Carole King musical a thrilling spectacle of sheer talent
Beautiful is a jukebox musical unlike any you have ever seen – and from Buddy to Mamma Mia you’ve probably seen a lot of them. The show opened in San Francisco in 2013 and proved to be such an immediate success that it was transferred, almost whole, to Broadway a year later.
The much-praised Carole King musical has finally made it to Edmonton and the Broadway Across Canada production is currently playing in the Jubilee Auditorium until Nov. 11.
Beautiful establishes its credentials immediately by having its superbly talented star Sarah Bockel just sit at the grand piano to sing So Far Away in a recreation of King’s famous 1971 Carnegie Hall appearance. There is the immediate wallop of that great voice and hall-filling talent but already – here in the first few minutes – there are hints of the musicality, heart and sheer entertainment value that will follow.
If you’re looking for something to compare it to – perhaps Jersey Boys, that tale of the hard-won pop success of a quartet of hard-scrabble lads fighting up from street-corner warbling to the top of the charts, is the best example. But that show told a different, grittier story and didn’t attempt the passion and sentiment of this one.
The plot has the scrappy 16-year old King (known by her real name, Carol Klein) ignoring warnings from her divorced mother (Suzanne Grodner) on the near impossibility of cracking the male-dominated New York pop music scene. Mom wails, “Why can’t you just get your degree and be a music teacher?!”
Carole manages to promote a meeting with pop impresario Don Kirshner (James Clow) and impresses him enough to become part of his prolific music mill. Carole teams up with lyricist Gerry Goffin (Dylan S. Wallach) – later marrying him. The two combusted into a potent hit generator, quickly penning Take Good Care of My Baby, Some Kind of Wonderful, Chains, The Locomotion, One Fine Day, and so many more.
Out of the same song factory came Cynthia Weil (Alison Whitehurst) and Barry Mann (Jacob Heimer) and the four became friends and competitors, trading top spots on the charts. Beautiful cheerfully cherry picks some Weil/Mann hits, too, such as On Broadway and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.
So much of the success of this musical is due to Douglas McGrath’s simpatico script. He avoids the “…and then I wrote…” syndrome that burdens so many of these things, and concentrates on the complex relationships generated by the hot-house pressure of the pop world and the resultant fraying marriage between King and Goffin. The show’s view of King, a natural optimist, could have easily slopped over into Pollyanna territory, but McGrath (and Bockel) skillfully avoid that familiar trap by portraying a real, complex character. Wallach, in a finely nuanced performance, digs through the layers to deliver a flawed, conflicted spirit beset by the stresses generated by his wife’s desire for a solid, suburban life. Goffin was manic-depressive – leading to a nervous breakdown.
At the beginning, King sees herself as a songwriter and, as her talent and self-confidence develops, begins to record her own songs. Her breakthrough album was Tapestry in 1971. It was No. 1 for 15 weeks and remained on the charts for the next six years.
Another innovation McGrath came up with is the on-stage development of the songs. They inevitably start with a writing exercise or a solo effort and then expand to the familiar and much-loved arrangements of such stars as The Shirelles, Little Eva (who was once the star’s baby-sitter), The Drifters, Neil Sedaka and The Righteous Brothers. Some songs, such as Up On The Roof, even expand beyond the three minute bounds of the records of the time into a full-bore Broadway show-stopper.
Over the years, there have been a number of performers who played the central role in this piece, but based on what’s displayed at the Jubilee, it’s hard to imagine any of them being any better than Sarah Bockel. She inhabits the role, bringing warmth and charm as she explores King’s incredible songwriting talent, vulnerability and resolute determination. She goes through the various stages of marriage, continuing success (and a couple of babies) and tugs at our hearts as she searches for the very thing that is driving her husband away – a normal suburban life. And then there’s that full-voiced and joyous delivery that powers the whole evening.
Whitehurst (smart, brassy and a standout) and Heimer (a comic hypochondriac) make a terrific foil for Bockel and Wallach.
The backup ensemble is universally talented. They recreate the soul singing (and the comically synchronized moves) of the various groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s. All have great big voices. The company is obviously chosen not only for their pipes but for their dancing and acting chops as well.
Despite the tug of nostalgia implicit in so many of the hits of those years, you do tend to forget King’s amazing output. Beautiful aptly demonstrates that her music remains timeless.
