Prom Night....Where Everything Is Not All Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              Ah, that should-have-been nominated for an Oscar song from the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis classic.  But we are not here to discuss that darlings.  We are here to discuss the musical "Carrie."  Or, as it is officially known, "Carrie, The Musical."

                              Brian De Palma's 1976 film version of the Stephen King novel may not have been the first screen depiction of mean girls, but it certainly took them to the highest level.  Bullying, child abuse, menstruation, pigs' blood, high school revenge, matricide.... these are not ingredients of musical theater.  Yet they are present in "Carrie, The Musical."

                                Now, David and I saw a production of this show--which had been revised from the original 1988 show--back in 2012 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, on Christopher Street.  It offered only the late, great Marin Mazzie as Margaret White, and the stage presentation, plus the songs, were forgettable.

                                   Several weeks back, I spotted a poster for this production, told David, and he was curious to see it.  I was shocked.  The Narrows Community Theater Of Bay Ridge, and its youth program no less, doing "Carrie, The Musical?"  How did this one get by the selection committee?  "West Side Story," "HAIR," maybe, but "Carrie???????????"  You have got to be kidding.  Oh my God, this is going to be just awful, right.  Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     "Carrie, The Musical" will never be a classic, but I have to say this production covered it better than I ever could have expected.  The grotesque scenes were done as tastefully as possible, but the passion of its young cast, especially Caitlyn Schmidt in the title role, Amelie Jacobs taking on an impassioned interpretation of Margaret White, Anna Makarouna as Sue Snell, Niamh McCarthy as the perfect Chris Hargenson, Nash Johns as Billy Nolan, Nicolas Nelson as Tommy Ross, and Scarlet Susi as the smirking Norma all rose above the material given, possessing gorgeous voices that made the score sound better than it actually was.  And their acting was sublime, as though, being of that age, they were able to tap into the more unpleasant dynamics of it.

                                          Much of the credit for all this goes to Joanne Centeno, who directed this highly intense and technical production.  That a youth program could pull this off, says much about the talent lurking in Bay Ridge, and I hope they do a production with better material next time.  I look forward to it.

                                              "Carrie, The Musical" is not for the fainthearted.  It is a downer, and if one is depressed, I advise against seeing it.  But I was amazed to see what these young people were able to do with such mediocre material.

                                               "Carrie is not like other girls," the saying goes.  This musical is like no other, darlings.  And that is not a compliment.

                                                   But my praise of the Narrows Youth Program is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   Congratulations, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!