She's Back! CARRIE - First preview !!! — Page 22

I want this version to work because of "In", "Carrie" "Open Your Heart" "Eve Was Weak" (especially), "Evening Prayers" and "When There's No One". Can a good musical of CARRIE exist with these songs?

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Updated On: 2/6/12 at 06:49 AM

There's a very good song in Carrie called "Unsuspecting Hearts." If only the authors had paid more attention to unsuspected laughs! Yes, the whole kit and caboodle is cheesily absurd. But did they have to make it even more laughable by the multiple incongruities, inconsistencies, idiocies, ahd lapses in logic and common sense that pop up all along the way? That is just slipshod writing.



************SPOILERS**********


For example, why would the English teacher be lined up in unison with the teens singing about how great the prom is going to be? Is this guy now just one of the gang? Then he announces in class that now that everyone is going to college, they are all slacking off in their work. As if the dodos presented here could even write an intelligible sentence, much less ever get accepted to college. Then the teacher (I wonder if he even went to college himself) announces that the football jock has written a wonderful poem. A classmate groans in disbelief, prompting the best yuk of the night. Turns out the kid knew better than the teacher. The poem is absolute drivel.

Then there's the prom. Why do the girls look as if they're dressed more appropriately for Halloween? One is wearing some hideous sort of tutu, another something seemingly designed by a cubist painter. Maybe this is The Rocky Horror Show, after all.

Etc, etc. It's these kind of ridiculous details that make the show more laughable than it already is. And it's already laughable enough.

Dave, your comment made me laugh because it reminded me of that famous GRAND HOTEL commercial with the old lady saying "I loved it, I'm going to see it two more times (my husband works in this area)"

Since there are only six students at the prom in this version (something that will always be just silly and they can't get around it with a cast this size) I think they are obligated to include the teachers just to have a few extra bodies/voices up there.

"Unexpected Hearts" is actually one of the songs that was really heavily ridiculed by the critics the first time around.

"Altar Boyz was Naked Boys Singing with clothes on."

Bravo.

"Unfortunately, the problem remains the material itself. Just as it was the first time around, it's tawdry, preposterous, grotesque, and trashy. It's just less screechingly outrageous about it."

Bravo #2. The book, music, and lyrics of Carrie contain all the art, skill, and depth of a Hallmark greeting card.

Now, if a Hallmark greeting card is your idea of great poetry and art, no one can change your mind; but one day, with luck and experience and thought, you may find that evaluation to be something to discard.

Carrie the musical takes a fascinating novel and a terrific movie and reduces it to clichés, platitudes, tv-movie banality, and nonsense.

Some audiences really enjoy clichés, platitudes, tv-movie banality, and nonsense; it gives them what they're used to and what they expect. Some audiences have learned to ask for more depth, more art, more surprise, more complex insight. Pitchford, Cohen, and Gore simply aren't the writers to provide this, nor is Arima the director to do so.

Updated On: 2/6/12 at 09:16 AM

You could say that Little Shop of Horrors, Rocky Horror Show and a few other shows are "tawdry, preposterous, grotesque, and trashy," but they get the proportions right, and also add some surprising bits of sincere good writing to boot.

And that's the problem (as I've said): these writers just don't have what it takes to get it right. It would take a much better team to create an effective musical theatre version of Carrie.

Just because its Monday and this clip is worth revisiting.
Betty pushs Linzi Hately into her 'prayer closet' that is for some reason underground. Bizarre but exciting

Ha true! Though an abstract directorial choice, I will say its arguably more disturbing to see her smashing Carrie's fingers and pushing her through the floor (towards hell?) than dragging her to the closet.

Feb 19th row L. cant wait

And though I'm not usually stickler for this, I do have to say that I think this song loses something when the key is lowered, as it is in this production for Marin.

I've been lurking for a long time here. Amused by most of the bickering, but mostly just a reader. Had no intention of ever posting. But wow... newintown, AfterEight, etc... can you guys just stop blindly trashing the show?

You've made your point. YOU will never like a musical version of Carrie. Regardless of how good it is. Don't even try to say otherwise. Stop trashing the authors. You'd be so lucky to win Oscars, Grammys, etc. You'd be so lucky to be responsible for songs that will stand the test of time like "Fame", "Footloose", "Holding Out For A Hero", and more. They're perfectly competent at what they do.

I find it really interesting that people who don't have a disgusting preconceived hate for the show are coming back and reporting positive things. Even if they think it's not a perfect show, EVERYONE's been coming back saying something positive.

Go back into your holes and turn on Floyd Collins or Pacific Overtures and come up with more excuses why most theater-goers are just too "stupid" to enjoy your "refined" tastes.

I saw Carrie on Saturday. I am familiar with the Broadway production through the infamous soundboard recording. This production is very close. I don't think "small" works for the show, but the writing has gotten extremely solid. I think a much larger cast is necessary. We have to get a better sense of how many people actually ostracize Carrie. 6 teenagers looks weird.

I miss 'Heaven'. The septet at the prom was one of the most theatrical and effective things in the original. Obviously inspired by 'One Day More', it was a moment where Carrie and musical theater became one. It's a shame they don't try it again. It'd help create a magic, almost dream-like moment that I think the prom is missing. The scene is very rushed.

As for 'The Destruction', I liked the new arrangement and I'm glad they went back and took out references from cut songs. (Though 'Our Father' is still present in the introduction) The "only" thing I miss is after "doesn't anybody ever get it right? don't anybody think that I hear?". In the original it went into "god has seen your sinning..." into the 'Eve Was Weak' vamps. I thought it was also an extremely effective musical moment in the original that's just been dropped.

As for the finale, I still don't buy the 'Carrie (Reprise)' there. It's out of place. Someone suggested inserting Margaret's monologue from the film. That's an idea. Someone also mentioned there's a cut song that is basically that monologue in song form, has it ever been in the show??? Something else needs to work here. If they're set on using the 'Carrie' theme, maybe make the song sound minor and creepy? It's way too happy musically.

The performances were wonderful. Marin is very close to being epic... someone needs to tell her to just go for it. Molly Ranson, though pitchy, was thrilling. The cast does a great job. I like the new songs and I like modernizing the old ones. My "only" problem is some of the vocal arrangements on the teen stuff is just too busy. 'The World According To Chris', 'Do Me A Favor', and 'Night We'll Never Forget' come to mind. They're so busy and I don't know if every "ooh" and "ahh" adds to the music or takes away from it. At times I found it hard to appreciate parts of those songs because so much arbitrary stuff was being sung.

If nothing changes and this is what's licensed, there's an extremely strong show there. Stafford's take on it is really really safe, but the groundwork is there for some really daring directors to create chillingly scary productions. And supposedly they're making even more changes (hopefully for the better).

P.S. Did anyone else notice a little bit of 'Don't Waste The Moon' in 'The World According To Chris'??? My friend said he didn't hear it, but I swear when Sue sang it was part of the melody. Regardless if it was or wasn't, Sue's bridge to the song was better than the bulk of it.

Updated On: 2/6/12 at 03:09 PM

I've also been a lurker on this board for years and eatthebrownie's post up above made me decide to also de-lurk and give my (more condensed) thoughts on the show, except for the opposite reason. I saw Carrie last night and thought it was, frankly, terrible.

I went into the show fresh, having not seen or heard the original except for the classic Betty youtube link that was posted recently in this thread. I haven't even seen the movie in years, so I wasn't particularly judging it against that as well.

First off, Marin (who I adore) played Margaret like a Sister Wife on Zoloft and it was all wrong. There was no sense of a) wonder or conviction in her religious beliefs and b) a foreboding sense of doom that would make the ending make sense. She seemed resigned and/or defeated, and it just didn't feel right to me. Also, at the end, when Carrie walked in covered in blood, she gave almost no reaction. Here is her daughter, walking in covered in the manifestation of sin, and yet, no response?? That should have been a sign from God that killing Carrie is right, and yet I didn't get that at all.

All of the teenagers needed to be shot on sight, especially the actress playing Chris. Every time she came on stage, a little part of my soul died. The gym teacher was ridiculous (although she had a lovely voice), as was the English teacher.

The lyrics were inane, and the majority of the music (with a few lovely and/or exciting exceptions) was trite and cheesy.

Last but not least, you had to have the blood. It's practically the theme of the entire show, or at least the physical representation of it, and without the visceral reaction of it, that entire scene seemed anti-climatic.

Molly was a lovely Carrie, although I was confused by her sudden transformation from this person who didn't even knowing what a period was to someone that had a drawer full of makeup and a curling iron.

Updated On: 2/6/12 at 03:35 PM

"P.S. Did anyone else notice a little bit of 'Don't Waste The Moon' in 'The World According To Chris'??? My friend said he didn't hear it, but I swear when Sue sang it was part of the melody. Regardless if it was or wasn't, Sue's bridge to the song was better than the bulk of it."

Yes, I absolutely heard it...and it made me smile!

Ken Mandelbaum certainly loves musicals but he was never a theatre professional, and so his thoughts on the original production probably have been overvalued over the years, its true.

Below is a link to the original television reviews.

Probably the most useful quote is from Dennis Cunnigham:

"A show far too deadly serious about itself. That's this musical's central flaw...if this musical had a sense of humor it might well be on the road to success but it doesn't and it isn't..."


CARRIE 1988 Television reviews