She's Back! CARRIE - First preview !!! — Page 16

Bernie Telsey told people to come up and give feedback - I told him Margaret needs to be more off the wall - he looked unimpressed LOL But seriously that's what all us show queens are going for!

Good for you cirque. And its not even that the show queens want a camp fest. Its because that is who the character is. It'd be like having Hannibal Lector reconceived to be played like Atticus Finch.

And I don't think Margaret loves Carrie. Not really. Everything she does is completely rooted in her own self serving beliefs. You could maybe make some argument about the characterization in the book, but the musical's script is pretty much a line for line adaptation of the film screenplay.

Updated On: 2/3/12 at 02:41 PM

I will give you thats a complex relationship. At the very least though Margaret is an incredibly abusive mother both physically and emotionally. She may love her daughter but she also says she should have killed Carrie, "the minute he put it in me." That is guilt over her OWN perceived sin; and she kills her daughter for as much that reason as because she thinks its the right thing to do to 'save' her child. This revival seems to focus on upping the ante of Carrie's schoolyard bullying but forgives Margaret too much, in my opinion for her role in Carrie's abuse. I actually think it ultimately makes Carrie less sympathetic when her mother is less crazy.

So well stated Best12. You know that is truly what makes a lot of the relgious zealots scary and very dangerous. There are some recordings of Jim Jones, the infamous priest who led 900 followers to commit a mass suicide in Jonestown that were made in the hours leading up to the suicide and how he passionately talks about sacrificing the lives of the children for God (and is greeted in turn by passionate applause of approval) is absolutely chilling.

In this revival Margaret actually seems dour and conflicted about her belief in God and judgement day; the scary truth is - most of the religious zealots have no disbelief in their convictions at all.

Updated On: 2/3/12 at 03:17 PM

Because Margaret is not just a monster, and the book makes it clear she loves her daughter.

I'm not so sure about that. She's much more monstrous in the book than she is on stage, at least in my opinion.

Margaret's whole motivation in her life is God. He is her reason for living, her only happiness, and her only solace in life. It's all about what He wants. She's willing to sacrifice everything and everyone, including Carrie, for that divine love.

Killing Carrie is the "ultimate act of love," I agree, but not for her daughter, it's for God. Margaret accepts the responsibility of Carrie in her life as a punishment for her own past sins. Carrie is her burden to bare. If there is any conflict inside her, it's that she didn't "give Carrie back to God" the moment she was born (as she says). She has struggled with the decision to allow Carrie to live since Day One of Carrie's life. She allowed it to be as her own "crown of thorns" to wear for her own carnal sin. Margaret's punishment is to raise Carrie, to have to wrestle with this sin, to tame it, to punish it, to face it every day and beat it.

If I were playing Margaret (which would be frightening, but not for right reasons), I would see Carrie's prom night tragedy as Margaret's chance for a release from her burden. She says to Carrie, as she strokes her hair, 'Now the Devil has come home!" Meaning to me that she now has a direct "license to kill" by God Himself. Carrie is no longer a burden, but is evil. She is the Devil. And she must be stopped in God's Name.

She's not sacrificing Carrie anymore. She's not committing murder, either. She is stopping the Devil in his tracks. And she should be joyous and happy about reaching this moment in her life, where she can finally do "good" and right herself with God.

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Updated On: 2/3/12 at 04:02 PM

Carrie's father died in a construction accident after impregnating Margaret, but Margaret refused to believe that she was pregnant because she believed all intercourse to be a sin. From her fifth month until she gave birth, she believed that she had "a cancer of the womanly parts" and that she was going to die and "join her husband in heaven."

From the book:

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Carrie White's mother, Margaret White, gave birth to her daughter on September 21, 1963, under circumstances which can only be described as bizarre....

Due to the Whites' near-fanatical fundamentalist religious beliefs, Mrs. White had no friends to see her through her period of bereavement. And when her labor began seven months later, she was alone.

At approximately 1:30 PM on September 21, the neighbors on Carlin Street began to hear screams from the White bungalow....

When the police did arrive at 6:22 PM, the screams had become irregular. Mrs. White was found in her bed upstairs, and the investigating officer, Thomas G. Mearton, at first thought she had been the victim of an assault. The bed was drenched with blood, and a butcher knife lay on the floor. It was only then that he saw the baby, still partially wrapped in the placental membrane, at Mrs. White's breast. She had apparently cut the umbilical cord herself with the knife.

--Stephen King, Carrie

(Actually from the book-within-the-book that King wrote to give the narrative an objective POV from an invented academic.)

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You know its interesting because the song that was originally written for Margaret in Act 2 was called "Once I loved a boy" and it essentially sololiquized the monologue that Piper does at the end of the film. I know people love "When There's No One" but arguably the original song better musicalizes the character (at least as Stephen King wrote her).

Somewhere along the path early on, the writers decided to humanize the character -- aside from "When there's no one" - "Evening Prayers" plays up a more human conflict for the Margaret character.

That's fine, but I think this production just goes too far in humazinzing everything else about the character. We get that human conflict (if they feel its necessary) in those songs. She can be a little more unbalanced in everything else.

I actually wish they'd let Marin do that monologue at the end. They probably feel it would slow the show down at that point in the evening, but Brian dePalma also felt that way and almost didn't let Piper Laurie even film it. Obviously he realized when he saw her performance its a crucial moment to the story.

Margaret loves her daughter?

Yes. Though she shames and rejects everything about her -- even her womanhood -- she 'loves' her. That's a pile of crap. That parents automatically love their children is adorable and sweet, but a myth.

I'm a bit resigned to the idea that this will not be a CARRIE that shares the sense of fun that's so evident in the source material. There's a whole lotta pretension afoot. That's quite a shame.

I personally wish they'd cut Margaret's lullaby in the end and replace it with Once I Loved A Boy. It truly puts that brilliant monologue from the end of the film into musical form and conveys a scary message about how much she liked it when Carrie's father basically raped her... She then goes on to sing about how if she'd been stronger she would have killed Carrie when she was younger, but her love for her prevented her from doing it. It ends on the note, though, that she's now literally seen the signs and that killing her daughter is the ONLY way to cleanse her soul in God's eyes.

To me, this number accomplishes what they are trying to do to Margaret as well as making her actions truly horrific. She still states that she loves her daughter... which is why she didn't kill her previously... but Margaret is still going to stab her. If you want to "humanize" the character, what better way than peering into her head for a second to understand her justification for what she's about to do.

Singing the Carrie (Reprise) is really counterproductive. I don't think Once I Loved A Boy had a place in the When There's No One spot... but in the finale, it could add a bit of the "monster" people are looking for.

When Margaret says, "I should have given you to God when you were born," that means to me Margaret feels she missed the opportunity to kill Carrie the first time.

"But sin never dies, sin never dies," says to me that the reason she has let Carrie live isn't out of love for her daughter, but rather an acknowledgment that Carrie is Margaret's "living sin." She is Margaret's punishment and penance for doing the dirty act.

But at the end when she says ... "And now the devil has come home," that means she is no longer thinking of Carrie merely as the "embodiment of her sin" but rather the Devil himself. She believes Carrie is evil. And evil must be stopped. That's why she must kill Carrie now in the name of God.

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What is all this about "Margaret loves Carrie more in this version"? She didn't love her in the movie or book??

As any acting teacher will tell you, when you're dealing with love you gotta take it in all the bracing, ugly forms it can take without judgement.

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"Margaret does love Carrie. I love how all the men on these boards (many gay) will so quickly say that she does not. Mother/ child love is complex and just because it doesn't look one way does not mean it doesn't exist."

Really? Really? You're actually going there? As if a gay man doesn't know from a mother's love??? There are people out there that will still tell you that's WHY we're gay.

And as many of of the (presumably) gay men on these boards have so eloquently explained to you, Margaret does not love Carrie in King's book. Nor the film. She certainly isn't saving Carrie from herself.

I have argued before in other Carrie-centric threads, what was wrong with the original musical was the "humanizing" of Margaret White to the neglect of the teenage characters. How disappointing to find out this new version not only doesn't extenuate and correct this, it sounds like it over-embellishes what was already there!

Updated On: 2/3/12 at 07:13 PM