 Stephen Sondheim noted the duo 's ability to take the innovations of Oklahoma ! and apply them to a serious setting : " Oklahoma ! is about a picnic , Carousel is about life and death . " Critic Eric Bentley , on the other hand , wrote that " the last scene of Carousel is an impertinence : I refuse to be lectured to by a musical comedy scriptwriter on the education of children , the nature of the good life , and the contribution of the American small town to the salvation of souls . " 
