The Story Off-Broadway

It seems that Off-Broadway theaters have become a destination for second chances.  Shows like Avenue Q, Million Dollar Quartet, and Rent, all of which closed on Broadway due to decreased profits, have almost immediately found success at smaller, Off-Broadway venues.  MCC Theater’s revival of Carrie, currently being performed through April 7, proves that even Broadway’s most notorious flop is fair game for resurrection.  Having originally closed in 1988 after a mere five performances, Carrie, a musical adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, seemed it would disappear into the oblivion of Broadway failures.  Twenty-four years later, however, Carrie strikes again, in a re-imagined, rewritten, restaged, and, essentially, completely re-invented production.  The cast is stunning (go to see the incredible Marin Mazzie, if nothing else), the music is much improved, the staging is modernized, and yet, something is still missing—a fresh and captivating story.

This is the trend that seems to run throughout many current Off-Broadway revivals.  Much of the material comes across as stale, having been either too quickly revived, or in the case of Carrie, having never worked to begin with.  Recently, The Public Theater held a production of The Total Bent, a completely original musical written by Stew and Heidi Rodewald.  Although not without its flaws, having still been in the workshop process, this performance possessed the thrillingly raw pulse of a current idea.  Among the revivals and reinventions, we should remember this honest and urgent energy that accompanies a good story, and thus, creates engaging artwork.