What makes a good play or musical? Ask five people this question and they will probably give five very different answers. Different people resonate with different meanings of dramatic expression. The first to create clear guidelines for analyzing a work was the Greek philosopher Aristotle. He defined what good drama entails and wrote an outline that clearly defines which elements a good playwright should pay more attention to and which should be secondary thoughts. Aristotle's Poetics classifies each of these elements into 6 categories; Plot, characterization, theme, diction, melody and spectacle. Regardless of when a play was written, one should be able to determine how successfully these elements were executed and included in the work. Aristotle's model can also be used to analyze more modern works. Carrie the Musical is an adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name. It is about Carrie White, excluded from school and late, who develops telekinesis with the start of her first period. Carrie lives with her extremist religious mother. Thinking she's finally accepted, she agrees to go to prom with a popular boy. Unbeknownst to Carrie and her date, they are elected prom king and queen in a ruse. While having their photo taken, they are doused with a bucket of pig's blood. In a fit of rage, Carrie uses her powers to kill the other attendees at the ball. She then returns home, where her mother, realizing that Carrie is dead, stabs her. With the rest of her energy, Carrie kills her mother and then dies. According to Aristotle's outline for having a successful plot, the plot of Carrie is episodic, meaning that the events of the musical take place over several days. It was ...... middle of paper ...... all the movement of objects when she used her telekinesis, and the cream of the crop a bucket of "pig's blood" that soaked two of the characters. The visual and aural embellishments used in Carrie were well done and added to the dramatic effect of each scene. Even though this pattern has been around for thousands of years, we can still see it used to good effect by modern playwrights. One can see what happens when emphasis is misplaced, spending time perfecting Aristotle's minor elements, like spectacle, and underdeveloping more important elements like characterization. This is the case with Carrie, the musical. It was executed to the best of each actor's abilities, the show simply fell flat. It can be concluded that there is a direct correlation between the terrible implementation of Aristotle's guidelines and the lackluster quality of the series and its characters..