The Pirate Queen Reviews- Page 5

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:59pm

Now that was a harsh one. Is that the second critic to reference Celine Dion type of singing???

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:02pm

wow these reviews are getting worse

even Carrie had a few good reviews

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:04pm

It did?

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:05pm

WORSE THAN CARRIE

Imagine if we could actually say that about a show!??!

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:06pm

At least CARRIE actually had some great songs, even if the show was a mess.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:07pm

At least Theatermania is acknowledging some talent.

These reviews are disheartening, although I can't say I didn't expect it.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:08pm

i have all Carries Reviews and did get a few very good ones

The show was also a hell of lot more fun and had some great music

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:10pm

A Carrie review

"Carrie" is the sort of musical you will either love or hate. Wildly. I happen to have loved it, probably for all the same reasons others will find to hate it.

The source for the show is Stephen King's novella by the same name about a late-blooming teen-age girl (Carrie) who is isolated from the rest of the kids her age by her mother's religious fanaticism. DesperateIy unhappy and feeling abandoned she discovers she has been given the strange and supernatural gift of telekinesis. Through this medium she wrecks a horrible vengence on those who have tormented and humiliated her .

This is strong and strange stuff fills the theater with a tension that is quite unlike anything I have ever felt there. And there is no escaping it. Even the relationship between Carrie and her mother is twisted. Despite that it achieves a kind of ethereal beauty through the music of Michael Gore. Betty Buckley as the mother and Linzi Hateley as Carrie have some hauntingly beautiful moments together and individually that are heartbreakingly tender and yet perverse. This relationship is just as dangerous for Came as any she has with her peers. That tension underlies every embrace, endearment. The moment when the mother forces Carrie into the cellar through a trapdoor is shocking and terrifying.

In contrast all of the other peopIe Carrie's age are portrayed as another sort of monster: libidinous beauties who spend more time cultivating their bodies than their minds. They are totally intolerant of anybody who is different and determined to remove any obstacles to the realization of their sex lives.

This aspect of the show is beautifully realized in the brilliantly suggestive dances of Debbie Allen who keeps the kids perpetually twitching with unrealized sexual energy.

In between this world and the severe severity of the mother's Carrie is almost totally alone. She is befriended by a sympathetic teacher and a schoolmate who seems to possess the only conscience in town. Darlene Love is the teacher and she has an enchanting song "Unsuspecting Hearts," that seems destined to become a pop single.

Similarly enchanting is a scene in which Carrie employs her supernatural powers to charming effect. The accoutrements of her dressing table suddenly dance about her as she readies herself for the prom with a date arranged by the conscience stricken friend.

But this is one Cinderella who will not live happily ever after. Carrie's nemesis is Chris. a particularly vicious adolescent played with malicious glee by Charlotte D'Ambroise.

While the tensions and emotions continually bring the show to the brink of absurdity, it seems to me the intensity of alI the performances and the integrity of the music and lyrics prevent its falling into the pit. If one is shocked or embarrassed it is because we are so seldom asked to deal with this sort of material in the theater.

In addition to the emotional intensity, of the material, the show is a stunning visual production that shocks and startIes us even further. It is not just the technology involved but the very design itself that consistently reinforces the emotional content of the show with its strikingly vivid images.

In, other words "Carrie" brings together all the forces that make live theater so exciting: brilliant performances and an exciting and story, reinforced by the physical production and fashions them into a truly unforgettable event. 

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:11pm

a 2nd carrie review

by Larry S. Ledford
The Monitor
Tuesday, May 17, 1988

"Carrie," the musical adaptation of Stephen King's novel, might well be subtitled, "The Cult Musical." It is the kind of non-stop, edge-of-your-seat, thrill-and chill emotional roller-coaster that develops a following that keeps a show running for years, despite what some of the more conservative critics may say. The Royal Shakespeare Company's bold venture, currently at Broadway's Virginia Theatre, has a sly tongue-in-cheek approach to King's first superhit that gives it a universal appeal that has audiences erupting in standing ovations at every performance.

"Carrie" is a story of a teen-aged misfit (Linzi Hateley) whose religiously fanatic mother Margaret (Betty Buckley) keeps her from being accepted by the other kids at school. It's one of those "Your mother dresses you funny" cases, with one major exception. Carrie has telekinetic powers that, in emotional crises, tend to become uncontrollable.

Carrie becomes the laughing stock of the school when she panics at the sight of her own blood in the gym showers, having had no education from her mother about her maturing body. The battle lines are drawn. Carrie against her mother, Margaret against the world that threatens to take her daughter away from her, and the good guys, Sue (Sally Ann Triplett) and Tommy (Paul Gyngell), against the bad guys, Chris (Charlotte D'Amboise) and Billy (Gene Anthony Ray). And, of course there is a referee, the gum teacher, Miss Gardner (Darlene Love) who acts as surrogate mother to Carrie, and tries to help her win acceptance.

To be sure, "Carrie" has its problems. There are unmotivated lines, and the plot takes some lurching unexplained turns' but the production elements are so strong that only minimal suspension of disbelief allows its audience to be swept along with the camp-horror fun.

Terry Hands has given the show a polished dynamics that makes the show glide along as swiftly as Ralph Koltai's high-tech, black-and-white sets that have a cinematic dissolve effect to their moves from the high school gym to Margaret's house and various other locations. Among the most spectacular of these set designs is a three-tiered drive-in movie that is a show-stopper all by itself. As if Hands's direction were not enough contribution to the magic of "Carrie,' he has also designed the most spectacular lighting seen on Broadway this year. The special effects that he has created during Carrie's telekinetic episodes range from the gently humorous (when her hair-brush and mirror take wing in her bedroom) to the breathtakingly chilling (when Carrie wreaks havoc at the school prom) and are uniformly effective.

The score is the same brand of soft-rock, teeny-bopper music and lyrics that this creative team (Gore and Pitchford) provided for the movie and television productions of "Fame." Also from "Fame" is choreographer Debbie Allen, whose work here is among the best of the season, and a member of the cast, Gene Anthony Ray, whose pelvic gyrations provide much of the pseudo-sexual camp-humor in the big dance numbers.

"Carrie' is not the show that I would recommend you choose for your Aunt Tilly's first trip to a Broadway show, but it is just the kind of camp, blood-and-guts rock-'n-roll thriller that can attract a whole new generation of audiences to the theatre. I had a bloody good time. "Carrie" is edge-of-your seat all-out entertainment. 

[kelzama]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:13pm

off-topic much?

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:14pm

And you're posting Carrie reviews because...?

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:14pm

Sure it's off topic but much better than the PQ

[rocker05]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:16pm

If you want to see another good review of "Carrie", find the Clive Barnes review I posted in one of the topics on the show. Just search it. This shouldn't be turning into a Carrie thread though, and I don't think this show will close after 5 performances.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:16pm

i just posted because someone didnt know that even Carrie had got good reviews

sorry

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:18pm

Who'dathunk that the best reviews we would be reading in this thread were from one of the most notorious flops in history? Too funny!

[Phantom2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:20pm

"The show’s queen of camp is, as she should be, its Queen Elizabeth, played by Linda Balgord. (William Youmans, as her conniving courtier, gives her a run for her money with an interpretation that brings to mind Vincent Price at his snarkiest.)

Ms. Balgord, who played Norma Desmond in the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” appears to be continuing that performance here, which is kind of enjoyable when you’re starved for distraction.

Mr. Pakledinaz has given her an increasingly deluxe and unwieldy series of queenly gowns, which wind up being high points of visual wit — or, for that matter, of any wit. It says a lot that the most compelling question posed by this fuzzy musical is, “What will Elizabeth wear next?”"

Gotta love Brantley. I told you all Linda Balgord's costumes are completely fabulous!

Updated On: 4/5/07 at 11:20 PM

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:27pm

Sue, you cannot discount the Brd factor. After bad reviews I drove my kids to NY and we saw Wicked!

[Phantom2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:31pm

I really think Brantley has a thing for Queen Elizabeth.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:40pm

when should we expect other reviews like the Times etc

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:41pm

I worked with Linda many years ago and I love her!!

[rocker05]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:48pm

The Times is negative. Brantley loves trashing shows, even though his criticisms are true. I thought at first that the reviews would be mixed but I guess Matthew Murray is in a league of his own. Reviewers are completely trashing the show. I don't think it will close so fast though and if it does that is a huge loss of money ($16 million I think, not sure how though). Carrie is a whole different story, yet if it did have a revival it would be a massive hit in New York or as one of the creators referred to it as a "cash cow".

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:49pm

Only one or two more reviews will probably appear before, say 2 or 3am (Newsday, NY Sun, Bloomberg). The Post and News could be up anytime between now and 4am.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:50pm

thanks margo

[jv92]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 12:31am

I wonder what Linda Winer will think. She didn't care for our other overblown spectacle Mary Poppins. At least that's better than Pirate Queen.

[bella cantato]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 12:32am

I'm not surprised that the show is getting bad reviews, but I am surprised that Stephanie is getting trashed. When I saw the production in Chicago, I thought she absolutely lit up the stage with her presence. I hope the other reviews give her more credit- I really thought she was fabulous, and her voice is amazing.