It’s easy to see why Carrie: The Musical is one of the biggest flops in Broadway history, closing after only five performances. I mean, after all, who ever thought that a musical based on Stephen King’s Carrie story would ever work? It’s unsurprising that this show didn’t end up resonating with audiences, although it appears that the show managed to find a cult following, because there was a 2012 revival of it.

I was unable to find any watchable footage of the original 1988 show anywhere, so I did end up watching a performance of the revival for this review. However, from what I’ve read and understand, it appears that the revival is still pretty similar to the original, just with some of the original musical numbers changed in favor of some newer ones. Otherwise, Carrie: The Musical is simply exactly what it sounds like: a musical adaptation of Carrie, with bits taken from both the 1974 book and the 1976 movie.

This is a strange one for me to review, because I don’t really feel very passionately about it one way or another. It would be fun if I thought it was awful, because then I could really tear it apart. And it’s always nice to sing the praises of something truly great. But Carrie: The Musical was kind of just in that weird, mediocre middle for me. I definitely didn’t think it was good, but I also am surprised that this musical has gotten as much hate as it has.

To be fair, though, I think Carrie: The Musical has a much stronger first act than its second. I never found any of the musical numbers to really stick with me, and they definitely feel out of place sometimes in a story like this, but I still thought there was some small amount of fun novelty seeing this story as a musical. That’s why, despite not being that into it, I was mildly entertained by the first act. It was interesting seeing some of the key scenes playing out in musical fashion, and while it never wowed me, it was still okay.

But then it all really fell apart in the second act for me. I think the prom/destruction scenes of Carrie are just really hard to do in something like a live performance, and unfortunately it just really doesn’t work here. They do a few interesting things that keep it from being awful, with the most notable for me being a choreographed dance of sorts where Carrie is telekinetically moving all of the students around at prom in a synchronized manner. But for the most part, these ending scenes rely on special effects that simply can’t be done justice on a theater stage, and so I really just didn’t feel the catharsis that you’re supposed to feel in these scenes.

So, the only way I can really recommend Carrie: The Musical is to anyone that’s interested in the novelty of seeing this story adapted into a musical. Otherwise, regardless of where else you fall in the Venn diagram between Carrie fandom and musical theater fandom, I don’t consider this to be a must-watch. Still, if you are interested, there are plenty of performances of the show that have been put on YouTube, and most of them are pretty decent quality too. So, the only thing you’d really be sacrificing is your time. It’s weird when I can’t really give a recommendation that’s “you NEED to watch this” or “stay AWAY from this at all costs,” but Carrie: The Musical was kind of just in the middle for me. It’s a mediocre adaptation of a classic story that works better at some points than others.

2.5/5