Alice Ripley "Carrie" Cast Recording
Alice Ripley "Carrie" Cast Recording
#1Alice Ripley "Carrie" Cast Recording
Posted: 10/21/13 at 10:43pm
This seems to be getting a lot of attention on twitter lately and I think it's an amazing idea. I would love to have some kind of documentation of this production. Not only for Alice but the entire cast as well! Sherie René Scott needs to get in this!! What do you guys think?
Updated On: 10/21/13 at 10:43 PM
bwayboy22
Broadway Star Joined: 5/9/12
#2Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/21/13 at 10:48pm
Do I want it to happen? Yes.
Will it? Probably Not.
Not everything that gets a twitter buzz happens. I'd love for it to happen but the most we'll get is an audio or video bootleg. I know both exist.
AKarp2013
Broadway Star Joined: 7/25/11
AKarp2013
Broadway Star Joined: 7/25/11
#4Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/21/13 at 11:24pm
this weekend i saw carrie the musical in seattle and was unbelievably disappointed. i really had high hopes for the production - and the fact that they used real blood was very admirable and proves that it can be done in a professional production - but unfortunately alice ripley was subpar as margaret. the licensed version is just SO disneyfied, and it was incredibly evident in the production i saw. she hit carrie ONCE. eve was weak was sung mostly sitting down at the dinner table, if you can believe that. i mean isnt the true horror of carrie that carrie cant escape abuse from home AND school?? i am sick and tired of this interpretation that "oh, margaret is a mother that just cares really deeply about her daughter but is blinded by her faith". that's a load of shet and the safest, boring way to interpret the character. margaret in the book had to go to an insane asylum after she had carrie, and abused the tar out of her. she was a monster. she viewed carrie as the manifestation of her lustful sins and the second coming as the devil, there was not any love she had for her - only responsibility and ownership. she even makes plans to kill carrie right before "when there's no one" after carrie defies her, not even knowing that carrie is going to come home in pig's blood!! the woman is warped and twisted beyond repair, as tragic as that may be (which i do think there is a lot of tragedy in margaret's character). there was not one ounce of horror in their relationship, and i was offended quite frankly that they would hire an actress as capable as ripley only to downplay their relationship as drastically as they did. also, whoever costumed her should be shot. margaret does not wear a slip and a floral robe. she's an evangelical, she wouldnt be caught dead in something so revealing!
keaton whiticker has an incredible voice (this may be the best i've ever seen the title song performed) but is still entirely too bold as carrie. during prom arrival she was even dancing doing the choreography perfectly with the rest of the kids!!! like what the hell??? carrie doesn't know how to dance! she wasn't afraid of her mother or the world at all in this production, she was just boring and flat.
the rest of the performances were pretty good - especially kendra kassenbaum, who was actually one of the standouts for me. even the sue was very emotionally invested which was good as sue can really be a throwaway character if done incorrectly.
there were also several mic issues too - and i heard from multiple sources that the tech was a mess. i don't anticipate this production going anywhere, and to be honest, while i didnt think it was totally horrible, this production made me really question whether the composers and creative team understand the material.
Updated On: 10/21/13 at 11:24 PM
#5Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/21/13 at 11:28pm
I should also mention that during the Carrie Lullaby, Alice stabbed Keaton halfway through and continued to sing "Always remember that I love you" while trying to kill her which got a huge unwanted laugh from the audience. When I saw it off-broadway I cried during that scene, and the moment was totally ruined for me.
Updated On: 10/21/13 at 11:28 PM
#6Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/21/13 at 11:48pmIt sounds like they're trying to create an equivalent to the famous scene in the movie, when the only time Margaret has a truly loving smile or tone of voice is when she is descending on Carrie with the knife, smiling beatifically. I guess it worked better in the movie than in this staging.
#7Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/21/13 at 11:52pm
missthemountians- I'm sorry the production did not live up to the hype. All I can say is that every show has it's flaws. I think that we all know that Carrie has had a troubled past and I think every director that tackles this show is going to try to make it their own. I enjoy the "Margret as a human" angle but I also want the monster side. I feel that in the 2012 revival Marin Mazzie was able to do a great combination if the two. I would be interested to see a production where Margaret was all monster but I don't know if that could happen in the near future or not.
bwayboy- do you know how I could access these audio and video bootlegs?
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#8Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 12:06amAttention: No one anywher should have high hopes for a good production of Carrie: The Musical, no matter who is starring and no matter how they do the blood. Carrie: The Musical will never work. Ever. Once you put away your hopes, you will not be disappointed. PS that same exact moment with the mother stabbing Carrie got big laughs when I saw the first Broadway preview with Betty Buckley. Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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AKarp2013
Broadway Star Joined: 7/25/11
LittleCheno
Understudy Joined: 9/14/10
#11Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:17amI actually saw this on Sunday as well...and pretty much agree with everyone. The show was entertaining, though they def. needed more blood. Alice Ripley, who I thought was going to be the perfect fit for the role, was fairly bland and not haunting at all. I liked Keaton in the role, mainly for her voice. The duet she did with Kendra Kassabaum (one of the two standouts in the entire show---and incredibly underutilized)was my fave moment.
#12Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 5:41am
I got the chance to see the show this past Thursday and Saturday (and I'm going again this Thursday).
I agree that Margaret was really downplayed, but I still got chills during "And Eve Was Weak". The most maniacal thing that Alice does as Margaret was saw through that cherry pie (seriously, watch her stab through that thing!).
There were an abundance of missed opportunities. I don't know weather it was because Louis Hobson doesn't have enough directing experience, or if he was worn out by doing double duty of rehearsing the show in the morning and doing Jean Valjean in Les Miz at night.
And I agree that a bunch of the designers should be shamed. Sound design in the already acoustically atrocious Moore Theatre was bad (there was a scene during the second act where Sue's mike was not on at all). The lighting design could have been better (they didn't use any follow spots!). And the costume design, while good for everyone else in the cast, was really bad for Carrie and Margaret. Carrie in her frumpy outfit was good (except for the bright purple sports bra that she had on underneath the flannel and the sweater.). Margaret was in a slip and Mrs. Roper's floral mumu, which I agree would not be the normal walkaround wear for a religious nutjob. And then for the final scene, changed into Pilgrim Bondage wear which seems to have come out of nowhere (much like Carrie's prom shoes. Seriously, she made the dress, but then purchases hooker pumps from somewhere?)
Even then, the book was still problematic. For most of the show, I was really less interested in what the teenagers were doing, and more interested int he mother/daughter scenes.
Though for all the faults, I'm still going to be glad I saw the show three times, as Alice, Kendra, and Keaton are all giving good performances (with what they're given).
Xanadu! Can't cry on cue!
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#13Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 10:44am
I just saw a college production of Carrie this weekend. I think the mother/daughter relationship was played well, with the right amount of control/fear/love mix. And the stabbing scene got a simultaneous gasp from the audience.
I have never seen it before. My main problem with with show was the set. It was a raked concrete stage built especially for the production with jagged rebar sticking out around the edges. I couldn't help but fixate on the actors footing, especially during the prom scene with dancing in high heels on smooth concrete and a pretty steep angle that was the scariest part.
Other technical issues: The blood was water thrown from pails and the dress fabric was such that it turned red when wet. The only props for the whole show were the pails of "blood", the mother'z knitting kit and the knife, and basketballs and a cross that Carrie levitates.
I assume the show is always done as flashbacks, told by Sue from a mental ward?
#14Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 10:49amEmphatically not, Dilly. The flashbacks were a framing device that were introduced for the Off Broadway revisal, but it was the voices of two police talking to her, not anything that would have suggested a mental hospital.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#15Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/22/13 at 1:39pm
It was inconclusive whether it was a jail or a hospital without any sets. At the start she is brought out in a straight jacket and given a (sedative?) from a hyperdermic before she is removed from the straight jacket and left lying on the floor in grey scrubs. The two people that bring her out are not dressed as police, but in hospital scrubs. Where disembodied voices question her. The questions seem more the nature of trying to ascertain her sanity than any criminal investigation. But, I will take your word for it. Not that it matters as it is only a device for flashbacks, the questioning doesn't lead anywhere else in the show.
Updated On: 10/22/13 at 01:39 PM
#16Alice Ripley
Posted: 10/23/13 at 2:18amCan anyone describe the destruction? Though I did very much enjoy the off-broadway revisal, I found the actual destruction of the gym to be really lacking and underwhelming.
#17Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 6:08pm
God this sounds a little strange:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLTvUiRu_Y
I really want to hear her "Eve was weak"
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#18Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 6:46pmA so/so staging I saw in Alberta this past Summer also set the framing device in a mental ward. It didn't really add anything...
#19Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 8:08pmThe novel makes it clear that Sue has testified to the police and is also under some psychiatric observation, but does not say she has been institutionalized. I think the popularity of the "mental home psychiatric confession" trope as of late, with Sweeney Todd and the Great Gatsby adding it to their narratives, has influenced people to impose it on Carrie as well.
#20Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 8:20pmKeaton Whittaker still sounds like a 12-year-old. Alice sounds pretty good in that clip.
#21Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 8:23pmThe production I saw--out of necessity (it was a Fringe show in a found space that they were given, and didn't have a choice) kept the cast on stage the entire time too, albeit often out of the light. But the insane asylum I suppose did give the cast the chance to all play inmates? (It actually was not nearly as awful as what I wrote would imply--it was a decent production with one or two great moments.)
#22Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 8:23pmDoes anyone know where I could find a poster/window card from this production?
#23Alice Ripley
Posted: 11/1/13 at 8:44pmDid you try emailing the theatre? For regional stuff, where often that stuff actually gets tossed (if it's not all given to cast and crew) that's worked for me before.