Carrie the Musical: Gone forever?

Hello, gorgeous fans! Today, it came to my attention that the Off-Broadway revival of Carrie closed its doors two weeks early. An article in the New York Times accompanied the closing, talking about the revival's mixed reviews, the original production's failures, and also the creator's failures on many levels. I was lucky enough to make it to New York City and saw the revival of Carrie and honestly, I very much enjoyed it. In the moment, I was just so excited to see ANY staging of this musical in New York City, but after a few hours of reflection, I realized the revival had sort of missed the point and was just not very good. I don't think it had anything to do with the actual performers in the show, it was entirely the direction and the material.

One thing that the article discusses is that the creators of the musical, Michael Gore, Lawrence D. Cohen, and Dean Pitchford, felt that the reviews had treated the revival unfairly by comparing it to the original and expecting it to be something it wasn't. In this diva's not so humble opinion, the problem with these guys and the director, Stafford Arima, is that they were all forcing this musical to take itself too seriously. Stephen King's novel is a truly fantastic book, and what makes it appropriately serious and dark is how he originally wrote the two characters of Carrie and Margaret. They are like an insane Christian, telekinetic version of the mother and daughter in Precious, and part of what makes the book of Carrie so believable is that Stephen King writes her as being overweight and honestly unattractive. Margaret is also written as being equally unappealing and downright cruel. The movie makes Carrie into...Sissy Spacek...so...really, REALLY thin, but the performances by her and Piper Laurie are just so over the top and amazing that you just can't help but love it...for its campy, amazingness.

Taking this story, with these characters and trying to portray them as appealing and attractive is just wrong. The thing the original Broadway production of Carrie got RIGHT was making it a camptastic night of bizarreness. The reason we've all loved that show is because of how insanely staged it was, because of the ridiculous 80s music, which is honestly catchy and fun, and then the over the top, truly amazing performances of Betty Buckley and Linzi Hateley...mostly Betty Buckley though. The creators say they don't want Carrie to become a Rocky Horror type show that becomes a camp legend with costumes, the audience bringing props, etc...but honestly, they should be WISHING that they had the sense of humor and sense at all to let this musical be that. People carried a torch for this show for a reason, and I wish people would let it be what it really is: A campy, over the top, AMAZING show! Unless you're going to cast it with really appropriate people, similar to the way the characters are portrayed in the book, a show like this can't be "poignant."

On that note, please check out my appropriately campy performance of "Eve Was Weak!"