I’ve been fascinated with Carrie - The Musical ever since I first read about it in David J. Skal’s book “The Monster Show.” A legendary Broadway flop that ran just a handful of performances. Huge staging problems, not least of which was that they couldn’t figure out how to dump the blood on Carrie without clogging her body mike (finally they decided to have an actor run in, daub blood on her face and plunk an empty bucket on her head).
No cast recording was ever made but I cough located cough some audience recordings the other day. And man, that’s some freaky shit. Music and lyrics by the same people who wrote “Fame” and it sounds it, except every few songs they really hit. Mostly the stuff written for Carrie’s mother. “And Eve was Weak” (about how Carrie’s period is a curse for lust) and “Evening Prayers” (Carrie sings about how she’s changing and Mother prays for strength) are particulary strong.
Anyone else heard the music? Or, better yet, seen the show and wants to tell all?
I’ve only heard the music (there are several bootleg audios out there from the production) and seen pictures of the actual show. “And Eve Was Weak” is such a strong song! I was actually a bit surprised that I liked most of the songs. For being such a spectacular flop, the music isn’t half bad. There is that one bizarre song though, with the characters chanting “Kill the pig” over and over while oinking can be heard in the background.
Don’t be coy. You listened to an illegal recording. Do people think it’s cute when they’re coy about such matters?
How could they think of staging that without having the blood actually poured over Carrie? They did musicals for many years without body mikes; you just need a relatively intimate (or acoustically well-designed) theatre where you can actually hear the performers sing.
Didn’t think about a condom but I thought that a stagehand holding a unidirectional mike pointed at Carrie would have worked. I can’t really tell from the plot description how much time there was between the blood and Carrie’s next line or song but I wonder if they couldn’t have swapped out the clogged mike in between. I guess the cost of replacement mikes could start mounting up though.
Hell, Evil Dead: The Musical had blood shooting out of the wall from a hose! THere didn’t seem to be any body mike issues. Although the really gory bits were set up before the intermission and ending so that there would be time for clean-up. I got the impression that the bigger worry was actors slipping in the stuff.