!!Novel:

* ApprovalOfGod: Creator/StephenKing gave his approval of the 2006 parody ''Scarrie''.
* BreakthroughHit: King had only published short stories by that point, but this debut novel's runaway success brought him millions of new readers.
* CreatorBacklash: Before he finished writing, King threw the entire manuscript in the trash, disappointed with how it was turning out. His wife Tabitha read it, loved it and pushed for him to continue writing. The rest is history. He still regards the book as one of his weaker efforts, without the polish of his later novels, saying that [[CreatorPreferredAdaptation De Palma's film improved on the story]] and comparing the book to "a cookie baked by a first grader -- tasty enough, but kind of lumpy and burned on the bottom." By his own account, he had originally been challenged to write something with which women could identify. He wrote the shower scene, didn't like it and threw it out, only for his wife, who had trouble with her periods, to rescue it. The shower scene was what amazed every woman at Doubleday. Creator/HarlanEllison said:
--> "...that opening sequence in which the telekinetic, Carrie White, gets her first menstrual experience before the eyes of a covey of teenage shrikes, and more than the light bulb in the locker room exploded. Xeroxes of the manuscript were run off; they were disseminated widely in-house; women editors passed them on to female secretaries, who took them home and gave them to their friends. That first scene bit hard…It was Jungian archetype goosed with ten million volts of emotional power. It was the commonly-shared horrible memory of half the population, reinterpreted."
* CreatorsPest: King admitted that he didn't like Carrie or Sue as characters, feeling that Carrie had little personality or development beyond being a bullying victim (and compared her actions to school shooters), and that Sue's motives for helping her weren't convincing.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ScrapbookStory elements weren't there in the first draft, but were added in to pad the book out to publication length.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Some of the book came from King's experiences as a teacher. The reference to Carrie getting poison ivy from using it as toilet paper was also something that happened to him.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: In the introduction he wrote for more recent editions of the novel, King stated that he based the title character on two girls he knew growing up, both of whom died before the age of thirty. One, who he refers to as "Tina" to protect her identity, was the inspiration for Carrie's relentless teasing and bullying, while the other, "Sandra", inspired her religious fanatic mother and isolation from the rest of society.


!!Stage musical

* ActorInspiredElement: “When There’s No One” wasn’t part of the original score. Late into rehearsals at Stratford-upon-Avon, Barbara Cook complained Margaret had no humanizing moment at any point in the show. Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford obliged by removing the original ElevenOclockNumber “Once I Loved a Boy” (where Margaret reflects on her rape and abandonment by Ralph White) and replacing it with a new song where Margaret contemplates her love for Carrie and how it directly conflicts with her puritanical faith.
* BoxOfficeBomb: Estimates put the show's loss at around $8 million, which made it the biggest Broadway bomb up to that point.
* CutSong: Numerous songs were cut, added, shortened, rewritten and put back in again between the 1984 workshop production, 1986 demo recording, 1988 Stratford-upon-Avon try out, the ultra brief 1988 Broadway run, a revamped 2009 workshop, and finally the revised 2012 Off-Broadway revival. Ones in particular that suffered include:
** [[https://youtu.be/fcdKmd3hfxI "Dream On"]], an ensemble number by the girls after gym class, reflecting the relationships with their boyfriends, and Carrie for a better social and home life. This survived up until the 1988 Broadway run.
** [[https://youtu.be/Tv8RqTx5s90 "Somebody Should Have Told Her"]], an exchange between Sue and Miss Gardner following the shower scene, intercut with Chris ranting about Carrie's behavior. It never made it past Stratford.
** [[https://youtu.be/srAY6g5WhLo "Don't Waste the Moon"]]; at the drive-in, Sue laments her guilt to Tommy, and Chris rages her anger about Carrie to Billy.
** [[https://youtu.be/Tkyar5ex2Mg "Crackerjack"]], an early version of what would on Broadway become [[https://youtu.be/P_NW0i3ue88 "Out for Blood"]]; Chris, Billy and a bunch of guys prepare the prank.
** [[https://youtu.be/aksQ3fZIM9k "White Star"]] would become [[https://youtu.be/XDl-Rafm2Ws "It Hurts to Be Strong"]] on Broadway; this first version shared the same melody as the later-in-the-act [[https://youtu.be/ccLy8yLc75Q "Heaven"]]. Sue sings about how she feels that Tommy may be straying after she asks him to take Carrie to the prom.
** [[https://youtu.be/01pdvG_H4xQ "I'm Not Alone"]] made it to Broadway; Carrie creates her dress while exploring her telekinetic powers.
* DawsonCasting: Played straight for everyone ''except'' Carrie in the original, who was played by Linzi Hateley and was only ''seventeen'' (which would make her either the same age as Carrie or even younger than her, assuming she's supposed to be eighteen).
* FatalMethodActing: Narrowly averted in the Straford-upon-Avon tryout. Barbara Cook was nearly decapitated by a malfunctioning set piece on opening night, coming only inches from losing her head.
* HostilityOnTheSet:
** In the original show, director Terry Hands' creative decisions angered Barbara Cook (Margaret), who accused him of ruining the show, and the working relationship between the two was... strained, at best.
** Hands was also at war with choreographer Creator/DebbieAllen. The two fought constantly for creative control of the production and repeatedly tried to one up each other during rehearsals. They were no longer on speaking terms by the time ''Carrie'' opened on Broadway.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The original musical had an ''extremely'' short run and for the longest time was never heard from again. Miraculously, a small handful of bootleg recordings were made and managed to survive long enough to be put online; here's the [[https://archive.org/details/carrie-the-musical-stratford Stratford-upon-Avon production]], recorded at the time by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It wasn't until the recent revival in 2012 that an official soundtrack recording was made available.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** In the 1990s, there were rumors of an official cast recording of the Broadway production, which went to nothing. The Internet was [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9DUlrjyuuT_JmZpymG_SLkCixNKZ_5bC on it]], nevertheless.
** There was to be an Australian production in the 1990s, but it only stayed as a Workshop.


!!Entries with their own Trivia pages:
* ''Trivia/Carrie1976''
* ''Trivia/TheRageCarrie2''
* ''Trivia/Carrie2002''
* ''Trivia/Carrie2013''
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