When Repertory Philippines' comeback production 'Carousel' opens to the public tonight, the audience will witness not just a contemporary retelling of a classic, but a story of survival for the Philippine theater scene.

As with many live events, theater productions were badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The good news is that more production companies are going back to live theater after an almost three-year hiatus. Carousel will be that production for Repertory Philippines (Rep).A masterwork by the legendary theater-writing duo of Richard Rodgers (Music) and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd (Book and Lyrics), Carousel's original 1945 production won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and was hailed by Time Magazine as the greatest musical of the 20th century.Rep planned a grand staging for Carousel in 2020 until Covid-19 reared its ugly head and forced them to rethink their game plan. Thankfully, the production finally pushed through this year but not without inevitable adjustments.In a rehearsal visit prior to Carousel's opening, its director Toff de Venecia revealed that the two versions of the shows are 'radically different.''The cast is like slashed in half [from cast of 35 down to 14]. A lot of the original cast couldn't be part of this because of the developments in their lives,' de Venecia told The Sunday Times Magazine.'And then, from orchestra production, this staging will have two pianos. The 2020 version was supposed to be in a bigger theater, this one is in a small blackbox theater,' he added.