 The musical received almost unanimous rave reviews after its opening in 1945 . According to Hischak , reviews were not as exuberant as for Oklahoma ! as the critics were not taken by surprise this time . John Chapman of the Daily News termed it " one of the finest musical plays I have ever seen and I shall remember it always " . The New York Times 's reviewer , Lewis Nichols , stated that " Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2d , who can do no wrong , have continued doing no wrong in adapting Liliom into a musical play . Their Carousel is on the whole delightful . " Wilella Waldorf of the New York Post , however , complained , " Carousel seemed to us a rather long evening . The Oklahoma ! formula is becoming a bit monotonous and so are Miss de Mille 's ballets . All right , go ahead and shoot ! " Dance Magazine gave Linn plaudits for her role as Louise , stating , " Bambi doesn 't come on until twenty minutes before eleven , and for the next forty minutes , she practically holds the audience in her hand " . Howard Barnes in the New York Herald Tribune also applauded the dancing : " It has waited for Miss de Mille to come through with peculiarly American dance patterns for a musical show to become as much a dance as a song show . " 
