CARRIE to Hold Developmental Lab, May 25–June 7- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 4:46pm

One thing the '70s movie was unable to do was demonstrate was that these were kids who would really give a crap about going to the prom. They were the hoody juvenile delinquent burn outs who would have made fun of the dweebs who gave a crap about it in the first place, and they would've just gone somewhere else and got wasted and had sex.

A major failing of the musical was situating the story in the self-aware '80s. If they were just a bunch of Reagan's children then they would have been conformists of the Heathers variety, and frankly, they weren't particularly convincing as people whose whole worlds would have collapsed if they couldn't go to the prom, either.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 4:57pm

FindingNamo This is what bugs the hell out of me about you. Why on earth have to even mention me.....could it because you HATE when someone disagrees with you? Grow the hell up.

Each person has their own opinion; you have yours i have mine. I would not have even mentioned you in this discussion if you had not pulled me out.

Also i would LOVE to know why you think yours is the final word. The show can't work because Namo says!
What exactly is your experience in working in professional theatre that means you have to knock other people’s opinions down?

Now do i think Carrie can work as a musical?....yes!
Do i think the teen scenes are awful? of course, a couple of songs can be saved from the teen side but most needs to be hugely refocused. It's common opinion that the mother/daughter scenes are wonderful. Stafford and the team are doing some MAJOR work on this show, how about we wait and see if the show works once they have finished rather than forming an opinion on something that opened over 2 decades ago?

Stafford is fantastic and a lovely guy and believes in this project in a big way, as do all involved. Give them a chance.

[dramarama3]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 7:02pm

I don't know why people are putting time and money into this, a piece that has been tried and failed, when the focus should be put on, say, a new, original, GOOD, American musical.

What does this achieve? Just because they might be able to make it good, doesn't mean they should. Part of it's cult appeal IS that the original production stunk.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 7:59pm

"Just because they might be able to make it good, doesn't mean they should."

Why if they can rectify mistakes from the original should they not try?

[dramarama3]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 8:10pm

I just don't see a point to it. Should we give all flops a second chance then? Interesting topic really.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 8:41pm

This is hardly the first flop to be reworked by its creators.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 9:10pm

I must respectfully disagree with my pal Namo. I have watched the mother-daughter scenes countless times since my original 3 viewings (alas, I started with the 2nd preview, not the infamous first) and I believe they are the real deal. As much as ever. And I still love the Barbara Cooke version of "Open Your Heart." It is simple, haunting, deeply affecting. As much of the duet material in those appropriately touted "mother-daughter" scenes proves to be. I believe in that telling piece of the shaky whole. Let's just say, even people put off by the dry bird that is a Thanksgiving turkey love a nice wing or drumstick. CARRIE's wings may not make the turkey fly, but they make the effort a helluva take-off.

Updated On: 4/22/11 at 09:10 PM

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 9:45pm

I agree with Auggie and songanddanceman. I saw one of the final performances when I was a kid and the Betty Buckley scenes were thrilling to me, not because the other scenes were so terrible (though they were). If that were the case, all other shows that mixed good and bad (ie Cry Baby, where the choreography was terrific) would have become legendary. Buckley and Hately were fantastic and their material is good. I think one reason some people, including me, have such fondness for the show is that the basic dynamic between those two characters is so compelling (a major reason Spacek and Laurie were nominated for Oscars).

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/22/11 at 9:53pm

I agree. Those scenes tap into someting primal, universal. And more than ever I feel strongly that the music is simply gorgeous.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 2:28am

I used to agree that the mother/daughter scenes were sooooo beautiful without really giving it much thought. Then I gave it some thought and I put aside my hanky and realized what a travesty Carrie actually is.

There's nothing wrong with liking things on a primal level. EVERY form of art has elements that appeal to our most simplistic desires, no matter how much greatness is encoded within it. But Carrie doesn't really bear any greatness at all. At least not as a musical.

Of course it "works." It works as a collection of instantly likable, catchy, or sentimental numbers featuring belting divas. Notice how, when anyone calls one of the Buckley numbers "amazing!!!!" they are mostly referring to her crazy belt. It's no mystery why the same exact number fails to draw even a fraction of the same reaction when sung by Barb Cook. No belt, no amazing number. HUGE flaw number one.

The score is very nicely orchestrated and is evocative but the crap lyrics throughout only widen what should be a tightly integrated piece. Instead, we get a lush string ensemble providing an eloquent musical backdrop to some of the worst, most awkward and simplistic set of lyrics in the history of musical theatre. A 10-minute soliloquy where Carrie shrieks her own name a record amount of times and likens herself to distant thunder and begins with the hilarious "THAT'S NOT MY NAAAAAAAAAME!!!!!" Talk about "bursting into song" at the drop of a hat. And what do we learn by the end? Nada. It's not her name. It's Carrie. OK

The mother/daughter scenes are beautiful in terms of harmony, orchestration, mood, yadayadayada. But what do they achieve? Melodrama at its worst, the fatal flaw being its taking itself too seriously. We learn that Carrie and Mama are loners who really, really love each other. OK.

The classmates scenes are random, puzzling, and annoying.

Carrie and Ms. Gardener prance around in sneakers and pumps to the uplifting tune of "Unsuspecting Hearts." Sure, it's a very, very catchy number, one jam-packed with painfully cliche one-liners.

How would you react to a friend coming to aide you in your hour of need with...

"In a world where nothing's sure
And nothing's ever guaranteed
You should trust the way you feel
That's the only thing that's real!"

I'd sock 'em right in the nose.

And then there's "I'm Not Alone." Oh, Lordy.

I think it's the show's catchiest tune. It is really too bad the lyrics once again cause one to cringe at their awfulness. Loaded once more with a million cliche phrases...

"Where there was one
Now there are two! (Oh, rly?)
That's the kind of magic only love can do (Ya don't say???)
Thinking of him thrills me so much
I can move a mountain now with just a single touch! (OK)

Worst of all, it's another 10 minute Beeeeeautiful Number that leaves us high and dry. She waltzes with her dress and tap dances with enchanted shoes and talks about how some guy freed her from some lonely tower. Okie dokie. But fails to address the enchanted shoes and waltzing dress. Or telekinesis.

Sue croons about how it hoits to be strong. Next!

True, the mother/daughter scenes are miles better than the rest of the show. The only numbers I'd say could survive intact in their original form (yes, even the substandard lyrics) are "And Eve Was Weak," "I Remember How Those Boys Could Dance," and "Evening Prayers," even though the latter really comes off more like a shouting match. It's a guilty pleasure.

The prom sequence is like 70's disco...all flash and melody in the most shameless display of bombast ever assembled on stage. Wotta night!

I really like "Heaven." Somehow, whether their intention or not, they managed to take an iconic scene from the film which featured a similarly pretty tune and create one very much in the same spirit while being completely original in melody and being very theatrical at the same time. The counterpoint works very well here and it's a brilliant moment to use the device in. One of the few scenes that conjures at least a semblance of what makes musical theatre so great and unique.

Then they just ruin it all a million times over by having Billy jog up to Carrie and plop a small pail of Halloween blood over her noggin.

She emits lasers from her hands and crotch and suffers what appears to be explosive bouts of PMS (still no mention of telekinesis so it's safe to assume it's "a girl thing" considering she was instructed to "plug-it-up" earlier in the evening), which makes everyone die.

Mama meets her on random white steps where she tickles her with a knife. Carrie giggles and taps her mother lightly on her boob, which makes her die.

Sue cradles Carrie, which somehow makes her die.

The end.

Those of you who say people want to see the original, unintentionally quirky 1988 version are dead-on. Why would I want to see something I can actually take seriously? Carrie, the musical, is fun to despise. Trying to make me love it the way I love, say, Les Miserables, will only irritate me.

Much like the love/hate that makes Evita so intriguing, the mixture of the two emotions in us is what makes this travesty work.

[Idiot]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 3:11am

Tourboi -- you said:

"Going to disagree that "In" doesn't work. "In" lays the foundation that (and it's very true) in the high school world, fitting in is the key to survival."

I might be just too damaged by the toga costuming in this scene to remember the song fondly. Those costumes scarred me for life!

Namo --

To be more specific, since you apparently think my often excessively specific posts are too vague, I'm saying (clearly, I thought) that when a person buys a ticket to a musical named after a telekinetic protagonist, we want to see her use it. The show shied away from it. At the end of the first act, Carrie shouldn't turn to the audience with her hands in flames. She should have her mother pinned to the damn ceiling. One thing I agree with you about though -- that disco ball was just a monumentally bad idea. Lazy, really. I think they were trying to distract us from Allen's choreography or something.

[dramarama3]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 3:19am

Good lord, that bloody choreography...

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 9:53am

They should give the composition slot over to Tom Kitt and have him work his rockestrational magic on it. Carrie seems like the kind of concept that would work as a rock opera.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/23/11 at 11:12am

Is anyone else kind of amazed that this is being fostered under the higher-brow auspices of MCC as opposed to, say, New World Stages?

Whether or not the show is going to be "amazing" isn't much of a cliffhanger (the defenders and the condemners have seemed to have made up their minds no matter what the outcome)...whether MCC is tacky enough to produce something wilfully substandard for the sake of tapping into some cult musical-nerd phenom is.