 Nicholas Hytner directed a new production of Carousel in 1992 , at London 's Royal National Theatre , with choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and designs by Bob Crowley . In this staging , the story begins at the mill , where Julie and Carrie work , with the music slowed down to emphasize the drudgery . After work ends , they move to the shipyards and then to the carnival . As they proceed on a revolving stage , carnival characters appear , and at last the carousel is assembled onstage for the girls to ride . Louise is seduced by the ruffian boy during her Act 2 ballet , set around the ruins of a carousel . Michael Hayden played Billy not as a large , gruff man , but as a frustrated smaller one , a time bomb waiting to explode . Hayden , Joanna Riding ( Julie ) and Janie Dee ( Carrie ) all won Olivier Awards for their performances . Patricia Routledge played Nettie . Enoch and Carrie were cast as an interracial couple whose eight children , according to the review in The New York Times , looked like " a walking United Colors of Benetton ad " . Clive Rowe , as Enoch , was nominated for an Olivier Award . The production 's limited run from December 1992 through March 1993 was a sellout . It re @-@ opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London in September 1993 , presented by Cameron Mackintosh , where it continued until May 1994 . 
