By the age of 16, Brooklyn-born Carol Joan Klein — soon to adopt the professional name of Carole King — was already an accomplished classical pianist, had dated a guy named Neil Sedaka, was enrolled as a student at New York’s Queens College and was just precocious and confident enough to hawk her pop songs to producers at the Brill Building, the fabled “music factory” not far from Times Square.
By the age of 17, King had met fellow college student Gerry Goffin — handsome, gifted and a couple of years older — and fallen head over heels in love with him. He would quickly become her songwriting partner and, almost as quickly, after she discovered she was pregnant, become her husband. The couple struggled financially at the start, but throughout the early 1960s they turned out a series of chart-topping songs for the hot artists of the time (the Drifters, the Shirelles, Little Eva and others) that became instant classics.
‘BEAUTIFUL – THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL’
Highly recommended
When: Through Feb. 21
Where: Oriental Theatre,
24 W. Randolph
Tickets: $30 – $140
Info: (800) 775-2000;
Run time: 2 hours and
25 minutes with one intermission
Along the way, what began to fall apart — much to King’s chagrin — was her marriage, as Goffin felt increasingly trapped, had a number of devastating affairs, felt his creativity waning as the music business began to change, and was hospitalized for depression.
All this is part of the story told in “Beautiful — The Carole King Musical,” the Broadway hit now in its first national touring edition at the Oriental Theatre. With an economical book by Douglas McGrath, the musical features about two dozen of the greatest songs penned primarily by both King and Goffin, and by their friends and competitors, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.
But it does not end there. For what this musical is really about — and what clinches it most crucially for the audience, thanks to a performance by Abby Mueller that is truly beautiful in its complete honesty, as well as in the lustrous quality of her voice — is King’s emergence from a passionate but ultimately devastating marriage, and her discovery of herself as an independent woman.
In a very real sense, this is the story of how King rediscovered the buoyant artistic confidence she possessed as a teenage prodigy, and realized she could triumph on her own. And those moments are winningly theatricalized in the show’s climactic scenes as King, who had long preferred to write songs performed by others, is cajoled into singing “It’s Too Late” at the intimate Bitter End in Greenwich Village, and finally, after winning a Grammy Award for “Tapestry,” her transformational 1971 album, triumphing at Carnegie Hall as a late-blossoming flower child soon to turn 30.
“Beautiful,” directed by Marc Bruni, is primarily an intimate tale of a high-profile relationship. And the chemistry between Mueller (the Evanston-bred actress who, as is widely known, is the sister of Jessie Mueller, who won a Tony Award when she originated the role of King on Broadway) and lanky, handsome Liam Tobin (who plays Goffin, and easily captures the seductive appeal and latent insecurity of the man) is just right.
The story, which echoes the enormous social changes of the 1960s, also supplies a perfect study in contrasts in the deftly (and often comically) juxtaposed relationship forged between the chic, fiercely independent lyricist Weil (a snappy turn by Becky Gulsvig) and her songwriting partner, Mann (Ben Fankhauser, very funny as the nerdy, hypochondriacal, marriage-hungry composer).
Adding particular zest to the proceedings are the Drifters (played by Josh A. Dawson, Paris Nix, Noah J. Ricketts and Dashaun Young), who deliver that group’s golden harmonies in sleek sharkskin suits (cheers for all Alejo Vietti’s period costumes), with smile-inducing moves choreographed by Josh Prince. Ashley Blanchet, Britney Coleman, Rebecca E. Covington and Salisha Thomas conjure the Shirelles, with Blanchet later displaying her star quality as King’s talented babysitter, Little Eva.
Although the voices in this production are excellent, the overall sound quality is in need of some serious tweaking, with the balance between speaking and singing voices uneven, and the sound from the pit orchestra somewhat tinny.
The songs, of course, are sublime. And if there is any moral to this story it is that while people are not always dependable, a great song (and the list here includes “So Far Away,” “Up on the Roof,” “On Broadway,””We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got a Friend”) will endure. You will, to be sure, still love it “tomorrow.”
