She's Back! CARRIE - First preview !!! - Page 26

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:16pm

I don't know, doodle. Are you summarizing the depiction in your post or does Sue summarize it like that, too?

Does she describe the rampage itself, step by step, in a monologue about what she saw and what Carrie did? Each and every incident? Or does she just say she followed her home while she destroyed the town (in a nice encapsulating sentence or two)?

It just seems to deemphasize this whole event, even the way you put it.

EDIT: MB, I just read your post. We're both thinking "rewrite a monologue" here.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 03:16 PM

[THDavis]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:18pm

I think one of the parts I was disappointed in was that Carrie and Sue didn't have that moment at the end. It was touching to have Sue sing a reprise of "You Shine", but I wanted some of that "you tricked me" dialogue that they share in the book.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:20pm

I would actually do both.

Have Sue do a blow-by-blow monologue (aka interrogation sequence) while Carrie is shown (in abstract ways) on her rampage, whether she goes out into the audience or not---which I still think would be very unsettling. I could imagine quiet giggles and squirming and general uncomfortableness from the audience, etc., to have "bloody Carrie" brush by them.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:20pm

Actually I just listened to it again. She doesn't mention the town being destroyed. After the destruction, Sue just says "I followed the trail of blood - it led from the school through the town. All the way to Carrie's house. That's where I found her."

There are some faint sirens but no big sounds of the town being destroyed.

It really is kind of lame.



Updated On: 2/8/12 at 03:20 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:20pm

And there isn't any further narration after that. Margaret dies and the dead people come back to sing a sentimental ballad.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 03:20 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:23pm

Actually I just listened to it again. She doesn't mention the town being destroyed After the destruction, Sue just says "I followed the trail of blood - it led from the school through the town. All the way to Carrie's house. That's where I found her."

There are some faint sirens but no big sounds of the town being destroyed.

It really is stupid.

That's it?!

Oh, lord.

"And then the ship sank."

The end.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 03:23 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:25pm

She does not go on about each part of the destruction, which was good for me because I had had enough of the actress ...but I was satisfied that they made it clear what carnage went on for those in the audience who only saw the film, which only includes the gym. Here the audience is trapped in the gym with the dead...but we know what's going on with the projections, lighting and sound.

Like I said, I was satisified. I found the lighting/sound to be quite good, if glitchy last night. My problem with the part of the destruction that we DO see in the gym, was the choreography.

Also, who knows what else they have up their sleeves. There are many more weeks to get this together.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:37pm

I'm glad you were satisfied with it, doodle, and I don't mean to take away from your opinion of this moment in the show, either. You've seen it, and I haven't. That counts for way more than my conjectures and deductions. I'm actually trying to piece it together from what all of you are saying (the ones who've seen it).

What are the projections depicting? Do they show any of the town being destroyed? Innocent people who live there? Carrie acting ruthlessly and without mercy? Are they filling in those gaps, then?

Or is it because you already know the novel and the movie, and your mind is completing the circle for them?

(Just a question.)

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 03:37 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:51pm

That is certainly fair, and perhaps I did "fill in the gaps" to a degree, but someone I was with who only saw the film mentioned that she didnt know the whole town was destroyed.

MB, last night there was more destruction sounds and projections than you describe before Sue comes out.

Besty, it's more abstract than specific acts Carrie does...explosions, sirens, both as sounds and abstract projections, fire, etc.

Perhaps they are tweaking this part of the show and adding to it to find the proper audience reaction...for me it'd be better to cut half of the teenage stuff, including Chris' song and the scene between Tommy and Sue before the prom....and getting Marin more fired up.

I forgot that they cut one of my favorite lines!! Carrie mentions that the cake gives her pimples, but Margaret doesnt say, "that's the lord's way of chastising you, child!"

I was more disappointed than leaving out the dirty pillows line!

[newintown]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:55pm

"Also owen and newintown, since it sounds like you do believe that fiction causes/can cause people to repeat certain crimes in reality, are you saying Carrie and other such productions should not be produced and aired?"

Wow, Jane, that's an Olympic-sized leap in logic that I'm not sure I can follow. I think you're translating my post into something that you want it to be.

All I said was that when you (and others) root for Carrie's revenge, for the murder of large numbers of people, it may represent a shift downwards in morality from a time when revenge was not considered a thing for which to root, but rather a lowering of oneself.

I certainly wouldn't try to guess King's point of view on revenge; nor would I try to guess whether morals change popular entertainment or vice versa. I leave that to another thread, another site (Philosophy World? Social History World?).

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 3:59pm

That is certainly fair, and perhaps I did "fill in the gaps" to a degree, but someone I was with who only saw the film mentioned that she didnt know the whole town was destroyed.

That says a lot that your friend "got it."

You have to understand that I think it's a fault of the film, too. Carrie performs "random acts of killing," not just "revenge killings" of the people who did her wrong in the high school. She is the "monster," at this point, killing and destroying innocent people with no connection to her at all. I do think that's important to this story (and relevant to today's Columbine-type incidents and headlines). It was missing from the movie.

If your friend got it, even though it was only briefly mentioned, that's a step in the right direction. And it says, to some minimal degree, that it's being understood by the audience.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:06pm

"I think you're translating my post into something that you want it to be."

Not really. I didn't want your post to be any particular thing.

My post was meant to point out one discrepancy between what I originally posted, and what I inferred from your post.

The discrepancy is that I was viewing Carrie as a work of fiction, not based on any current or past real life societal attitudes towards revenge. I wasn't drawing any connection between the two. I thought you were seeing the message in the film as related somehow to a trend in society's thinking.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 04:06 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:10pm

She was also disappointed there was no hand coming out of the ground...LOL!

That said, none of my companions (most of them in the biz) liked it too much, and I was the only one who knew the musical and read the book, so many years ago. The others only knew the film.

[Owen22]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:15pm

New, I didn't even bother as she totally missed (or as you say *wanted* to miss) the points we discussed.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:16pm

"The discrepancy is that I was viewing Carrie as a work of fiction, not based on any current or past real life societal attitudes towards revenge."

One's reaction to fictional revenge (murder), and one's reaction to real revenge (murder), although not exactly the same thing, are related.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:17pm

Besty, are you saying that in the book, she starts killing people randomly? Other than what we see in the film? When and how does that happen, timewise, in the book (if you don't mind).

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:23pm

Apparently, Stephen King was thrilled with that "hand coming up" dream-ending to the movie, and he was only sorry he hadn't thought of it himself.

To me, this actually (slightly) makes up for not being able to burn down the whole town in the film (again, because of budget) and show Carrie's full rampage and "random acts." In the final moments of the film, Carrie is definitely a "monster" coming back from her grave to grab Sue. Movie audiences were left thinking of Carrie in that way, and it's quite an impression to leave behind.

I remember I saw it opening weekend (a Friday night) when I was in junior high. It was rated R, so a friend's parent took us. (I had already read the best-selling book.)

When the hand came up, it's probably the single loudest and most unified "scream" I've ever heard from an audience before or since. It was really mass-hysteria in the theatre. I don't remember being able to hear the sound to the film at all after that, until the credits rolled.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:26pm

'why wouldnt they start furiosly texting when Carrie began the destruction? It would've been on youtube! There'd be no need to interrogate Sue!'

Sorry but the funniest question in the thread
Maybe they did not do that because....i don't know, they are dying and trapped in an inferno?

Also as for the wanting to see the town get destroyed by Carrie.
Come on, really? visually it could never work, as a monologue it would take away from the scene that just happened (The Destruction to a Monologue about what she did next is just terrible pacing). It really does not matter we don't hear this info. Most novel to stage adaptions leave many scenes out, hell the film left it out.

As for Carrie being a monster, i don't by that for a single second. The whole thing is about how far can somebody be pushed before they finally snap. She was a sweet, awkward girl who just wanted to be loved at home and at school. She was humiliated terribly that her powers started to become much bigger and out of control, she could not have stopped them if she tried. Her powers are a link to her emotions. Tipping a load of pigs blood on you in front of the entire senior class is not gonna make hair brushes and combs float around, it's gonna trigger something dar and destructive.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:27pm

As much as I wasn't crazy about the projection design concept (not dropping actual blood isn't 'theatrical' but using projections is?)
I am happy to hear that if they are indeed committed to going that route that they are fully committing and finding more ways to incorporate it into the show's design.

How about projecting some additional bodies into the prom sequence?


EDIT: Song, I think you are missing the point about Carrie being a 'monster' - nobody is arguing what pushes her to the breaking point, but what makes her a monster (in the book at least) is her giving into the behavior shown her earlier in the book by gleefully destroying not only everyone at the prom but the entire town, including innocent people that have never harmed her.

It may be only fleeting, but Carrie lets herself 'go there' - she does indeed become the absolute monster-manifestation of the hatred she herself has suffered.
Updated On: 2/8/12 at 04:27 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:33pm

"Sorry but the funniest question in the thread
Maybe they did not do that because....i don't know, they are dying and trapped in an inferno?"


What an a-holish response.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 04:33 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:35pm

"New, I didn't even bother as she totally missed (or as you say *wanted* to miss) the points we discussed."

aw, relax hon. No need to be nasty.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 4:51pm

"One's reaction to fictional revenge (murder), and one's reaction to real revenge (murder), although not exactly the same thing, are related."

I agree with you totally there. I don't seem to be able to make my point clear in a written post, although it's clear in my mind. If we were speaking in person, I think I could make myself understood. thanks for responding."

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 5:47pm

doodlenyc i don't mean to be, but come on, if you were in a fire and your friends were dying around you would you really get your phone out and start filming?

MB Yes she goes to a place that is shocking and terrible but as i said i always saw it that if her powers were triggered by her emotion then she would not be able to stop them anyway. However yes you are right, it;s a monstrous thing that happens at the end

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 6:11pm

Jane---sorry, I missed your question a few posts up. Just to clarify ...

In the book, after Carrie traps everyone in the high school prom and burns the auditorium down, she leaves (just as she does in the film) and begins to systematically destroy the entire town. It's a calculated and meticulous rampage. And she kills everybody. She does "off" Chris and Billy, as she does in the movie, but she keeps going. She sets the entire town on fire.

Granted, it's a small town, but nobody survives her wrath. They ALL die. People she's never met before with no connection to her or anyone in the high school.

At the end of the killing spree, after Carrie returns home, kills her own mother and then dies herself, there is only one person in the entire town who is left alive ... Sue Snell.

EDIT: MB is right, she is "gleeful" in her destruction. She takes cold pleasure in her calculated approach to each new destruction. Also, as I recall, it goes on for most of the night, with her blowing things up, setting things on fire, etc., and it lasts several hours, almost until dawn. It's not in a "brief fit of rage" or a "momentary lapse in judgment." At that point, her mind has completely snapped, and she has become a total "monster." It's a night of terror.

Updated On: 2/8/12 at 06:11 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/8/12 at 7:26pm

Best12Bars, I love your idea of having Carrie walk through the audience during a sort of abstract destruction-of-the-town sequence. If, during the closing tableau of this version of the prom sequence, Carrie actually walked down into the audience, it would probably be a great jolt. This production desperately needs more exciting moments. Updated On: 2/8/12 at 07:26 PM