PHOTOS from "Carrie: The Musical" at Music Mountain Theatre

by John Posada
10/10/2023

(LAMBERTVILLE, NJ) -- Music Mountain Theatre (MMT) is presenting Carrie: The Musical from October 6-22, 2023. This is the thirteenth mainstage show of MMT's 2023 season, and perfectly timed for the Halloween season! Photographer John Posada was on hand to take photos.

Adapted from Stephen King’s 1974 novel Carrie, MMT is bringing this horror classic to the stage with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen (screenwriter of the classic film), music by Academy Award winner Michael Gore (Fame, Terms of Endearment), and lyrics by Academy Award winner Dean Pitchford (Fame, Footloose).

Carrie: The Musical follows a young woman with telekinetic powers. Carrie White is an outcast at school, where she is bullied viciously for her differences while longing to simply fit in. Carrie is also lost at home, dominated by her loving but cruelly controlling mother. When PE teacher Miss Gardner, kind classmate Sue Snell, and boyfriend Tommy Ross reach out to try and help Carrie, it seems that for once, Carrie might have a shot at being accepted. But Chris Hargensen, the class’s most vicious bully, has other ideas.  What none of them know is that Carrie’s just discovered she’s got a special power, and if pushed too far, she’s not afraid to use it and devour everyone around her in flame.

Marissa Spencer leads the cast of Carrie: The Musical, playing the title character while making her MMT stage debut. Lauren Brader, an MMT veteran, will also take the stage as Carrie’s mother, Margaret White, who’s misguided overprotectiveness of her daughter transcends into cruelty and outright abuse. The cast also includes Colby Langweiler, Jenna Parrilla Alvino, Soren Madsen, Brianna Kane, Cullen Hussey, and Roger Madding. The production is directed by Deven Miller.

Carrie: The Musical will run on the MMT stage from October 6-22, 2023, with 8:00pm evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays and 3:00pm matinee performances on Saturdays and Sundays. Discounted tickets are available for students, seniors, and members of the military, as well as for subscribers to MMT, and in group sales of fifteen or more.  Tickets are available for purchase online. Music Mountain Theatre is located at 1483 Route 179 in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Stephen King’s blockbuster 1974 debut novel Carrie sold over a million copies in its first year of publication. The classic 1976 film adaptation, directed by Brian De Palma, became a critical and box office smash, and earned two Academy Award nominations –- for Sissy Spacek as Carrie and Piper Laurie as Margaret White. First presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the original musical adaptation of Carrie premiered in Stratford-Upon-Avon in England for a limited run in February, 1988. Transferring to Broadway, it opened at the Virginia Theater on May 12, 1988 starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley, Sally Ann Triplett, Paul Gyngell, Gene Anthony Ray, Charlotte d’Amboise and Darlene Love. Fiercely polarizing audiences and proving wildly divisive with critics, the show famously closed after only 16 previews and 5 performances. Though the production did not run long enough to generate a Broadway cast recording, bootlegged audio and video tapes from the production started to appear online. They attracted so much interest and demand that the authors decided to revisit the piece 24 years later.

On March 1, 2012, their revamped version of Carrie: The Musical opened off-Broadway, presented by MCC at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, starring Marin Mazzie and Molly Ranson. Featuring an updated script and new songs in a smaller-scaled production, the show received multiple award nominations, and was named Best Off-Broadway Musical by the Off-Broadway Alliance. A live performance was filmed by the New York Public Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archives, and Sh-K-Boom Records released the Premiere Cast Recording.

With a stronger and more resonant focus on high school bullying and social isolation, this resurrected version went on to successful productions across North America and in locations around the world, including London, Manila, Spain, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Here are more photos from the production.

Music Mountain Theatre is a not-for-profit organization, dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable entertainment and education for all in our extended community through study, performance, and appreciation of the arts.

John Posada is a New Jersey based photographer specializing in photographing live theatre and music performances. Currently, John has spent the last 6 years concentrating on photographing almost 400 theater productions at over 70 different NJ theatres. Click here for John's website.

John Posada is a New Jersey based photographer specializing in photographing live theatre and music performances. Currently, John has spent the last 6 years concentrating on photographing almost 400 theater productions at over 70 different NJ theatres. Click here for John's website.