A new spin brings an old classic up to date

Carousel Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Until September 25, 2hrs 35mins

What to do with old musicals, where the tunes soar but the plots creak? Like Carousel, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s romantic story of Julie and Billy, a fairground barker who quickly turns abusive. Director Timothy Sheader’s solution is to put a whole new spin on its ending.

For modern audiences, the ease with which Billy is granted redemption can sit queasily. This distinctly gritty production instead has a chorus of women holding Billy to account. It’s a strong intervention, but perhaps doesn’t feel that satisfying.

Other choices are more successful: the production transports the action from

New England to a seaside town somewhere in England, on a bare wooden circular stage, with the cast (including John Pfumojena and Christina Modestou, left) using their own accents. Carousel doesn’t just withstand such meddling, it benefits from it.

Sheader’s reinterpretation is musically matched in Tom Deering’s fantastic rescoring: out go syrupy strings, in come a plangent brass band (a sound with yearning English nostalgia baked in), as well as ambient electronics and fuzzy guitars. All the big numbers – June Is Bustin’ Out All Over, This Was A Real Nice Clambake, the magnificent You’ll Never Walk Alone – hit high points of showmanship, but the orchestration brings a dark undertow too.

Declan Bennett is a brooding presence as Billy, and Carly Bawden makes sense of Julie’s attraction to him in a contained, determined performance. Both are victims, to an extent, of their circumstances. The idea that entitled, violent masculinity damages everyone – men and women alike – rumbles throughout the show.