Review: Carrie The Musical – Southwark Playhouse

The fact that Carrie was followed by the words the musical intrigued me the most. How can they make this Stephen King horror into a dancing and singing ensemble.

The playhouse is a small intimate space where the audience almost share the stage with the actors. This excites me as I love being close to the actors. Some of the staging restricted the view of those especially on the front two rows. So I recommend sitting towards the back if you decide to go after what you read next…

The opening introduced the “cool kids” quite smoothly, with the first song being quite energetic contemporary choreography. Straight away there was a high school musical Disney feel to the play, which I wasn’t sure about. The true horror of this play was some of the performances. The words cheesy and predictable come to mind. The acting in between songs was so over done i was grimacing at times. In saying that, this was not the case for all the actors.

One of the stand out performances came from Evelyn Hoskins (Carrie). All she gave was faultless, as she effortlessly belted out songs I got goose pimples every time. Gym teacher (Jodie Jacobs) also had a duet with Carrie which made me want to stand and cheer at the end of the number.

Kim Criswell as the mother I felt could have been more unhinged. There were also a couple of what I would call “awkward moments” where the audience laughed or sniggered as the acting from this character was so over the top, it was comical. I’m not sure that was the emotion they were hoping for at such serious parts of the play, but that’s what they got. I often saw some hold there head in there hands to secretly snigger, as laughing out loud was not appropriate.

Director Gary Lloyd did a fair job, but kept it very safe and a bit bland in my opinion. The set and design was minimal and transformed well from scene to scene. I was always sceptical about Carrie being a musical, however it was a good attempt.

At the end there was a standing ovation which I feel came of the back of great vocals rather than the overall play.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Carrie runs until the 30th May.

SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE, The Large

77-85 Newington Causeway

London SE1 6BD

Website: www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Twitter: @CarrieMusicalUK