"Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Prolific, if unsuccessful playwright who took HBO's BIG LOVE to some bizarre and banal places when he replaced Dustin Lance Black as Story Editor) did the script and Kimberly Pierce of BOYS DON'T CRY is directing. A casting notice for Carrie White just went out last week. "
And I see he just wrote this week's gay bullying episode of Glee--was that his Carrie prep work? :P
Came across a recording of the 1988 Stratford production last night. And oh, my, word, I sat there for three hours with my mouth hanging open. I think Dream On was the most cringe-inducing part, but I understand it's gone now. Interested to see how this production's coming along.
Saw this again tonight (my fourth time) and I noticed many little changes here and there.
Marin's understudy was actually fantastic...she really surprised me and how well she could sing the score. You couldn't tell she was an understudy at all.
"The World According to Chris" no longer ends with the actress belting to the rafters - instead it is a quiet ending, with her in tears, and just transitioning into the next scene (aka no room for applause). In fact, I noticed more than one place where transition music replaced where applause would be. It worked very well in those instances.
A couple of scenes were added, many lines were added and cut. I also noticed many lyric changes. It is so wonderful to know that the creative team is working so hard on this and making tons of minor changes (all for the better).
The audience LOVED the show tonight and I sincerely hope it continues to sell well so it can extend and have a successful off-broadway run at the Lucille Lortel.
PS: Molly Ranson continue to amaze me. Plus, the crowd was all talking about her at intermission. She deserves all the rave reviews and positive buzz she is getting. A wonderful talent - and absolutely perfect for this role.
I just thought of two changes that I didn't really like. I miss the slapping. The teacher slapping Carrie at the beginning to make the lightbulb break is gone. Instead, the lightbulb just randomly breaks while the other girls are taunting her. Also, Carrie's mom no longer slaps her during "And Eve Was Weak." I thought the slaps were effective.
Also, in the beginning of Act 2, Billy and Chris no longer smear blood on each other's faces. Instead they just douse one hand in blood and then join them together while making out. I preferred the smearing of blood on their faces, as I felt it was the one "campy" moment that paid homage to the brilliance that was "Out For Blood."
Still, even with those minor quibbles, if I hadn't seen those parts in early previews, I probably wouldn't have missed them.
Hat the teacher/parent scene is gone, it was very effective seeing her function outside the home. Margaret slapping Carrie on Eve Was Weak was so effective, terrifying, they should not be taking things like that out, they should be adding more in. I liked the blood smear, i thought it was fun. Also Miss G slapping Carrie is NEEDED, her powers are a reaction to things. I also really liked the ending with all the kids coming back on and LOVED the photo of Carrie going up when she was happy at the prom.
I have to say i think the changes he is making are silly, he seems to be taking things out that are risky (teacher slaps student, mother slaps daughter) or fun (the blood smear, the photo). This really sounds like someone who is changing things for the sake of changing things.
Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna
What the show needs is for people who haven't seen it to stop saying what it needs. Go sit in a seat and experience the whole thing from start to finish live and in person and then hop on here and give an opinion informed by what you saw and felt for yourself.
I've seen Carrie twice now, both with and without the parent teacher conference scene, with and without the slap, and with and without Marin Mazzie. (I went precisely to see her understudy last night when I heard Mazzie was still sick.)
I liked the parent teacher thing fine the first time, but nothing has been lost without it -- in retrospect, it slowed things down. It's better with Margaret isolated to that small world of her house -- we see her coming home after a day at work, so we know that she exists in the world outside by that alone. And that seems enough.
On an audio clip or video the slap might seem like it worked but because the Lortel is so small it looked like a stage slap and a little silly. The scene looks better without it. Is some danger missing now as a result? Maybe. But I have to say, while there might not be the "danger" of Piper Laurie (who was more satirical and comic to me than scary) or BB (who, based on all the youtube clips, seemed out of balance to the rest of the material), it seems beside the point - Margaret's lines and her lyrics and the way the relationship is detailed make it plenty clear she is a mother who switches on a dime - loving one minute and then quoting scripture and abusing Carrie physically and perhaps more psychologically in a way that is damaging to the girl but seems like tough love or saving her soul to the mother. EVE WAS WEAK is chilling enough. The music and lyrics and the intensity of the moment, to me, sufficiently convey the history of abuse.
Mazzie's understudy is quite good, she's just not Marin Mazzie. I would say that seeing it with her revealed to me that the show itself is in really good shape and can withstand the absence of Mazzie, who was fantastic and plenty intense on the night I saw her. Not as intense as BB or what some people might expect, but totally effective. I thought the pleading (both Mazzie and her understudy) of Carrie not to go to the prom was a shrewd attempt to manipulate Carrie (another form of abuse!) - more so when Mazzie played it, but still there with the understudy, too.
I don't really understand this desire for everything to be so literal or just like it was in the book/movie/and what seems an insanely overproduced and undercooked Broadway production... or like one expects or demands it be. I found so much of this production to be very surprising and much of it quite thrilling and when I saw it the first time was so happy to have my expectations thwarted. Isn't that one of the reasons to go to the theater, especially when you already know the material? It felt like money and time well spent, which helped motivate my visit last night (also money and time well spent). I'd consider going again after it opens and the cast has more time to breathe and play inside of it.
(Sat in front row mezz last night -- incredible visual perspective!)
MSmith2, I am laughing in a kind of "ha ha" pointing and making fun of you kind of way because unless you went and sat in a seat and watched the original production from start to finish you have no business commenting on whether Betty Buckley's performance was "out of balance" because you simply can't give an informed opinion on that fact based on youtube clips. What Betty Buckley was was scary, of course there has been some debate in this thread whether scary is important in a horror story, and she was perfect.
I urge others who saw the original production to point and laugh at you, too. That's right, they're all gonna laugh at you. You have just been served the patented Mike Brady one finger pointing at others and four pointing right back at yourself postulate.
Marin is returning for the press? Does that mean she is recovered, or will she be giving a strained, delirious performance because reviewers need to see her? I'm not excited at the prospect of seeing the show KNOWING that she's struggling/still sick...honestly, I'd rather see her understudy if that's the case.
I bought and watched the original film, again, last night. I craved it after seeing the show.
My own feeling about whether this particular story would work as a straight play concerns the destruction in the gym. I really don't think it's possible to even approximate the horror of it on a stage. So, no.
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