Happy 20th Anniversary CARRIE!- Page 2

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 2:55pm

I haven't laughed so hard at a musical in my life, except for DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES.

I'll never forget Charlotte D'Amboise's second act entrance. She gave the audience this gigantic smile that clearly communicated that she couldn't believe it either. I've been a fan of hers ever since.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 2:59pm

Lotsa youtube CARRIE goodies here!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:00pm

Charlotte's Act 2 entrance was so incredible. Too bad we will never see anything like that on Broadway again...

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:02pm

"...dream on..."

[tazber]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:54pm

And the finale where no one could see anything b/c of the smoke effects. They lowered some kind of lucite "window" over the entire proscenium so it wouldn't get into the audience.
But on the video* I've seen you can hear people coughing like mad.
I always wondered how the actors managed.


*not a bootleg, fyi

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:59pm

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

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:59pm

Awe, I love Carrie. It has some great songs in it.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:06pm

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.

[JRybka]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:06pm

I love love love this show.
They need to just get some of the videos together and release it yiou know they would make some money out of that.....

[tazber]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:09pm

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.

[kyle.]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:11pm

Amazing

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:11pm

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.

[Kalimba]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:11pm

Looks like the birth of the "Debbie Allen Dancers" from the Academy Awards.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:17pm

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.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:30pm

Right. The fact that the show was a piece of steaming crap had nothing to do with its closing almost immediately after opening.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:34pm

What shows do you consider good, Roscoe?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:35pm

It had very little actually.

The reviews were bad, most (if not all) of the advance was gone, and the newbie producer panicked.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:36pm

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!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:40pm

Borstal, it was a treat, it really was, THE high camp disaster of the last 26 years.

Blaxx, what the hell do shows that I like have to do with the hilarious camp catastrophe of CARRIE? If you insist, I liked: SPRING AWAKENING, ADDING MACHINE, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (not the current revival), INTO THE WOODS, SWEENEY TODD, SHE LOVES ME, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, ASSASSINS, and others. Happy?

Updated On: 4/28/08 at 04:40 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:42pm

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.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:43pm

Chill, brother, I was just wondering.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:53pm

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

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:54pm

If they'd played it up as the disaster that it was, it might have had a healthy run. The PLAN NINE of musical theatre, straight from the Royal Shakespeare Company.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:59pm

... enough already!

Okay.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 5:04pm

Keep these coming. Beautiful!