Looking for a Genius on CARRIE

If anyone out there is absolutely crazy for this production and knows every little thing about it, as well as in possession of scripts, tapes, videos, posters, paraphernalia, etc. could you please contact me through my P.M. and we'll have a wonderful blast with discussion. I have heard the MIDIs and I am tooooootally digging the sound of this show!

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And Eve Was Weak is my fav. song so far. It's awesome

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I saw it three times. I'll send you a PM.

The score -- the mom/daughter material anyway -- is under-apreciated. When it works -- in all the Buckley/Hately duets, and in "When There's NoOne" -- it is beautiful and truly ambitious. It takes the emotional underbelly of the Stephen King characters and really explores their love/hate push/pull with great delicacy. When it fails -- the infamous pig number prominent -- it fails spectacularly. The ironic thing is, Pitchford and Gore, the FAME team, seemed perfect for it, because the high school milieu would seemingly be their strong suit. But that's where they falter. The Carrie/Margaret White duets are far removed from American teen angst, and are frankly v. sophisticated and moving. They found just the right musical leitmotif for the mother's character, and as played by Buckley, she emerged as a deeply damaged, almost tragic woman. You really saw how much pain she was in, unable to employe her belief system (fundamentalism) to reign in the natural growth of her daughter. Forget the telekenisis -- there was a universal experience dramatized, a kid trying to escape the grasp of a loving tyranica parent. With Buckley's fiercely committed performance, you saw how much she loved her kid; no ordinary monster, she. This stuff was real and compelling -- not kitsch.

If only, if only... If the rest of the show could've come closer, or been reconceived. I remain convinced that its heart and very real ambitions were in the right place. The pig blood number aside, "Carrie" was NOT "Dance of the Vampires." I used to infuriate people who talked about how ridiculous it was to musicalize the Stephen King novel, by saying in terms of "suitable" material, a better case could be made for CARRIE than SWEENEY TODD. Because of the universality of the high school outcast vs. mainstream, and parent/child struggle, I still believe that.

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Updated On: 8/23/04 at 10:52 AM

CATSNYrevival, I'm with you man!

I listened to the whole thing this weekend, and my opinion of its strengths and weaknesses has not changed. What works well, works brilliantly(the material for Margaret White and Carrie), and what fails (the arch and empty high school milieu--and in particular the plot-moving songs) plummets into camp hell. By the time the show opened, the book scenes had been cut and streamlined to the point of song cues. Since most of the songs among the teens don't land, the show was pale and uninvolving whenever we left Buckley and Hately's torturous relationship. But that stuff -- it still sizzles and plays with real emotional truth. If they'd come back and rework the show, and find a simpler approach to the high school stuff (and maybe cast it with real teens -- not 28 year olds), the show could be revisted. As many have said, notably Ken Mandlebaum, it is quite salvagable. Who could play Buckley's part today? Other than the usual divas? Rockfenris, I'll send you a PM with other observations. It's coming back to me.

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Updated On: 8/30/04 at 07:37 PM