Musical Flop Carrie for Revival

Disastrous Broadway musical flop Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel, is set for an Off-Broadway revival in January 2011. The show played a Royal Shakespeare Company tryout season at Stratford, England in February 1988, with a cast including Barbara Cook as Margaret White (Maureen McGovern played the role in workshop and Betty Buckley would play it on Broadway) and Linzie Hately as Carrie. The show opened on Broadway to scathing reviews on May 12, 1988, and, despite packed houses, it closed at a cost of more than $7 million after just 16 previews and 5 performances on May 15, when the backers pulled their investment.

Carrie was such a notorious flop, that it gave its name to the definitive book on musical flops, Ken Mandelbaum’s Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops.

It's worth sharing a couple of quotes from the Frank Rich review in the New York Times.

"Fans of this musical's source material, Mr. King's Gothic novel of the same title, will remember why a horde of mean-spirited high-school students ends up at a pig sty. They want to pull a blood-splattering practical joke on Carrie, the class loser, at the senior prom. But why would the kids perform an exuberant number titled ''Out for Blood'' - leaping over the trough under flashing red disco lights - while carrying out the butchery? Presumably there are still some mysteries that mankind is not meant to unravel."

"… one is grateful for the other second-half pockets of delirium, including a song in which the telekinetically empowered Carrie (Linzi Hateley) cutely serenades her ambulatory powder puff, hairbrush and prom shoes."

Marin Mazzie (as Margaret White) and Molly Ranson (as Carrie) are set to star in the new production, which commences previews 31 January 2012 at the MCC Theatre. Based on Stephen King’s bestselling novel, the musical features a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, music by Michael Gore, and lyrics by Dean Pitchford. The piece has been reworked and reimagined by the director Stafford Arima for this production.

A benefit behind-the-scenes preview, Revisiting Carrie, will be staged at the Lucille Lortel Theatreon 1 August with the show's authors in attendance. Leading ladies Marin Mazzie and Molly Ranson will songs from the musical.

The musical has never been released for amateur performance, though the occasional unsanctioned performance has been staged.

Ken Mandelbaum’s book comes highly recommended, as a fun read about 40 years of ill-conceived ideas for musicals.

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