"Carrie" is the sort of musical you will either love or hate. Wildly. I happen to have loved it, probably for all the same reasons others will find to hate it.
The source for the show is Stephen King's novella by the same name about a late-blooming teen-age girl (Carrie) who is isolated from the rest of the kids her age by her mother's religious fanaticism. DesperateIy unhappy and feeling abandoned she discovers she has been given the strange and supernatural gift of telekinesis. Through this medium she wrecks a horrible vengence on those who have tormented and humiliated her.
This is strong and strange stuff fills the theater with a tension that is quite unlike anything I have ever felt there. And there is no escaping it. Even the relationship between Carrie and her mother is twisted. Despite that it achieves a kind of ethereal beauty through the music of Michael Gore. Betty Buckley as the mother and Linzi Hateley as Carrie have some hauntingly beautiful moments together and individually that are heartbreakingly tender and yet perverse. This relationship is just as dangerous for Came as any she has with her peers. That tension underlies every embrace, endearment. The moment when the mother forces Carrie into the cellar through a trapdoor is shocking and terrifying.
In contrast all of the other peopIe Carrie's age are portrayed as another sort of monster: libidinous beauties who spend more time cultivating their bodies than their minds. They are totally intolerant of anybody who is different and determined to remove any obstacles to the realization of their sex lives.
>This aspect of the show is beautifully realized in the brilliantly suggestive dances of Debbie Allen who keeps the kids perpetually twitching with unrealized sexual energy.
In between this world and the severe severity of the mother's Carrie is almost totally alone. She is befriended by a sympathetic teacher and a schoolmate who seems to possess the only conscience in town. Darlene Love is the teacher and she has an enchanting song "Unsuspecting Hearts," that seems destined to become a pop single.
Similarly enchanting is a scene in which Carrie employs her supernatural powers to charming effect. The accoutrements of her dressing table suddenly dance about her as she readies herself for the prom with a date arranged by the conscience stricken friend.
But this is one Cinderella who will not live happily ever after. Carrie's nemesis is Chris. a particularly vicious adolescent played with malicious glee by Charlotte D'Ambroise.
While the tensions and emotions continually bring the show to the brink of absurdity, it seems to me the intensity of alI the performances and the integrity of the music and lyrics prevent its falling into the pit. If one is shocked or embarrassed it is because we are so seldom asked to deal with this sort of material in the theater.
In addition to the emotional intensity, of the material, the show is a stunning visual production that shocks and startIes us even further. It is not just the technology involved but the very design itself that consistently reinforces the emotional content of the show with its strikingly vivid images.
In, other words "Carrie" brings together all the forces that make live theater so exciting: brilliant performances and an exciting and story, reinforced by the physical production and fashions them into a truly unforgettable event.