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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Music / Theater Coming Back to Avenge Herself: Carrie!

Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 7:47 AM

One of many reasons to celebrate the coming year, from the NYT:

Two musicals that flopped on Broadway in the 1980s but went on to become cult legends—the stage adaptation of the novel “Carrie” and the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth heartbreaker “Merrily We Roll Along”—will receive important revivals in New York this winter.

The original creators of “Carrie” have rewritten the book and composed several new songs in hopes of rescuing the musical from Broadway ignominy, suffered in 1988 when their $7 million blood-soaked production freaked out critics and closed after 21 performances. The revival will have minimal special effects—which the creators saw as overwhelming the Broadway production—and will try to tap into societal concerns about teenage bullying.

The Off Broadway company MCC Theater is producing the revival, which starts performances on Jan. 31, and stars Molly Ranson in the title role and Marin Mazzie as Carrie’s mother...

The original Broadway production of Carrie was such a travesty it became the standard-bearer for musical travesties. I can't wait to hear about the new production.

Comments (9) RSS

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Why on earth would anybody want to see a musical based on Carrie? That sounds utterly charmless.

Posted by undead ayn rand on January 3, 2012 at 8:55 AM

Screw Carrie- I'm excited for the return of Merrily We Roll Along! I wish I could see the production, but unfortunately it's only running two weekends.

Though I would enjoy seeing Carrie for curiosity's sake.

Posted by Will from PA on January 3, 2012 at 9:12 AM

Only if they get Sissy Spacek. I can acknowledge no other Carrie.

Posted by MacCrocodile on January 3, 2012 at 9:43 AM

I would see the shit out of Carrie - must save pennies starting now. The folks recreating it are such 80s relics I can't wait to see what they do.

Posted by gloomy gus on January 3, 2012 at 9:59 AM

Was Carrie an ironic musical a la The 49 Steps? Or is it a serious one?

I wonder how it stands against Titanic the Musical...

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 3, 2012 at 10:06 AM

David, this entire post is an affront to the memory of Seattle's own musical travesty, Hunchback, whose website remains in a perpetual state of frozen optimism about the 1998 production:

http://www.hunchback.com/latest.html

Posted by John Scott Tynes

on January 3, 2012 at 10:32 AM

no, it was very serious.

Carrie had some brilliant music but also some clunkers. And, it could never overcome the need to have some decent special effects.

Titanic won the Tony and has a strong fan base (and some gorgeous songs); you can't really compare them. (A concert version of Titanic is playing at the 5th Avenue this spring, btw.)

Posted by michael strangeways

on January 3, 2012 at 10:36 AM

It still sounds like more fun than Mamma Mia.

Posted by very bad homo on January 3, 2012 at 10:43 AM

Seriously? Titanic won the Tony? OMG. That had some real clunkers in there too. When I saw it, I was rolling. Some of the songs weren't bad, but some were godawful.

Must have been a bad year for Tony, I guess.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 3, 2012 at 10:49 AM