Lyric Opera’s Carousel

Lyric Opera’s Carousel

This past Friday night, I had the wonderful opportunity of seeing the Lyric Opera’s production of Carousel—for free! In this post, I’m going to tell you all about this stunning performance and how I scored free tickets—and how you can too! (Or at least discounted tickets).

Last week, I saw a contest through a company I follow on Twitter called Choose Chicago. The contest was to win two free tickets to see Carousel on April 16th, 17th, or 18th! All we had to do was tweet in saying why we would like to see the show, and a winner would be selected from the pool of entries! Me being a musical theatre buff entered why I wanted to see this amazing production (the sets, music, stars) and was selected as the winner! I usually do not win things, so this was extremely exciting for me! My roommate and I decided upon attending the performance on Friday night, April 17th.

Let me tell you a little about the show. Carousel is the composing duo Rogers and Hammerstein’s second musical, written and premiering on Broadway in 1945. The show is about a misguided love story between a young carnival goer and a carousel barker. The whole entire production was absolutely stunning. The sets were huge and breathtakingly beautiful, the songs were so catchy and sung well, and the dancing was mesmerizing. The storyline was wonderfully written and portrayed, and had many hilarious moments! I found myself laughing and crying within the course of two hours! Quite possibly the most amazing thing about this show, however, is that the two stars are Broadway and television famous! The leading man was Steven Pasquale, who has appeared in some movies but is most recently popular for starring in The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway and guest starring in CBS’s The Good Wife. The leading lady was Laura Osnes, who has multiple Broadway credits including Cinderella in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Sandy in Grease, Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes, and much more! They were both absolutely stunning to see live, and I am still in awe of Steven Pasquale’s singing of “Soliloquy”.

After the show, my roommate and I waited at the stage door to meet the actors! I got awkward selfies with both leads, and also had them sign my show program. They were both really kind, and although they were swamped, made time to say hi to as many of us as they could! I’m so honored to have met such talented people!

If you have an interest in seeing this production of Carousel at the Lyric Opera Chicago, there are many ways to get discounted tickets before the show closes on May 3rd! They are offering a discount for Earth Day until the 28th, where tickets are $39 with the promo code “EARTH”. There is also a student rush tomorrow, Thursday April 23rd, where college students can get tickets for only $20 at lyricopera.org/next. They also offer 50% off rush tickets two hours before curtain with the promo code “RUSH50”. They also have a contest going where anyone who takes a picture with an advertisement for Carousel and posts it on twitter to the Lyric Opera page can win free tickets! You have until Friday at noon to enter using the hashtag #CSLAroundTown.

So, as you can see, there are many opportunities for you to see this amazing production for a cheap price! It truly was an amazing show, and I’d recommend it to anyone! Go see it before it heads to Broadway! ☺
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