Profile for VinnieRattolle

The idea for this post/campaign came to me pretty spur-of-the-moment after I saw it didn't make this year's list -- it didn't even occur to me that if this works, it'll be inaugurated into the Registry RIGHT on the 30th anniversary of the show  - and oh, the headlines that would make! "Who's laughing now? 30 years later, Broadway's biggest flop is deemed an important piece of history!" And with that in mind, dear friends, it would also prove without a doubt to Gore, Pitchford and Cohen that the '88 version is the one people love the most... which could potentially lead them/R&H to let companies mix 'n' match.

In a 2012 New York Times interview, Michael Gore remarked of the criticism of the revival, “There are some people who would have been happy if the first two rows of the audience were given slickers and blood got all over them. Some theater companies will do that in the future, I imagine.” Even though he said it jokingly, Gore was clearly presuming people would be tinkering with the show, so I don't understand why they've locked the script.

The RSC/Broadway version certainly wasn't perfect, but the tremendous energy of the cast more than made up for any shortcomings in the ever-changing libretto. However far from perfect as it may have been, it played like... uh, Shakespeare (coincidental phraseology) compared to the little that I've seen of the revivals. Don't get me wrong, I'm overjoyed that the show secured a second life. However, the playwrights were unquestionably driven even more mad by Carrie than I was (I can't begin to fathom it) and their numerous attempts to fix it resulted in a show that's considerably more coherent but not nearly as magical as it once was. At this point, it would sort of behoove them to entrust other companies to nurture their little baby so she can be all that she could be. After all, there's never been a musical like her!

Oh God, it's happening again, isn't it? My eyes are wide open this time and yet I'm walking right back into Carriesanity...

Apologies in advance, cuz I tend to be long-winded – especially when I’m passionate about something. So bear with me here…

Following the success of The National Film Registry, in 2002 The Library of Congress set up The National Recording Registry, and each year based on public nominations they select 25 audio recordings to preserve (songs, full albums, live recordings and collections) which are deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” (a vague term intended to be all-inclusive). The 2016 list was announced last week and included the song "Over the Rainbow," the original cast album of “The Wiz” and David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" album, among others.

Last year, I sent in mp3s of the 1988 Broadway closing night soundboard bootleg of "Carrie" along with an impassioned letter about why I thought the bootlegs should be included -- and although their site clearly states that they don't reply to nominations, I quickly got a response from a library worker who was intrigued by the notion and implied that they’d push for it. Well, obviously it didn’t make this year’s list, but I’m just one man – they practically outright state on their site that a big fan push will influence the library’s voters (which is precisely how “Back to the Future” wound up in the Film Registry in 2007).

I’ve got a long history with “Carrie” and feel like I played a minor but crucial role in the musical’s revival. So here’s the Cliff’s Notes (feel free to skip this and the next two paragraphs if you don’t care). At the end of 2002, I started a little Geocities site where I covered all of the versions of “Carrie,” with the main focus being the original 1976 movie. There was only a short page about the musical because I didn’t know very much about it yet – I remembered seeing a news clip when the show closed, but the two existing fan sites really didn’t offer any substantial information (cast lists, reviews, a few jpegs and midis) and I couldn’t find much more anywhere else. A few years later, I relocated the site to blogger and, around the same time, discovered a mishmash of recordings from the Broadway and Stratford shows on someone else’s blog which they’d amassed from a p2p browser. The quality generally sucked, but it was love at first listen. So on my new site, I started building up a big musical wing with song lyrics, an overview of the story based on Ken Mandlebaum’s synopsis and a link to the other person’s blog to download mp3s. Then it began to snowball out of control.

Fans came out of the woodwork offering up more bootleg audio/video recordings and scripts, plus I had original cast members and Broadway aficionados feeding me insider information. My little fan site for the ’76 film began shifting as information and interest in the musical grew. People kept putting audio/video on YouTube and they were getting taken down almost immediately, so I paid to offer downloads of the various bootlegs on my own site – but I had such immense traffic coming from BroadwayWorld (in particular) and abroad that I kept exceeding the monthly bandwidth limit and eventually lost my file host as a result.

As the playwrights were readying their new workshop in 2009, I had the means to finagle a seat but I’d become so thoroughly overwhelmed by the cult of Carrie that I didn’t bother – by this point, it was becoming a huge thorn in my side. Then in a moment of temporary insanity when it was revived Off-Broadway in 2012, I wound up essentially destroying my site. The show was back, I was sick of it and decided I was done with Carrie. However, time and distance have altered my perspective. The revival was destined to happen with or without me, but I think I gave it the ginormous kick in the ass needed for it to happen quickly by making the bootlegs and information so easily accessible. I’m proud of that and happy that the show’s now being officially staged worldwide… even though nothing I’ve seen/heard has quite held a candle to the ’88 Broadway incarnation.

I really don’t wanna get sucked back into Carrie craziness again, my intention with this post is merely to rally the troops because there was something truly magical about that original Broadway version – particularly the final performance (which 3 different people recorded) – and I feel like it should be  acknowledged and preserved for posterity. Without all the amazing bootlegs, the show never would’ve been revived and played for so many audiences, it would have remained the flop punchline that it once was – and on that basis alone, those recordings are absolutely “historically significant” in the musical theater world.

Now, I don’t know precisely who was responsible for the original soundboards/bootlegs, but numerous names were dropped many by a theater writer whom I chatted with many years ago. I’m kicking myself for not saving that mind-bogglingly insightful chat or at least retaining the gentleman’s contact info. Even if the original tapes no longer exist, I’ll bet someone who frequents these boards has good first-or-second generation copies (or knows someone who does), so let’s get the tapes stored in a temperature-controlled vault! I should note that with this program, whomever owns the material retains their ownership (Universal Pictures certainly didn’t hand over their rights to Back to the Future!), the whole point is to ensure the recordings are safely stored for future use. So if you’re holding onto any good “Carrie” bootlegs from the pre-digital age, I hope you’ll consider offering them to the Library of Congress to preserve in one of their facilities.

It’s easy to nominate a title for the Recording Registry, all you’ve gotta do is fill out the form at the bottom – but make sure to specify the 1988 (and prior) Broadway bootlegs, so they don’t think you’re nominating the 2012 cast album, which is ineligible (nominees have to be at least 10 years old).  I’m also unsure if the Stratford recordings are eligible because they were made outside of the USA, but I surmise they could be included as part of a bootleg collection since the show germinated in the states and played here with (essentially) the exact same cast and crew.

If the LOC gets even a fraction of the response to this that I got on my old site, then there’s little doubt in my mind that it’ll end up making the 2017 list of preserved recordings – which would be pretty freakin’ amazing, considering it was never supposed to be heard outside of The Virginia Theatre on a scant few electric nights nearly 30 years ago. If you've read this far, you're obviously a fan, so hit the form at the bottom of this post and spread the word!

About the National Recording Registry

Nomination Information

Nomination Form

Cohen's book was actually released?!   In 2012, it was noted on dozens of websites and the following year it abruptly vanished.  Now there are two copies listed for sale on amazon.ca... for $999!  And what's up with the other BroadwayWorld thread about it which APPEARS to be there, but when you click it, it's blank?  Seriously, what the hell was in that tell-all and who's preventing us from reading it?!