Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical wins the Theatre Book Prize 2024

Chris Adams beats nominees including Michael Ball and Judi Dench to win the prize

The Society for Theatre Research has announced the winner of its annual Theatre Book Prize 2024.

The winner was announced today, 11 June 2024, at a ceremony at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.

Chris Adams has won the award for his book Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical (Methuen Drama).

Out For Blood features contributions from over eighty original cast members, creatives, crew and audience members, and pieces together the surprising, hilarious and often-moving inside story of Carrie The Musical to discover how this ‘horror of a Broadway musical’ lived, died and was subsequently resurrected as a mainstream success story.

Chris Adams works as a marketing exec at leading London theatre marketing firm Dewynters. He is also the co-creator and co-host of the podcast Out For Blood: The Story of Carrie The Musical.

The winner was chosen from a shortlist that also included A Sense of Theatre by Richard Pilbrow (Unicorn); Different Aspects by Michael Ball (Blink Publishing); Exploring Shakespeare by Bill Alexander (Nick Hern Books); Searching for Juliet by Sophie Duncan (Sceptre); and Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench (Michael Joseph).

The prize was judged by Clive Davis, chief theatre critic of The Times; senior lecturer in Drama at the University of Manchester, Dr Kate Dorney; and PR rep Kevin Wilson. The judging panel was chaired by the Society of Theatre Reasearch Committee Member Howard Loxton.

Judge Clive Davis, chief theatre critic of The Times, said in a statement:

“Out for Blood is the kind of book, entertaining yet thoroughly researched, that ought to appeal to several different kinds of audiences. For one thing, it’s a detailed insider account of the grueling business of putting on a musical. If you ever had any doubts about how much sweat and blood actors and technicians devote to their craft, you’ll learn lots here. There are insights, too, into how art and commerce can go to war with each other. Most of all though, it’s a book that appeals to our perennial guilty instinct for reading about disasters.
“Hammered by the critics after opening in Stratford-on-Avon, the show, plagued by technical problems, ran for just sixteen previews and five regular performances before closing on Broadway. Comparisons with Mel Brooks’s famous parody, ‘Springtime for Hitler’ were thick on the ground.
“Chris Adams has already co-hosted a podcast about the fiasco. His book is a compelling mixture of Schadenfreude narrative and verbatim reminiscences from survivors including Linzi Hateley, who, as a teenager, played the title role. Just about every page contains an eye-opening anecdote… But as well as song-by-song analysis, Adams also zooms in on the show’s unexpected rebirth, thanks to an army of obsessive online fans. Carrie The Musical may have failed the first time, but the curtain never quite came down. As Linzi Hateley observes, “I like to think of it now as the most successful flop on Broadway.”

2024 marks the 26th Society of Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize, which was established in 1998 to celebrate the Society’s Golden Jubilee. The aim of the Book Prize is to encourage the writing and publication of books on British-related theatre history and practice.

Recent winners include An Actor’s Life in 12 Productions by Oliver Ford Davies; Stirring Up Sheffield by Colin and Tedd George; Black British Women’s Theatre by Nicola Abram, and Year of the Mad King: The King Lear Diaries by Antony Sher. Previous members of the judging panel include actors Cleo Sylvestre and Corin Redgrave, producer Thelma Holt, actress-director Yvonne Brewster and critics Michael Billington and Cindy Marcolina.

BUY Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical

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Main photo: Society of Theatre Research - Theatre Book Prize 2024 - Out For Blood