She's Back! CARRIE - First preview !!! — Page 8

WhizzerMarvin TrinaJasonMendel (what a name) basically reviewed the show I was hoping this would never become. Hrmm. Well I guess there's time for improvement.

To answeran earlier post questioning whether this production fixed the problems with the book and score- I would say to a certain degree- they do. I would say that the piece on paper is now perfectly respectable, though I would never say any of it is great - I blame most of the problems in this production on the creative team-- Carrie needs a visionary director to make it exciting; if anything, after being burned by the original's surrealistic take onthe material, they have gone too farthe other way and are trying now to give us something too realistic.

People came away from the original feeling like the mother daughter material was thrilling but in this production even that now just feels conventional.

So while on paper the script and score are no longer embarrassing they also never excite- So is that truly fixing anything? Or is at its heart Carrie really a directors magic show?

Updated On: 2/1/12 at 07:39 AM

To clarify about the camp aspect of the show- I did not go in expecting all the camp to still be there. I knew those songs/moments were cut. What I was expecting in place of the camp was something equally as thrilling that could have gone the way of brilliance or camp.

Camp in its purest form is always unintentional and often results when great risks are taken that don't work. The original Carrie is a great example of that. Debbie Allen and others took huge risks and they turned into camp.

If this current creative team had "included" the camp it would only be a parody of the camp and not actual camp itself. I wanted them to say, the previous fantastic take on the material didn't work- what new fantastic take might fix that and make it explode in brilliance.

Think about something like War Horse. On paper it sounds SO campy. People dressed up in horse outfits trotting around the stage?! In wartime?! This is supposed to be serious and make the audience cry tears of genuine compassion?! Good luck! They took a big risk and it paid off in spades. War Horse is anything but camp, although that same idea presented in the wrong way could have gone that route.

Carrie must be audacious. It must be fantastic. It can't be run of the mill and safe. Safe is actually the worst thing something like Carrie can be. This material screams "Go big or go home," and that's exactly what the original team did. It backfired, but created one of the greatest cult musicals of all-time.

The job of this creative team is now to have the spirit of the original team, but not to fall in the same traps.

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The current Carrie, as seen last night, reminded me of Debra Monk's performance as Joanne in that simply awful Roundabout production of Company - she was trying so very hard NOT to be Elaine Stritch, she forgot to try to BE anything at all.

Carrie Lite, as we can call this revision, is trying so very hard NOT to be the laughable mess Carrie was, it forgets to be anything at all but dull.

Aiming for a negative goal never works well in theatre.

This is definitely "go big or go home" material. Like Michael Bennett said, not in let's spend 50 million or nothing at all, but in the theatricality.

"Carrie Lite, as we can call this revision, is trying so very hard NOT to be the laughable mess Carrie was, it forgets to be anything at all but dull."

^completely agree

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WhizzerMarvin TrinaJasonMendel - Sorry i thought you were talking in a big OTT production away.

Newintown give us some of your thoughts and scenes, songs, set etc, i would like to know.

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I'll be seeing it again in a few weeks, and will post in more detail then. But I do doubt, from what I saw, that the change in tone will be significant.

One more thought about "excess within control" ...

The scene before the blood spilling when Carrie and Tommy dance and talk together is shot by a spinning camera. Nonstop, and it goes on for a LONG time. What should be seen by the audience as the most beautiful moment in Carrie's life, so far, instead makes the them dizzy and physically nauseous because of the way it was filmed.

That's a great example of creative risk-taking. It didn't need a huge budget and more "production value" thrown at it to make it work. It needed the creative vision and perspective of DePalma to know that even while Carrie is having the time of her life, things are spinning out of control all around her. It's enough to make us all sick.

Brilliant work.

EDIT: Conflicting emotions: the scary scene has cartoonish music. The sweet love scene makes us nauseous because of the way it was shot.

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Updated On: 2/1/12 at 09:49 AM

LOL

I like the voices he puts on for some of us. Mine sounds like I need another martini, pronto.

And who's to say I don't?

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Thrilled to be Schwarzenegger!

OK yes the staircase looks great, really impressive, as a kid when i watched it at the RSC i thought that moment was incredible......however it made no sense, much of what was on stage made no sense. It was ill concieved from the moment the girls (ladies) came on in white togas and performed an over the top dance routine to IN.

Yes the visulas may have looked impressive at time in the original (much of it also looked a hot mess) but the look was all wrong for the show. And they went for broke because they had 8 million to throw away on the show (oddly enough it looks much cheaper than an 8 million dollar show), the new show was never going to have that.

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I still maintain you can go for broke and do something visually interesting with a budget of 100 dollars. My bigger point is that you really do have to take risks with something like CARRIE.

I know that the original creative team felt like doing a really realistic version of CARRIE on stage was important because they felt like the horror came out of a realistic situation. That's all good and well, but unlike a movie, you can't ever do a realistic depiction of the final 20 minutes of the story on stage. So that approach to the material is ultimately just as flawed as what Hands and Allen tried to do.

There has got to be some way to create a production of CARRIE that combines realistic characters with heightened theatricality.

OK - some specific questions for those that attended last night:

1) did it get a standing O?
2) how were the reactions to certain songs? (particularly some of Marin/Margaret's more showy numbers)
3) how was the curtain call - did Marin come out last, or Molly?
4) what was the "buzz" in the audience afterwards... excitement or disappointment? I know some of you obviously have strong opinions of it - but did your general feeling translate to the crowd?
5) some cast members (or fans) tweeted that Piper Laurie was in attendance? Was she? And did they acknowledge her?
6) can someone describe the final scene in the White home? Was it similar to the OBC? (reprise of Carrie followed by the knife.. followed by... heart attack? followed by Carrie in Sue's arms?)

I did hear that La Buckley sent the cast a huge bouquet of yellow roses as good luck. Nice.