre production of Carnival does what York is best at – taking a questionable show and making it unquestionably amateurish."[17] Stephen Holden of The New York Times found the York Theatre production of Carnival: "a rough-and-tumble singing storybook in which the members of a third-rate French circus troupe smilingly send up their own mediocrity...The show, a double allegory of a girl's growing up and of love overcoming despair, is potentially treacly stuff, and a production this intimate risks magnifying the sweetness to a terminally gooey level. But Pamela Hunt...has tightly controlled its hokier aspects. In her hands, Carnival becomes a brash musical farce that turns sentimental only when absolutely required."[18]

Both the Equity Library Theatre and Encores! stagings were taped for the New York Public Library Billy Rose Theatre Collection archives.

Anna Maria Alberghetti reprised the role of Lili in a production of Carnival which played the Valley Music Theater in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles for two weeks in February 1966, and which also featured James Mitchell and Ed Ames reprising their roles from, respectively, the Broadway and national touring companies of Carnival.[19]

Director/choreographer Robert Longbottom directed a revival of Carnival which ran from February 17 to March 11, 2007, at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, D.C.,[20] with a cast which included Ereni Sevasti (Lili), Jim Stanek (Paul Berthalet), Sebastian La Cause (Marco), Natascia Diaz (Rosalie), Michael Arnold (Jacqout), and Jonathan Lee Iverson (Schlegel). This production, which introduced a revised book by Francine Pascal (sister of Michael Stewart) was a critical hit, as evidenced by the reviews of Paul Harris in Variety: "So where has this little gem been hiding? Following the original David Merrick/Gower Champion production's 719-[performance] run on Broadway in the early '60s, Carnival largely disappeared into the neglected musical dungeon, with only a smattering of noteworthy escapes since, including a 2002 City Center Encores! revival. The Bob Merrill and Michael Stewart tuner has surfaced at the Kennedy Center in delightful shape, under the discerning eye of director-choreographer Robert Longbottom."[21] and Peter Marks of The Washington Post: "No musical in recent years has looked or sounded better on a Kennedy Center stage than the revival of 'Carnival' that has been buffed to a ravishing sheen by director Robert Longbottom...If the Kennedy Center's goal here was to dress a difficult, neglected work in a coat of contemporary artistry, the aim has been achieved."[22]

The Paper Mill Playhouse mounted Carnival in 2006, the play running March 8 to April 19 under the direction of Erica Schmidt with a cast including Elena Shaddow (Lili), Charles Pollock (Paul Berthalet), Paul Schoeffler (Marco), Jennifer Allen (Rosalie), Eric Michael Gillett (Jacquot) and Nick Wyman (Schlegel). In her The New York Times write-up of the Paper Mill revival, Naomi Siegel characterizes Carnival as "an also-ran among American musicals [which] simply never entered the Broadway pantheon" and specifies the dark elements she feels make Carnival overall problematic – "the bleakness of the leading characters -- Lili, a forlorn orphan looking for love in all the wrong places; Marco, a second-rate magician with a Lothario complex; and Paul, a former dancer, wounded in the war and now forced to perform as a puppeteer and miserable in the process...[Also] the underlying theme of child exploitation...with a subtle but present sexual subtext" – before assessing the Paper Mill production as "[a] revival [which] reminds us of the genuine charm of the work and provides several show-stopping numbers for its talented players [but] does little to dispel the shadow that the play casts."[23] Paper Mill had first presented Carnival in 1964, opening 11 February with Liza Minnelli, then seventeen, in one of her earliest stage roles as Lili. Minnelli debuted in the role in a production at the Mineola Playhouse which opened January 28, 1964.

Darko Tresnjak directed a revival of Carnival which ran from August 12 to September 18, 2010, at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam CT under the auspices of Goodspeed Musicals which had previously mounted Carnival in 1986. The 2010 Goodspeed production of Carnival, which retained Francine Pascal's revisions for the 2007 Kennedy Center production, had in its cast Lauren Worsham (Lili), Adam Monley (Paul Berthalet), Nathan Klau (Jacquot), Mike McGowan (Marco), Michelle Blakely (Rosalie) and Laurent Giroux (Schlegel) with the last-named role taken over by Michael Kostroff. In his review of the 2010 Goodspeed production, Frank Rizzo of Variety described Carnival as being both a "bittersweet tuner that touches on sadness, desperation and remoteness" and "an entertainment...that features magic, puppetry and aerial work as well as a luxurious score ...Carnival isn't a natural for wide crossover appeal, but this tasteful, multilayered production does re-enforce the view that it is still a gem to be valued."[24]

The Gloucester Stage Company mounted a revival of Carnival which ran from July 5 to July 22, 2012. The company's artistic director Eric C. Engel directed a cast headlined by Victoria Thornsbury (Lili), Gus Curry (Paul), Daniel Robert Sullivan (Marco) and Shannon Lee Jones (Rosalie).[25]

From April 3 to 21, 2013, 42nd Street Moon presented a revival of Carnival at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco, directed by Greg MacKellan and starring Ashley Jarrett as Lili, Ryan Drummond as Paul, Bill Olson as Marco and Dyan McBride as Rosalie.

The Original Broadway Cast recording of Carnival was recorded April 23, 1961, with Eddie Heller producing in association with Arnold Maxin and Saul Schechtman conducting, as he had in the Broadway production; the album omits much of the dance music, as well as the songs "Magic, Magic", "Fairyland", and the "Mira" reprise. Rush-released that May as MGM 3946/Stereo S3946,[26] the Broadway cast recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart dated July 17, 1961.[27] (The rights to recordings of Carnival defaulted to MGM Records by virtue of the musical's parent film Lili being a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release.)

The Original London Cast album of Carnival was also recorded by MGM; made before the show's disappointing West End run, the London cast recording was passed by MGM to EMI and released in January 1963 as HMV CSD-1476.[28] The London Cast recording features the same tracks and edits as the Broadway cast album but includes some dialogue.

The CD of the original Broadway cast was released on June 8, 1989, on Decca Broadway; it includes nine bonus tracks, of which five are by Merrill. Kritzerland released the original London cast recording on CD, in limited quantities, in May 2011.

Arthur Freed hoped to produce a film version of Carnival for MGM (who automatically had film rights by virtue of having originated the film Lili). Gower Champion and Julius J. Epstein were attached to the project as, respectively, director and screenwriter.[29] Unofficial reports cast the Carnival film with Yvette Mimieux mentioned as both a possible Lili and Rosalie, Robert Goulet as Paul Berthalet and George Chakiris as Marco;[30] Broadway cast members James Mitchell and Pierre Olaf were also said to be reprising their stage roles for the film, and Anna Maria Alberghetti did a screen test for the film role of Lili in the spring of 1963.[31]

Plans for the film version of Carnival were eventually scrapped, and the movie was never made.[32]

• Carnival! at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tams-Witmark synopsis and production information
• Music and Lyrics for Carnival! by Bob Merrill – Hear sound clips on TheBobMerrill.com site
• Interview with Kaye Ballard about Carnival!
• Theater Mania review of 2007 Kennedy Center production
• Carnival! on Floormic.com