Carrie Comes to Life On Stage Again

In a move that makes us just say “why.. oh why?  Won’t somebody think of the children?”  comes word that Carrie – the Musical, that infamous Broadway  flop of 1988, is coming back to the New York stage, albeit (and possibly thankfully) an off-Broadway one, according Broadway World.

The MCC Theater production company is set to bring the horror/musical based on the novel by Stephen King to the Lucille Lortel Theater in the West Village.

“We at MCC Theater are thrilled to bring Carrie back to life in New York City,” said MCC Theater’s Co-Artistic Director Bernie Telsey. “I didn’t know Carrie beyond the mystique that had developed around it over the years, but when I saw a presentation of a reworked version of the musical last year I couldn’t shake it. The passion, power and danger of this story of a high school misfit grabbed all of us at MCC. We knew MCC had to be involved, and we relish the opportunity to reinvent this piece with Lawrence, Michael, Dean and Stafford. Their passion for telling this story is boundless and we can’t wait to work with them to give Carrie its proper due and to afford our audience the opportunity to experience a score and story as misunderstood as its title character.”

The original journey to the Broadway stage of Carrie in 1988 was well documented in Ken Mandelbaum’s book “Not Since Carrie: 40 Years of Musical Flops”.  Though it was based on Stephen King’s wildly successful first novel, and the 1976 feature film directed by Brian DePalma, the musical Carrie is considered to be the biggest flop of all time on Broadway when it closed after only 21 performances. Original music by Michael Gore (of the original Fame) and Dean Pitchford (Footloose) and book by screenwriter Lawrence Cohen (who also wrote the screenplay for the 1976 film) couldn’t save it from disaster.   The new version will feature brand new songs by Gore and Pitchford and as well as new material added by Cohen. Michael Gore stated “We’ve revisited the material extensively and embarked on what we’re terming a ‘re-imagining’ of the musical.”

Lawrence Cohen added “From our perspective we had no interest in seeing a new production of the exact same show that closed on Broadway.”

No word yet on when the new production of Carrie will open. Stay tuned.. if you dare.