What to Do with a Warhorse?

Nautilus Music–Theater is best known for creating cutting-edge work. Its name even derives from a Latin word meaning “one who explores the unknown sea.” So why is the company producing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, one of America’s most conventional musicals? Because, according to Nautilus artistic director Ben Krywosz, it’s not all that conventional.

Carousel is a complex, genre-defying work. In its melodic inventiveness, it’s a classic musical. But its story, which involves spousal abuse and suicide, and its use of sung recitatives make it more the province of opera. That is what appeals to Krywosz: Carousel straddles different genres of music-theater. “I see those genres as a triangle,” he says. “At one point is opera, with its focus on music to tell the story. At another point are musicals, with their emphasis on text. At the third point is alternative music-theater, where visuals predominate. It’s the works that fall somewhere within the triangle that are the most interesting.”

Krywosz has dreamed of staging Carousel since 1999, when Jennifer Baldwin Peden and Bradley Greenwald, who star in the production, performed a scene from the show as part of Rough Cuts, Nautilus’s monthly reading series. “I saw how the three of us would approach the work with emotional intensity,” he says. “We have no fear of being sentimental and have no need to steer clear of the emotionally raw content.” With a cast full of Nautilus veterans, the production, Krywosz says, “is going to be surprising to people who think they know the work well.” Jan. 18–Feb. 4. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave., Mpls., 612-340-1725