Wheeldon's charming distillation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic Carousel recalls the innocent romance and thrilling drama of the Broadway production.
In 2002, New York City Ballet devoted its Opening Night performance to the music of Richard Rodgers, to honor the composer’s centennial. For his contribution to the program, Christopher Wheeldon used an arrangement of Rodgers’ “The Carousel Waltz” and “If I Loved You” from the 1945 musical Carousel; the ballet is a distillation of Carousel’s central romance, and it is evocative of the “dream ballets” found in many musicals of that era.