Andrew Melendez8/26/15Listening Assignment #1 of 12Carrie: The Musical

Carrie: The Musical is an adaptation of Stephen Kings 1974 horror novel Carrie. The novel and the musical revolve around the title character, Carrie White, a misfit girl who is bullied in school and discovers that she has telekinetic powers. She is eventually driven to use these powers to exact revenge on the classmates who torment her. Carrie was Kings first published novel, and has been adapted into several film. In 1981, Lawrence D. Cohen, the writer of the 1976 film version (starring Sissy Spacek), began working with American composer Michael Gore and Fame collaborator Dean Pitchford on a musical version of the novel. After a workshop of the first act went up in 1984, it was announced that a Broadway show would be produced. Funding was not raised until 1987, and after tryouts in Stratford-upon-Avon, moved to Broadway in 1988 at an expense of $8 million. The musical was a flop: it closed after 21 performances to very divided response from both audience and critics. Rothstein of The New York Times called it the most expensive quick flop in Broadway history. Gore, Pitchford and Lawrence began revising the show for a reading in 2009, and in 2012 was revived off-Broadway. The off-Broadway revival cast released a recording of the show, and even won the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Awards for Best Musical Revival. Stephen King is one of my most favorite authors, and I actually own the novel Carrie. Ive read it two or three times, and the first time I finished it I remember sitting on the curb outside of my house in the summer heat absorbed in the panic of Carries tortured destruction. I listened to the 2012 off-Broadway revival recording starring Molly Ranson as Carrie, and in comparison to the novel, I definitely believe that the musical fails to capture the suffering that Carrie is subjected to, not just by her classmates but also by her mother Margaret, played by Marin Mazzie. While I can appreciate the attempt to make Margarets character more sympathetic, especially with her ballad When Theres No One, I dont think that it contributes any weight to the show except to draw more attention away from the intense abuse that Carrie is experiencing. The only time in the recording that I get a sense of their violent relationship is at the end of And Eve Was Weak as Margaret cries out for God to Take her/ Cleanse and purify her / With the fire and the power and the glory. Structurally, the events in the musical mirror the book, using Sue Snell to tell the story in place of Kings third-person perspective and the various print clippings in the novel. The music itself carries a consistent theme throughout, and of course uses reprises to revisit subjects touched earlier in the show. My least favorite song in the recording, by far, was Unsuspecting Hearts, a duet shared between Carrie and her gym teacher, Miss Gardner (played by Carmen Cusack). It had a very country-pop composition that I swear I could hear Reba singing, and it actually felt a little out of place. Carrie is a female-heavy show, and while various male students help fill out the ensemble I dont see there being anything particularly engaging or challenging for myself in it.

Sources

Rothstein, Mervyn. "After Seven Years And $7 Million, 'Carrie' Is a Kinetic Memory." The New York Times 17 May 1988. Web. 26 Aug. 2015. .

Hetrick, Adam. "Carrie Dies Sooner Than Expected; Revival to Close April 8 Off-Broadway." Playbill. 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 26 Aug. 2015. .

"The Vault: Carrie Team Talks Fact and Fiction Of the Infamous Broadway Production, Part I." Playbill. Web. 26 Aug. 2015. .