BWW Carrie Preview- Page 3

[a-mad]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 5:26pm

best12bars - point taken. Perhaps a song with more of a direct link to the narrative regarding their motivation would be more effective. Still, I don't think having a Tommy/Sue "love song" moment is entirely problematic either. If it helps develop the fact that they're crazy for each other and would be willing to do that "favor" than perhaps its not completely extraneous.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 5:33pm

Based on what MB just said, it's a terrible point in the story for them to stop and sing.

The only way I could see this song working is if something else were going on in the background, like Carrie getting ready ... or Chris plotting and planning, or Margaret praying and sewing, etc.

Having something this innocuous happening while so much else is going on would be interesting and could help draw attention to what's building all around them.

But if right in the middle of mounting the tension, they stop for this bland song, that's a pretty awful idea.

Cut it. Quick.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 5:35pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 05:35 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 5:42pm

You Shine comes right after Carrie's been asked to the prom, Chris has already gotten the blood, and everyone's been shopping for their prom clothes... What we should be hearing is Carrie's song... not a musical Sue moment.

I agree.

Is there some rule we don't know about that Tommy and Sue have to be bigger parts? Was the amount of their stage time written into the contracts?

I don't get it.

If they want to beef up Sue's part, why doesn't she tell her own mother (Mrs. Snell) why she's not going to her own senior prom? That would be a good number. Especially to see the difference between Sue and her mom and Carrie and her mom. (Even if that goes against the source material---I don't think Sue's parents know.)

(Or have they done that already, too?)

I'm just asking, BTW. I have (clearly) not followed all the changes, rewrites, and permutations that have occurred over the last quarter-century. I've only seen clips of the original. That's it.

But I'm familiar with the book (which I read when it first came out in 1974) and the movie (1976).

Updated On: 1/18/12 at 05:42 PM

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:07pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 06:07 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:35pm

Thanks for the rundown, bobbybaby85.

I hope they figure it out. I just don't think it's Sue and Tommy's moment, right there in the story. Unless they can figure out a way where it doesn't stop the larger story in its tracks.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 8:44pm

The last reading was 2009 and we know a lot has changed since then, Sue and Tommy are both getting fleshed out (especially Tommy) so to say they don’t need a musical moment is silly, and shocker, a musical has a love song in the middle of it.

Maybe we should wait to see what they do with the characters and how the song comes out of a moment. They are cleanly doing a bit of s soul searching story for Tommy as well as he is hiding his true passions (writing) something they barely touched on in the 2009 workshop. We cannot judge the show on a reading from a couple of years ago when we know a lot has been changed.

I always thought the placement for a song for Sue was absolutely fine , they just struggled with what song to give her and why it was there. The Broadway one made more sense than past incantations that she was standing up to the crowd it was just a bad song and the awful rhyming lead in did not help.

Also what’s wrong with just having a song that comes from Sue telling Tommy etc how much she loves him? After all he has agreed to do something that any other popular high school kid would never do, take the outcast to the prom. She’s telling him she loves him whilst also reminding him she loves him (for obvious reasons) bottom line we just don’t know.

Someone asked earlier how people will react to a show that ends in high school violence now that these high school shootings etc have become such a problem. I think that is a GREAT question and I feel that’s probably what they are going for, that is what King was going for really. When someone is pushed so far that they finally snap, instead of a gun it’s her powers. I am THRILLED they are making this more about the bullying issue and less about the supernatural and campy side, this way it could turn out to be a strong musical with a strong message, and to me any show that address the issues of bullying or life as an outsider that I’m sure MANY of us went through , well that can only be a good thing.

And bobbybaby85 if you really thought Wotta Night and Dream On could be saved you are out of your mind. Both terrible songs. Dream on was dire with dreadful lyrics and Wotta Night was utterly pointless. You say Wotta Night will probably be replaced by a story driven song like it’s a bad thing, I hope to god it is.

Don’t get me wrong I adore the original, in fact I was the person who got hold of the RSC video of Carrie over 10 years ago and released it to the world (thank you RSC archives lol) but I’m glad they are taking the show in a very different direction and giving Carrie a voice.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 8:47pm

I'm not someone, love. I'm the one.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 9:09pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 09:09 PM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 9:31pm

bobbybaby85 Well Carrie is not wanting to be fluff like Grease and Hairspray. I know what they were trying to achieve with Dream On but it failed on the scale of epic proportions. The opening of the film can not be replicated on stage, it was dreamy because the instrumental music by the amazing composer of the film and the slow motion movemnts of the camera made it that way. Dream On was a diaster of a song (in fact many of the ensmeble members, some i have worked with in the past thought it was dreadful)

As for Wotta Night, the music is horrid, the lyrics are worse. Music at the prom is fine but that was not it.....at all, even in the 80s it sounded dated and the lyrics were laughable, i don't really know what part of that song you think could be saved.

All Right
Wotta Night
Don'tcha feel the sky turning
Oh Child, drive me wild
Don'tcha feel the stars burning
All Right, Wotta Night
Can't you hear my heart tickin'
Hola, Yo Mama
I'm alive and I'm kickin' tonight


And Blaxx, you of course are the one.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 9:41pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 09:41 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 9:42pm

I just want to say that if they're gonna add new random ballads, I demand "I'm Not Alone" back in! Or else!

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 10:13pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 10:13 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 10:17pm

I love "I'm Not Alone". They should put it back! "Why Not Me?" essentially replaces it and it's okay, but it's not as good.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 10:36pm

The amount of intricate dissection going into this arbitrary clip is absolutely hilarious.

That being said, the first time I heard "You Shine" at the preview presentation back in the fall, I thought it would have been a lot more effective if it was sung by Tommy and Carrie simultaneously, with him clearly singing about Sue and Carrie clearly singing about him. That provides a narrative and theatrical context that's way more fulfilling than how it sits now, with Tommy and Sue just reaffirming the feelings they have for one another that are already so clearly defined. It could go in the show right after Tommy and Carrie arrive at the prom as a tragic precursor for what you know is about to happen. The song would take on a whole new meaning then. The lyric "I see you shine and the dark disappears" and those pertaining to "no doubt, no more fear" particularly struck me as things Carrie would say or feel.

For those wondering about the nature of Sue's expansion in the current incarnation, if I'm remember the reading from a few years ago correctly, she now serves as the narrator of the piece, and the entire story is primarily told as a flashback from her perspective after she's survived the events that occur at the end.

Updated On: 1/18/12 at 10:36 PM

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 10:49pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 10:49 PM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:01pm

Im Not Alone is a nice song but it os so far removed from the tone of the show as i have said many times, the song seems like an after thought. It's so Disney, not like Carrie at all. The lyrics were also not great. Linzi sang the hell out of it in 88 and it's always nice when we hear girls sing it in auditions etc but it's not right for the tone of Carrie at all.

Yes in the workshop from 2009 Sue was telling the story in flashabck, though they only did it a couple of times during the show that it did not sit right unless they commit to it fully. At the end of the workshop many different kids spoke about how Carrie killed everyone at the prom and walked through the town etc, it ended ob a series of photos that all the prom kids got taken as they were entering the prom, the last one was Carrie herself.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:03pm

That's correct, bobby.

In that initial workshop of the new version, the stage directions indicated that the first thing the audience saw on the show curtain was a montage of various sensationalized newspaper clips about Carrie and the "accident." The curtain rose with the full company in the shadows around a solitary figure as they began to sing the prelude, a choral arrangement of "Our Father." The lights revealed the solitary figure to be Sue, who began speaking about Carrie and how the circumstances that led up to the prom "built like a chain reaction," which led into the reconfigured version of "In" with the kids in their various bedrooms, kicking off the story.

Updated On: 1/18/12 at 11:03 PM

[cirque]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:04pm

The thing that worries me about this is the fact that it's all very well they are trying to play it "straight" but there is an undeniable campy element that just comes with the material. De Palma got it perfect in the film, and I just hope that they don't forget that. Either way i can't wait to see what they do with it.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:19pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 11:19 PM

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:34pm

I'm optimistic about the show, but De Palma's film will probably never be touched. As mentioned before, he got the humor of the piece, too, and didn't just shove preachy morals down our throats. I'm really scared this new incarnation might be so devoid of humor that it turns into camp.

The finale has always been tough. It's hard to replicate the feeling of Carrie's last 20 minutes on stage without the benefit of good special effects and tight close ups. However, there's NO excuse for Margaret's monologue to not be in there. It tells the audience SO much! The lullaby never really worked for me at all. The intensity and violence is completely gone. I just really hope they scrapped the whole "Margaret gets struck by lightning" thing they mentioned once.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 1/19/12 at 3:38am

Also, to be clear, unless it's been truncated since the commercial reading (since a similarly shorter version was also performed at the public presentation in the fall,) what they showed in that clip is not the entirety of "You Shine." The first time it was heard in that initial reading, it was about double the length of that clip, with a lot of significant dialogue interspersed throughout. As I said before, I'm still adamant it would make more sense sung by Carrie and Tommy, but those making a solid judgement based on that preview should be aware they aren't necessarily seeing what's going to be in the context of the actual show.

Having seen both the commercial reading in 2009 and one of the partial labs presented by MCC last year (as well as their public presentation,) I think it's a huge advantage that so many of the actors still in the show have stayed throughout all of the developmental work at MCC over the last year and a half or so, since a lot of the constant changes that are being made are being tailored around them already. Molly Ranson and Marin Mazzie are the only two still involved from the first reading before MCC came onboard, but the chemistry they've developed is absolutely remarkable. I think people will be divided on what they ultimately think of the show, but you would be hard pressed to be disappointed in the work the two of them are doing.

Updated On: 1/19/12 at 03:38 AM

[colorandlight2]

Posted: 1/19/12 at 5:11am

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CARRIE

Press video aside, very excited for this show.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:32pm

The goody two-shoes character of Sue has always been a problem in the story, at least for me. What ARE Sue's intentions that she's willing to pimp out her boyfriend for all to see? I'm sure King would say its pure altruism but it just doesn't wash.
Amy Irving worked in the film largely because she seemed like such a misguided flaky seventies touchy-feely type. You got the feeling she kind was only sort-of interested in her boyfriend and knew that he was such a ding-a-ling he'd go for it. Not the stuff of pop ballads, is it? She deserved to be the broken wreck she is at the end of the film. But overall, DePalma downplayed Sue and Tommy for the sake of the livelier, more convincing Chris/Billy relationship. They really weren't given equal time and the movie is all the more effective for it.

The song doesn't seem like a good one, but this thread makes a strong argument for not posting rehearsal footage on the internet.

[newintown]

Posted: 1/19/12 at 12:36pm

Sue's motivation is not altruism but atonement. Atonement is hardly a strange or new idea; there is much literature and entertainment based upon the idea. You may not buy that any teenager is interested in atonement, but I think that may say more about you than the work. In the novel and film, it works perfectly well. I agree that it doesn't in the musical, but then, I don't think anything works in the musical because the writing is so uniformly stupid.