NOW 19 YEARS ON-Carrie the musical, how did it go so wrong- Page 3

Posted: 4/27/07 at 9:43am

That's what fascinates me most about Carrie (well after the fact that the producers apparantly changed *nothing* except replacing Cook with Buckley, between the UK and Broadway...) -- Why did they think placing it in such a surreal setting would work to its benefit? I admit it makes, for me, the piece all the more *wow* but... The strength of the story really is that it's meant to be a high school anyone can relate to on some level--not this insane Ancient Greece Hades meets Disco fantasy world

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 10:03am

I once spoke to terry hands about this and asked him why he thought it was a good idea to stage it as a greek tradgedy and his response was that the set designs they were given for the show looked so strong on paper and set a light bulb off in him that that was the way to go.
He also said they were a lot of people at the RSC who said staging that way would add to the respect of the piece(Hmmmmmmmm).
He said carrie was the biggest regret of his life as he saw the problems in the show after the show closed and the potential of the show when it was to late, he also said that was his chance to shine and he blew it.


The changes made to the show from stratford to broadway were laughable(though buckley was the best decision they made as she owned that role unlike Cook who was so miscast).
They dropped a short song cut even MORE of the book, dropped dream on reprise, changed Heaven(what sue sang) to It Hurts To Be Strong and added a few more special effects in(the wall setting on fire in Eve Was Weak and fire erupting from the front of the stage in The Act 1 finale) AND CHANGED THE ORCHESTRATIONS ??? The ironic thing is the startford orchestrations were better for most part.

Posted: 4/27/07 at 2:32pm

Happy Anniversary, CARRIE!!!!

well, i'm devoted, & anything i can do to help bring CARRIE back, it would be my joy.

i love an underdog; thats why i love the character of Carrie as well as the show!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 3:12pm

Has anybody mentioned how they hit Carrie with a red spotlight to simulate the pig blood?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 3:22pm

Aside from the red spotlight, Charlotte walked up to Linzi and manually poured the blood from a bucket onto her as she stood center stage. That's what was hilarious -- unlike the novel and the film where the bucket pours the blood onto Carrie from the rafters, on Broadway they simply had Chris walk up to her and pour the bucket of blood on her, so Carrie (Linzi) was indeed covered in 'blood'. Not the drenching ala Sissy Spacek in the film, but at least she was indeed somewhat covered in that blood.

[kyle.]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 3:23pm

Cook is so dreadful on the Stratford DVD. I was looking forward to an eerie, beautiful portrait of a tortured woman. Instead it was nothing short of dull and lifeless. Buckley was a revelation. Thank God she came in for Broadway.

In regards to the set - I have never seen anything so cool! The way they twisted and turned, rose and fell. You really get the scale of everything with the Stratford video. While they did not work for the show, looking at it from a visual standpoint, some of the transitions and stage pictures were BREATHTAKING! I will take some screen caps and post the link.
Updated On: 4/27/07 at 03:23 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 3:28pm

Don't bother yourself with doing those screen caps. Any actual production photos from the show posted or linked on this site get removed.

I made the effort to scan a ton of photos off the original Broadway souvenir program (large full color photos) and in a few hours they were removed from this site.

Posted: 4/27/07 at 8:15pm

Yeah and thos epics in that program are masterful :)

Interesting, SongandDance what you said the director said--I know he is a very respected director (even if he hadn't done musical sbefore) and it wasn't like they just got a hack. I wonder how so many people involved in Fame became involved though--and who's idea was it to begin with?

The idea of a greek tragedy for Carrie is in teresting and could be done but not with the way the music and dialogue was handled--it was like two different Carrie concepts (three?) at odds with each other. I mean I love the DePalma film and that's VERY stylized--but in a very different way... (Interesting DePalma, who's one of my top directors even with all the misfires in his career I love how his films are total cinema--has always wanted to do a musical but the ones he was offered--Grease and Flashdance, I kid you not, were ones he found too uninteresting)

E

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 4/27/07 at 10:44pm

To post my own "Carrie" story.

I had a friend who was a Barbara Cook fan who lived in Scotland at the time and sent me every clipping that appeared about "Carrie".

A little while after the show closed on Broadway, there appeared in the still-missed magazine, Theater Week, an ad in the back that read "Are You A Friend of Carrie" with an address. I sent a postcard to that address, saying that I had all of these clippings, and got a list of other "Carrie" fans across the country.

Well, I wrote to a few people and one of them was a guy in Wisconsin and we've been friends for about fifteen years now.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/29/07 at 7:54am

The greek Tragedy idea was mentioned by the writers as a concept they thought could be interesting(they looked at Carrie Like an opera) but Hands should have seen that the music and lyrics did not lend itself to that design.

KYLE
I do Agree with what you said about the set , it is very cool, the way it spins and turns and moves its great but just not for this show(mirrors dont work for a kids night spot,white glossy panels are not a gym and the bloody staircase(if they were the stairs to my old high school gym and i wouldnt have needed to exercise)

Casting Cook was a mistake from the very start , she had not clue of the material and played her so one dimensional.The only reason she was cast was because it would make good head lines the fact she was returning to the stage after so long.
I cant deny Cook has talent because she does , and they were even some moments in carrie she was good(when theres no one and open your heart) and the song what was dropped last second called Once I Loved A Boy shes sounded sensational on , but it was the big moments like Eve Was Weak and I Remember How Those Boys Could Dance where she just failed miserably.

Buckley however GOT IT, She new this person inside out and threw herself in to the role.I think its sad she was never picked out for a Tony for Carrie(same with Linzi who career in theatre is now HUGE here.

The blood drop was ridiculous, they were originally just going to drop a red sheet from the bucket but Linzi said they had to cover her in blood(thank god for linzi).

The reason they did not dot do the blood drop was fear of the blood missing Hately when it fell (or so Terry Hands said) its not exactly hard)

The strange thing is from talking to Linzi(who nive ran in to about a million times when we are both doing shows) and sally ann etc etc is they all believe that if the show had just stayed open it would have done well, it needed time to find its audience (though it never played under 89 percent on broadway and was normally almost SOLD OUT even after the reviews came out), the producers were just cowards and did not know anything about producing a broadway musical

Posted: 4/29/07 at 8:43am

i see that there is B-Roll footage of IN, EVENING PRAYERS & WOTTA NIGHT...was there B-Roll for AND EVE WAS WEAK?

if the producers did not realize that that number is the CORE of the show, the most promotable segment, that would be a shame....
Updated On: 4/29/07 at 08:43 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/29/07 at 9:48am

Nope. No B-roll clip was made for "And Eve was Weak".

I do have footage of Betty Buckley's performance of it (in full Margaret White costume) from her Carnegie Hall concert, where Linzi Hately joined her for this. It was sensational to watch -- both of them, years after CARRIE, with Betty Buckley tugging and tossing around Linzi.

Need to seek it out and put it on that site.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/29/07 at 10:03am

On a documentary about Carrie (from germany) i have there is some footage of Eve Was Weak and its mind Blowing , the audince go wild after buckley finishes the song, a truly amazing moment in theatre.

By the way im setting up a carrie fan site at the moment so if anyone has pictures of the show pm me, i have all the vids from UK,broadway, stagedoor, Boston, rehearsals,extras etc as well as all the cds so i just need some great pics xx

[dgjbear]

Posted: 4/29/07 at 10:18am

I wasn't that into Musicals and stuff when it opened at the time in the UK, where I am, but I remember general sn*ing about this in the press. I would love to hear what the music was like as it seems to have developed mythical status since!
Broadway has a good track record of invigorating forgotton or originally non-profit making musicals. Couldn't this be presented in an Encore type staging the gauge reaction after all these years? While there are many detractors, it seems to have just as many fans.

Posted: 4/29/07 at 7:25pm

dgj check out youtube for some great and not-so-great clips

I'm so in love with Do me a Favour it's no joke

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/29/07 at 7:26pm

I think do me a favor is great, from what was said about a recent workshop production here in the UK though it looked like it had been dropped booooo

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 3:46pm

If anyone is interested, everything from the Overture through Evening Prayers is on another site (starts with "My" and ends with "space"). Just search the videos for "Carrie the Musical." It's from the London production.

Updated On: 5/2/07 at 03:46 PM

Posted: 4/30/07 at 8:23pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGwzNB5KyJ0

Is rehearsal footage for Do Me a Favour. I love how they're dancing NON STOP in such non teeanger moves. I could watch it all day :P

Posted: 4/30/07 at 8:45pm

not capitalizing on AND EVE WAS WEAK proves that the producers didnt know what they had on their hands, or what to do with it.

such a shame!!!

its like Carrie was abused all over again.