BEAUTIFUL THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL theater review

– By Cate Marquis –

‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ delights fans of singer/songwriter at Fox

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” made its St. Louis debut February 23, for a run through March 6. The Broadway musical tells the story of singer/songwriter Carole King’s early years, starting as a 16-year-old songwriter cranking out hit tunes in the 1960s.

Carole King fans turned out in force opening night, to hear the musical featuring 25 hit songs, including “Beautiful” and “You’ve Got A Friend,” as well as earlier hits “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” songs made hits by The Shirelles, The Righteous Brothers, and The Monkees. Carole wrote the music but some might not know that her songwriting partner/husband Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics, even to women’s songs “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

The musical tells the story of her early days, ending when she becomes a star performing her own work in the early 1970s. It opens with Carole King (Abby Mueller) playing her hit “So Far Away” and remembering the past. The scene then shifts, with Carole and her piano sliding off stage, and a new set rolling in, representing her Brooklyn girlhood home. There, 16-year-old Carole Klein lived with her divorced mother Genie (Suzanne Grodner) and, despite her young age, was attending college, studying to be a teacher. But all she really wants to do is write pop songs.

Carole gets her break when she has the chance to pitch a song, under the name Carole King, to New York music producer Don Kirshner (Curt Bouril). At that time, singers did not write their own songs but got them from music producers. Songwriters played their songs for producers, who bought them for a variety of musicians.

Kirchner buys her song, but then he wants more. At college, Carole meets Gerry Goffin (Liam Tobin on Feb. 23-28, and Andrew Brewer on Mar. 1-6). Gerry is studying to be a chemist but what he really wants is to be is a writer. He and Carole make a deal – she will write the tunes and he will write the lyrics. The songwriting partnership clicks, and soon Carole and Gerry click romantically too.

The musical follows their personal life and career, with their careers on a more steady upward path than their rocky personal lives. Along the way, we get performances of their hits, as well as hits by their friends, rival songwriting team Cynthia Weil (Becky Gulsvig) and Barry Mann (Ben Fankhauser).

Fans will know all these hits but if “Beautiful’s” songs are unfamiliar to you, this might not be the show for you. “Jersey Boys” started this biographical musical trend, and “Beautiful” owes a debt to that show, particularly for its innovative staging of televised concerts. However, “Beautiful” lacks the dramatic edge of “Jersey Boys” where the Four Seasons’ bouncy songs contrasted with the tale of gangsters, gambling and prison. “Beautiful” has a much tamer story behind the songs, where a girl from Brooklyn writes pop hits, marries her songwriting partner, who works as a chemist as they live with her mother until they hit it big. It culminates in suburbia, kids, infidelity and a career crisis over writing for a band created for a TV sitcom (The Monkees). It is personally tragic stuff for Carole and Gerry, but hardly the fiery material that drove “Jersey Boys.”

For Carole King fans, none of that matters. It is all about Mueller’s winning, affecting performance as the singer/songwriter, the snappy zinger-filled dialog and the songs. All the cast is terrific and the songs are wonderfully performed, in little theatrical productions with glittery costumes, shimmering backdrops and all the dance moves. The large, multi-level, movable set serves as theater, concert club, characters’ offices or homes, and other locations, in appealing fashion. The audience is transported back in time to the heyday of dressed-to-kill Motown singing groups.

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” is a must-see for her fans, and a good bet for fans of Motown. It is a warm-hearted stroll down that memory lane, with all the romance and heartbreak found in Carole King’s early hit songs.

© Cate Marquis / The Curent