Time has been kind to Carrie White

In April of 1988 Sonny Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California, President Reagan was preparing for a trip to the Soviet Union, Celine Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest and on Broadway, Carrie- the Musical began a run of sixteen previews. The next month, in May, Microsoft released Windows 2.1, Sue Ellen fired three shots into J.R. Ewing, Adele was born, and Carrie- the Musical closed after 5 performances, earning a place in theater history as the most expensive Broadway flop ever. 1988 was also the year a certain musical featuring a falling chandelier began what eventually became the longest run in Broadway history. Apparently Carrie's falling bucket of pig's  blood was no match for the Paris Opera House's chandelier, but twenty-five years later Carrie has aged a lot better than the Phantom.

I don't know what spooked the show's producer's into pulling the plug, though undoubtedly there's a chapter explaining their reasoning in the book Not Since Carrie: 40 Years of Broadway Musical Flops. Maybe the 2009 re-write revealed a maturity its creators, Lawrence D. Cohen (who wrote the book and also the screenplay for Brian De Palma's legendary film adaptation), Dean Pitchford (lyrics), and Michael Gore (music, also of Fame fame) couldn't quite nail in '88. However, a comparison of numbers from the original and the current revision shows much has been left intact, at least judging by the titles and their sequencing. Also, the musical hews pretty closely to the plotting and scenes of the De Palma film (I've never read the novel), so I doubt the current Carrie looks and sounds all that much different from her original stage incarnation. Maybe time has just been good to her.

Maybe what has come since- Wicked, Rent, Hairspray, High School Musical and television's Glee, to name just a few, has made the idea of a musical based on Stephen's King's novel less strange than it seemed in 1988. Certainly if today's culture can willingly embrace Anna Nicole Smith as the subject of an opera, why can't Carrie White can be the source of a successful musical? Time changes perceptions and tastes. Can you imagine a 1988 opera or musical based on the lives of Jessica Hahn, Rob Lowe, or Donna Rice? How about Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert? Or looked at another way, would Spiderman or have gotten a green light in 1988? I doubt it.

But Carrie's resurrection is deserved (she's also coming back in a new film version), and if you need any proof check out Ray of Light Theatre's current production of the musical - a huge success that does everything right, from casting an actual high school student in the lead role to knowingly working within the confines and expectations of the source material's genre. 

Cristina Ann Oeschger, a junior at Carlmont High School who has a voice one could hear in the last row of Carnegie Hall, is perfectly cast as Carrie- she can sing, she can act, and she is spot-on, flat-out fantastic from the moment she enters, wailing "That's not my naaaaaame!" in response to taunts of  "Scary Carrie" coming from her peers, to the last final fright (it's slightly different from that of  the original film's).  As  her nemesis Chris Hargensen, Riley Krull is one convincing bitch of a mean girl, and Courtney Merrell does a fine job as the ambivalent Sue Snell, proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished.  While Nikita Burshteyn isn't going to make anyone forget William Katt, he walks Tommy Ross's conflicted line of teenage mixed emotions with easy skill at every turn.  Of the kids, only Forest Neikirk's turn as Billy Nolan, misses the mark, but he's also saddled with the unfortunate task of taking on a character stamped with John Travolta's indelible imprint. As Carrie's crazy, Evangelical loonymama Margaret, Heather Orth manages to be convincingly loathesome in her ferver  yet manages to wring some empathy out of this most unsympathetic of characters- she's also an excellent singer. Jef Valentine is perfectly pervy as Mr. Stephens and Jessica Coker convinces as the girls coach.

Musically, Carrie treads over what is by now pretty familiar territory- one song had me thinking of Rent's "Seasons of Love," and if there aren't any immediate earworms, there isn't anything which doesn't fit the play or serve the story well, and the ensemble numbers work every time. Kudos to Music Director Ben Price, who also worked on Ray of Light's excellent productions of Jerry Springer: The Opera and The Full Monty; Director Jason Hoover, another alum of those earlier successes as well as the company's winning Sweeney Todd; Choreographer Amanda Folena. But what matters most is all the individual talents gathered here would be wasted if the company had misjudged what's right about this play and how to stage it- and on this score they nailed Carrie squarely on her head. It's fun without being campy, and that makes all the difference.

Ray of Light Theatre Company's production of Carrie- The Musical  runs through November 2nd at the Victoria Theatre on 16th Street near Mission Street, easily accessible by BART, easy parking can be found a couple of blocks heading east from Mission Street (don't leave your valuables in your car). Tickets available here and on Goldstar.com. Strongly recommended.