‘Carrie: The Musical’ – Squabbalogic

CARRIE THE MUSICAL – BY MICHAEL GORE, DEAN PITCHFORD & LAWRENCE D COHEN
DIRECTED BY JAY JAMES-MOODY
SQUABBALOGIC– SEYMOUR CENTRE – REGINALD THEATRE
13 – 30 NOVEMBER 2013

Sybil: So we’re at the Seymour Centre having Post Show Drinks after Carrie: The Musical by Squabbalogicalic… and I just have to repeat a comment I heard in the foyer whilst in the line for the bar at interval… “Well, it’s good, but it’s no Legally Blonde“!
Lea: Yes strange man, you’re right, because it’s SO MUCH BETTER!
Sybil: We didn’t like Legally Blonde.
Lea: Well it was marshmallow. Fairy Floss. And this was…
Sybil: Awesome.
Lea: Seriously great music and seriously great performances.
Sybil: I really was – as you know – rather apprehensive to start with – because I don’t like horror movies and I genuinely was a little bit white-knuckled… especially with the set. Because the set is quite scary.
Lea: I know but I’m like – ‘Sybil, seriously, what are they going to do with the set? Something can’t come in your face, you know?’ I take that back…
Sybil: Depends on the kind of set, really.
Lea: And the type of movie!!! But nothing can frighten you like a film where blood or someone frightening suddenly comes into view.
Sybil: Well I don’t know – look, I’m easily frightened, it’s entirely possible.
Lea: Yes, and I know, it’s the anticipation.
Sybil: And also because there was a complete lock out if you were late. And I was like – what does that mean? Does that mean there’s going to be something really scary?
Lea: Does that mean they won’t let anybody out? And people are just clawing at the door to try to get out. And they’re like – ‘It’s a lock IN! A lock IN!’
Sybil: See, anything’s possible!
Lea: You poor thing!
Sybil: Luckily, it turned out to not be as scary as I’d dreaded.
Lea: It was fabulous.
Sybil: It was amazing.
Lea: The songs were incredible.
Sybil: The performances, and not just by – who would you define as the lead roles though? Obviously Carrie, and Carrie’s mum.
Lea: And Susie, Chris, Tommy the boyfriend? A great cast to be in because there are many roles.
Sybil: A great cast to be in but a really female dominated cast as well.
Lea: Gorgeous. Unusual.
Sybil: Unusual, yes.
Lea: Without it being fluff.
Sybil: Yes. I guess it’s being…
Lea: It’s no Legally Blonde.
Sybil: No Legally Blonde! But I guess Wicked is also a female dominated cast.
Lea: I guess so. Umm yes, gosh, for an emerging independent theatre company in a small space with incredible…
Sybil: Depth of talent!
Lea: And depth of performance.
Sybil: Even the chorus were great. And the minor leads were all absolutely awesome. I mean, I thought Toby Francis was fantastic. I mean, he’s not someone who you’d look at and go – ah, bad boy – he’s going to play the bad boy. But he played it really well. I believed it.
Lea: And he had that gorgeous nuance at the end where he didn’t actually feel what they were doing was right – ‘I like being bad but this doesn’t feel right at all’.
Sybil: Chris played evil so well.
Lea: You know I…
Sybil: You didn’t love it?
Lea: No I didn’t love her major song.
Sybil: I didn’t love the beginning which is the stab, you wanna be stabbed thing.
Lea: She didn’t take it far enough to make me really think she believed it. But then again there was also the end where I thought she implied that she’d been abused.
Sybil: Oh really? I missed that.
Lea: Because at the very end where she was on stage by herself she goes ‘Scars don’t kill you. My Dad told me scars don’t kill you’.
Sybil: Oh interesting.
Lea: So that’s what I took way from that and it made her who she was. And that redeemed her performance for me.
Sybil: I thought the woman who played – and she was in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson as well – the woman who played the gym teacher was absolutely flawless. I loved every moment she was on stage.
Lea: She did a beautiful job.
Sybil: She brought nuance. She brought humour. She brought…
Lea: That’s right. She didn’t play it all one tone either. You could see the young woman in her and the learned teacher all in one.
Sybil: And you know, she was quite a young teacher. She brought that. She remembers the experience and she wanted to be there. She wanted to be a strength and a support and…
Lea: I just kept thinking, why didn’t she just do that for Carrie earlier in High School? Why did she wait until final year just before prom? Surely she saw it earlier. Then there was the final straw of the whole period thing. My standout performance was the girl who played Susie.
Sybil: Yes, I thought her voice was…
Lea: Crystal.
Sybil: So sweet.
Lea: But she was also able to turn her emotions on a dime. She had to go from being interrogated to being a joyful teenager. And her concern and care and the way that fell deeper and deeper and deeper into her psyche – that she had to help Carrie and it was evident and believable and pure.
Sybil: Absolutely. And it was a really critical role because if she hadn’t worked, the whole musical would have lost its purpose.
Lea: That’s right. You had to believe her.
Sybil: That she wanted to do this for the right reasons. And it was genuinely trying to – you know, for whatever reasons, you had to believe that was real for her. And I did.
Lea: And it was like her voice…
Sybil: Oh her voice was beautiful.
Lea: And acting wise – she was a standout for me.
Sybil: Me too.
Lea: And um. Carrie. Carrie was SO brilliantly played. And really kind of – it had to be that dramatic a transformation.
Sybil: Yes and it was just gorgeous. Her whole arc was beautiful. At the beginning I was just like – ‘Ahhhh…. I’m not sure where this is going to go’.
Lea: Because she just felt too downtrodden, didn’t she, in a way?
Sybil: Too overplayed. But it worked in the end.
Lea: It really did.
Sybil: And her voice, oh my god.
Lea: How about at the end. When she let all her power out?
Sybil: And she really went for it! I know! Incredible!
Lea: And you realised that, that had been in there the whole time.
Sybil: Incredible!
Lea: And you’re like – ‘STOP it!’
Sybil: Vocally, I had a problem with Carrie’s mum. Emotionally she was connecting but … I don’t know whether her voice was tired or it was…
Lea: Damaged?
Sybil: But I just felt that it she was struggling to hang on to some of her notes, and her passagio was very choppy.
Lea: And unfortunately her solo was my least favourite song of the show – in how it was written.
Sybil: I don’t know if this is how it’s written, but it felt like she was only a one-dimensional character. Though there was that moment where she was down on her knees and she was begging Carrie and she was…
Lea: She became the daughter.
Sybil: And that was lovely – it was natural but you went, oh ok, it’s reversed.
Lea: But I liked the moment, when she remembered what it was like to be with the boys. And she revelled in that for a moment. I enjoyed that.
Sybil: And you kind of go – wow ok, so you get a lot of her pathology from inference of her describing the situation and – ok let’s fast forward 17 years and ok, we get it. You’re NUTS but we know where you’re coming from.
Lea: I found that really disturbing how she treated her daughter.
Sybil: Just awful.
Lea: But I found the girls disturbing too and Chris. And I had all this multi-layered stuff going on in my head. I was remembering stuff from high school…
Sybil: Me too…
Lea: Because my Yr 12 formal, I was going through my hippy stage, it wasn’t a fancy dress formal, everyone else was in normal formalwear, and I went as Maid Marion.
Sybil: Of course you did. Well I didn’t get invited. So I had to have a friend set me up with one of their partner’s friends. I hated it… it was just…. awful.
Lea: Mine wasn’t awful but it wasn’t the picture perfect prom… and I remember one of the popular guys saying – ‘I meant to announce that you and Josh were formal King and Queen, but I forgot!’ But then I look back and I kinda go – we weren’t in the popular group but we weren’t bullied at all – we were in that beautiful sweet spot – we were in the artistes area of the school.
Sybil: The drama nerds.
Lea: The drama nerds, yes. So there was no bullying going on but also you think what if we had gone up on stage at the formal and had photos and… *shudders*… there’s only one photo that exists of me at that formal.
Sybil: I don’t know that there are any of me at the formal.
Lea: So it’s interesting isn’t it?
Sybil: And it’s really hard for me – and it’s probably similar for you, but I didn’t go to that school until the end of year 10.
Lea: Yes, I went at the end of year 9.
Sybil: And I don’t feel like I was there long enough to establish myself – and yes so I totally get Carrie.
Lea: It throws the whole thing up doesn’t it?
Sybil: The whole thing. I was going aargh, ugh…
Lea: I know, it was incredible.
Sybil: But you know what? I bet everyone would have some kind of resonance with it. But you know what it was really interesting, I was making links to so many different shows.
Lea: Oh absolutely – the melodies!
Sybil: No I’m talking about structure and story. For example – and I know you haven’t seen it – Matilda. So Matilda is about a young girl who has telekenetic powers who is bullied – I mean it’s much lighter, it’s a children’s story so it’s not nearly as dark – but she’s bullied by really incompetent parents and a really nasty headmistress. And she has one teacher that believes in her and at the end there’s a big cathartic moment where she lets her powers out – you know, so it’s not DIS-similar.
Lea: Yeah…
Sybil: And there was another one as well, but I can’t remember which one now. There was another one with links. And it was CLEVER! Most importantly it was REALLY CLEVER!
Lea: You know that scene where they were getting ready for the formal and it was so Rent? ‘Money. Power. Da, da, da, da.’ Spoken word, rhythmic. And I heard Rent in a few other sequences. I heard Sondheim in my head. What else did I hear? Maybe Wicked?
Sybil: Maybe Wicked, yeah.
Lea: But that’s not a bad thing because it’s referencing some of the best.
Sybil: And it’s the zeitgeist, it’s like what was out there, what was going on, what was happening at the time.
Lea: And – in a sense – Glee.
Sybil: Well – that was the other thing . I’ve never seen the movie Carrie but I have seen that scene where the Prom Queen is doused in something.
Lea: It’s a cultural thing.
Sybil: It’s become a meme… and I was like – ok! So this must be where it came from. Because that’s been done in Glee.
Lea: Well it’s like the slushies.
Sybil: But there’s actually like – one at the prom. Tina.
Lea: So it just goes to show that that feeling we had – that we needed to see more Squabbalogic was on the money.
Sybil: Or Squabbalicious, which I still think is a better name!
Lea: It fits in with the Fergie song ‘It’s squabbalicious!’ It’s – as you said – when it originally premiered it only played for 6 shows or something incredible, and then closed.
Sybil: We need to check that before we write it!
[NOTE: At it’s Broadway premiere in 1988, after 16 previews and 5 performances, scathing reviews saw the financial backers pull the show, even thought it had been sold out every night. This version is the result of a massive score and book revision that began in 2009 and was finally performed in 2012] 
Lea: It has incredible legs. It’s so good! It’s a beautiful sized cast – excellent. I would buy the recording. I want the sound track.
Sybil: I would too. And I loved – in the first half I’m going – how many musicals have as a fairly fundamental plot point a girl getting her period for the first time?
Lea: It’s actually fantastically topical.
Sybil: I loved that.
Lea: It’s an incredible thing to discuss.
Sybil: What a dramatic transition point between girlhood and womanhood and all tied up with moving from school to college and this whole thing.
Lea: Becoming an adult.
Sybil: The whole period of change. But seriously I don’t even know another musical that references it let alone makes it a major… I loved it.
Lea: Totally agree.
Sybil: They had that, they had the three female leads – three or four major female characters. Really and truly, the male characters were..
Lea: Secondary. It’s true, they were.
Sybil: Yeah, I really liked it.
Lea: And speaking of the male characters, there was one little bit, right at the beginning where the boys were just on stage. It was only a small part segueing into something else, and they were talking about how hard it is to keep being tough? And to try to be a man and stuff. And it was a beautiful little insight.
Sybil: Yes absolutely gorgeous.
Lea: I really liked that. And it’s kinda like a flip side – not of Carrie, ‘cos you can’t really do that – but a flip side of the pressures of being a boy, and being a tough guy.
Sybil: Yeah and that’s not something that’s really ever explored.
Lea: Not with the underlying difficulty of that, not just the tough bravado of West Side Story.
Sybil: Or Grease.
Lea: Where it’s there, but it’s not actually addressed.
Sybil: The actual experience.
Lea: What’s going on inside their heads it’s really…
Sybil: It’s interesting though because I see it absolutely having a place in small independent music theatre companies.
Lea: Yes.
Sybil: It shouldn’t be a big show but also whilst it deals with teenage issues, it’s not a school show either.
Lea: No.
Sybil: So it really has a very defined niche.
Lea: Do you know though, it wouldn’t be a bad thing for year 11 and 12’s to go see.
Sybil: Yes, to see, I think that would be good.
Lea: I’m wondering – because this just hit, hit, hit, hit, hit the mark – I’m wondering why that didn’t connect in the original production. The other thing was in terms of the staging of it and the handling all of the chairs and the telekinesis…
Sybil: The direction was wonderful.
Lea: And the windows and everything. It was handled so well.
Sybil: So well. And I loved the partial scrim so that when people were out of the room you could actually still see them sometimes. I thought the set design was fabulous, I thought the direction was fabulous. A really high standard.
Lea: And the music direction.
Sybil: Fantastic. Again I though the chorey was good – I didn’t think the dancing was as good as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Lea: No it wasn’t, but that’s because it’s not a dance show.
Sybil: Not at all.
Lea: And it’s nice to have a musical that doesn’t have to be so… you can have performers who don’t have to have the most amazing dance skills in the world but they execute.
Sybil: But also – the costume changes were seamless and easy and clever.
Lea: She went to prom and…
Sybil: I was genuinely impressed. So anything more you want to say?
Lea: No.
Sybil: So out of five?
Lea: Out of five – oh, you know? 4 / 4 and a half.
Sybil: That’s exactly my spot.
Lea: Four and a third or a quarter. It’s right in between.
Sybil: Look – here’s the thing, we saw Waiting for Godot last night and I gave it a three and a half, you gave it a three. I think it’s better than that. Whether it’s better by a whole glass of wine?
Lea: For me it’s maybe that 4 sits right.
Sybil: Yeah, I almost thinks it’s four and a half. Maybe I’ll go four and a half. You go four, I’ll go four and a half and we’ll split the difference!
Lea: There you go! And high fives all around! Thanks for joining us. Good evening!

IN SUMMARY

Sybil: Squabbalogic is such a gem of a theatre company – fabulous performances, great direction – and what a fab show. As soon as it started, I was absolutely engaged. Stand out performers for me – Carrie (Hilary Cole), Sue (Adèle Parkinson) and Billy ( Toby Francis). If you like your theatre musical, intense, well directed and just a little off-beat – this would be the show for you. Not sure when it will be back in Australia, but I would genuinely see it again – anyone want to go?
Lea: Carrie: The Musical  has shown me just how important theatre companies like Squabbalogic are. Intimate musical theatre is hard to come by, but when it’s executed like Carrie was, it is infinitely rewarding, moving and memorable. With the launch of the Hayes Theatre Company this year as well as the continued success of Squabbalogic, I’m going to be swinging and singing from the rafters.
Question: What would attract you to go and see a small scale musical?

PRE & POST SHOW DRINKS: Seymour Centre has a sweet Daylight Savings Bar in summer. Foyer for post show bevvies.