Uncle Mike Reviews: Carrie The Musical

“But someday…someone will know my name.” –Carrie White

Carrie The Musical has had a checkered history, to be fair. Running for only 5 performances when it first opened on Broadway in 1988, it was a very expensive (for the time–$8 million) flop that has gained almost mythic legendary status amongst all other theatrical failures.

Since then, curious fans have circulated bootleg tapes of those performances, and mounted underground productions of the musical, leading the original creators (music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Lawrence D. Cohen) to heavily revise and update the musical for modern-day audiences. In recent years, this new-ish version has played to general acclaim Off-Broadway, in San Francisco, Vancouver BC, and, most recently, here in Southern California at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Get ready for prom!

The staging at La Mirada Theatre was immersive and unconventional; in the lobby we were separated into different classes (I was a Junior) based on our seat locations. Class by class, the audience was led past a bulletin board advertising school activities (including the prom!), through blood-splattered hallways strewn with broken school equipment, into what looked like a high school pep rally, and shown to their seats in the bleachers. The action of the story happens in front of, behind, above, and among these bleachers, which also move and turn to provide a very immersive, theater-in-the-round type of experience.

As they file in, the audience can see Sue Snell (ably played by Kayla Parker), sitting alone on a chair in the middle of the stage. The house lights fade out, a spotlight shines down, and Sue tries to explain to unseen interrogators the events leading up to the Ewen High School disaster that claimed so many young lives.

Sue Snell (Kayla Parker)

And thus begins the tragic tale of Carrie White.

May I assume that we all are familiar with either the novel by Stephen King or the movie by Brian De Palma? Yes? Good? Okay.

From the opening shower scene where Carrie (a fantastic performance by Emily Lopez) gets her first period in the girls’ shower (yes, there is brief nudity) to the horrible prank at the prom (yes, there is a lot of blood spilled onstage) to the tragic climactic meeting between Carrie and her overly-religious mother Margaret (an amazingly sympathetic portrayal by Misty Cotton), this production hits all the right notes, and hits them strong.

The script has been subtly updated, and even though the changes seem obvious (for example: Carrie’s humiliation in the showers is uploaded to YouTube) it actually doesn’t feel forced in context. We’re so used to seeing people in our lives whip out a phone, it seems perfectly natural when a character in a play does it, too.

The special effects are impressive but not overused, running the gamut from tiny (cards fly into the air, a candle levitates) to huge (actors fly into the air, blood rains down on prom queen Carrie). Even little almost throw-away details (after Carrie makes a light explode, small silver particles land on the audience) really help sell the reality.

The singers were uniformly strong, with Misty Cotton wringing some heart-breaking emotion out of Margaret’s lament “When There’s No One,” sung after Carrie defies her by going to the prom. While the songs themselves aren’t the instant-ear-worms I’ve had from other shows, they did their jobs well, revealing the emotions and inner-most thoughts of the characters.

I hope that if/when this show starts to get produced around the country, it will not lose the immersive environment aspect, as I really think it made for a more immediate and personal experience to have the characters singing and acting all around you rather than watching it all from 150 feet away.