Happy 20th Anniversary CARRIE! — Page 2

Lotsa youtube CARRIE goodies here!

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"...dream on..."

I'm still kicking myself at having the opportunity to see this, but I chose Chess instead!!

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All of the Mrs. White/Carrie stuff was amazing, and I don't think they could have cast it any better than Betty Buckley. She is amazing in that. Cold, unfeeling in the beginning. It makes the end of the story so painful.

The teenager stuff couldn't have been handled any worse. What are those costumes? Are they in Kiss of the Spider Woman? Are they matadors?

Gosh I love this show and wish the writers would just get over themselves and release the rights. Or at least let the Actor's Fund put it on as a benefit. It was 20 years ago and has developed a huge cult following. Let people (namely me) do it already and raise some money while they're at it.

I think their pride comes before their desire for money in this case.
It's really a shame, b/c it definitely would be fun for comapnies to produce.

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Just goes to show that no matter how bloody awful a show is, there will always be someone who'll love it. Just like there are always folks to vote Republican.

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Actually.... shortly before the lasers begin shooting all over the place, a scrim was lowered covering most of the upstage area (not the entire proscenium). Sally Ann Triplett is left kneeling in front of the scrim (downstage), watching all the madness going on at the prom thru this scrim. Yes, there was a ton of smoke and visibility was quite limited, but you COULD see what was going on. I saw the actual show 3 times during Broadway previews, so I remember this quite vividly. The London bootleg DVD also confirms this.

Enough with the CARRIE hatin' and the nasty implications. All 3 performances I attended were greeted with cheers and great audience reaction. Yes, we ALL knew it was a mess... but everyone was enjoying what was going on. It didn't close because it was 'bad' -- it closed because the inexperienced German producers panicked after the negative critics reviews and closed it promptly. Previews were pretty well filled (some performances actually sold-out) and the advance was quite good (even Betty Buckley confirmed this). It could have had a nice run on just the trainwreck-flavored word-of-mouth alone and its advance.

At least it still survives in the memories of many and is now part of Broadway folklore history. Charlotte d'Amboise lovingly embraces it, as do many others who came out of the ensemble and who ended-up going straight into that little show JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY right after CARRIE.

What shows do you consider good, Roscoe?

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I have seen some footage of some of the "good" numbers from the show, and yes, its embarrassing. Typical 80's West End-ish pop nonsense, with lots of Hately and Buckley ending numbers by holding a note and slowly raising their hands from their sides to torso level in an "embrace". Very, very silly. God, I wish I had seen the whole thing!

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it closed because the inexperienced German producers panicked after the negative critics reviews and closed it promptly. Previews were pretty well filled (some performances actually sold-out) and the advance was quite good (even Betty Buckley confirmed this). It could have had a nice run on just the trainwreck-flavored word-of-mouth alone and its advance.

In today's Broadway, a wise producer would still keep it running regardless of the reviews -- especially on the good advance ticket sales. CARRIE had a strong advance in ticket sales and could have kept surviving on this alone. Word-of-mouth is the STRONGEST form of advertising, especially for a Broadway show (WICKED and MAMMA MIA! anyone?). People were seeing the show based on the bad word-of-mouth, which in CARRIE's case was turning-out to be a 'good' thing. Regardless if a show is a pile of crap or a work of art, if there's a paying audience you don't close a show. Those German producers were novices and didn't know what was going on so they closed the show immediately.

If that's hard for you to decipher, you must be German, too.

Everybody I talked to said it would have sold well if they had sold it as a comedy.

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... enough already!

Okay.