The Anthropocene Reviewed

In May 2020, John Green is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic so much that he can’t refer to it by name, just as “it” or “this.” One way he takes comfort during this time is showtunes. 

In 1909, Ferenc Molnár wrote a play called Liliom that struggled to find an audience. He kept mounting new productions and slowly reached modest box office success. Eventually, he sold the rights to Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein, not realizing that their version, retitled Carousel, would almost totally eclipse the original play.

One of the big songs in Carousel is “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It is a blunt song about overcoming grief that Green nevertheless finds very effective. He likes the message suggesting it’s necessary to move forward and also that humans never walk alone. The song went on to be covered many times, with the most famous being a 1963 version by Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were from Liverpool, and the song soon became a favorite of Liverpool Football Club fans. Green himself is a Liverpool fan and has sung the song many times with other fans.

While some might find it strange that a popular football song comes from musical theater, Green thinks football is a type of theater, often with groups of people all singing together. He remembers a video from March 2020 of British paramedics singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to coworkers on the other side of a glass wall. Green gives the song 4 ½ stars.