The novel that made author Stephen King famous—1974’s Carrie—has become a classic not only on the page, but also in its adaptations on the stage and screen. However, the story’s beginnings were less than auspicious. Once a mere three-page beginning to a short story that King initially trashed, Carrie grew into a novel only after King’s wife Tabitha recovered the draft from the garbage and encouraged her husband to continue. After publication, the novel rose to tremendous heights of popularity, selling over one million paperback copies in 1975 alone.
The following year, Carrie received its first on screen adaptation, directed by Brian de Palma and featuring Sissy Spacek in the title role. Spacek and Piper Laurie—who played Carrie’s off-kilter mother Margaret—earned Academy Award nominations for their work. Three more film versions followed—1999’s sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2 (which imagines Carrie’s half-sibling developing telekinetic powers and follows Sue Snell into her career as a school counselor); the 2002 made-for-television edition of the original Carrie story; and 2011’s new film adaptation starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore as Carrie and Margaret respectively.
As for stage adaptations, Carrie received its Broadway premiere in 1988. The production was met with unfavorable reviews and before long lost financial backing, closing a mere three days after officially opening and becoming one of the most infamous flops that The Great White Way has ever seen. However, much like the novel itself, the musical was also revived after a difficult start, and met with greater success the second time around. Reimagining the show as a chamber musical, and replacing seven original songs with new numbers, the directors of the new production hoped “to rescue Carrie from oblivion and to give her new life.” They certainly accomplished this as Carrie ran Off-Broadway in 2012, garnering the Best Musical Revival award at the Off-Broadway Alliance Awards that same year.
—Alexandra Kennedy