WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Dark ride on this Carousel
WILL STONE sees a curiously downbeat production of a Broadway musical classic
LIGHT RELIEF: John Pfumojena and Christina Modestou as Enoch Snow and Carrie Pipperidge
[Johan Persson] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Carousel
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London
TO MAKE it resonate with a modern audience, a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1945 musical was always going to be a tall order. So it proves with this production.
Based on the 1909 play Liliom, many people simply don’t care about the explorations of marriage, women having lots of children and masculine pride in Ferenc Molnar’s work anymore.
So when meek and mild millworker Julie Jordan (Carly Bawden) falls for brutish carousel barker Billy Bigelow (Declan Bennett) and their love for each other causes them both to lose their jobs, we’re looking through what seems the lens of ancient history.
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