Perhaps the "hook" for the new version of "Carrie" should revert back to the framework of the original novel. It didn't just deal with the events in and around Prom Night (including Carrie's destruction of the entire town). It was a treatise on America's being forced to deal with an overt supernatural happening in this modern age. And the moral and societal implications that that realization engenders (one of the novel's striking questions deals with Carrie, postmortem, having been found to carry an abnormal gene that allows for her telekenisis: what happens if we find another young girl-child, who has this gene? What would we do with her?). Sue Snell (a character I love who has never really gotten her due) deals with her "popularity" in larger terms, what it will mean to be rich and pretty and white for the rest of her life, what kind of cage that might be. Billy is jealous of the these types, the rich kids, the popular kids, that's why he takes pleasure in defiling Chris. Why he agrees to destroy the whole bourgeois (not his word) idea of "prom" (perhaps this new song of his reflects that?) Margaret is a much more common type today than she even was in '73 when the novel was written. A Evangelical who sees EVERYTHING in the black and white of her bible ("thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"). The story of the movie was simple enough, but the original musical simplified things down to the point that the only people who had real characters were Carrie and Margaret (thus, they had the best music). Personally, I have always found Margaret less interesting than the five teen pro/antagonists and what they were going through. (Zealots, in fiction, actually lose something when their characters are "fleshed out"). I would also argue the much derided "I'm Not Alone" was actually one of the more perfect numbers for a musical version of "Carrie". Of course Carrie, in a surprise moment of happiness, would want to dance. And since her mind can animate objects, of course she telekinetically dances with her dress. Its a sweet moment before the fall, perfectly appropriate. And though this goes against my writer's "show don't tell" dictum, perhaps narration is the best way to tackle the show, maybe by Sue, maybe by the novel's professor who wrote the "definitive" book on the "Carrie White" subject. Seeing these melodramatic supernatural moments onstage, unless very very carefully done, can become silly and campy.
Updated On: 11/29/09 at 05:55 PM
