Few artists have influenced modern music to quite the same extent as Carole King. At 29, King was relatively old by music industry standards, when she released her breakout album Tapestry in 1971. But by that point, she’d already been writing chart-toppers for nearly half her life - selling her first song at sixteen, and penning songs for the likes of Bobby Vee, The Drifters and The Shirelles, alongside her husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin.
If you go in expecting the definitive Carole King story - you may be disappointed. This is far from a blow-by-blow account of the singer’s long and varied life - and thank goodness for that.
What Beautiful does so right is it chooses to focus on just a portion of King’s life and tell that story. The story is about becoming, rather than being ‘Carole King’ - as we know her. Which proves to be the show's strength. Too many biographical works - be they films, plays or musicals - try to tell the entirety of an artist’s life story and find themselves with too little time to do any of it justice. By comparison, the plot of Beautiful is fairly scant, and that gives us time to really get to know the characters and their idiosyncrasies.
The show is bookended by King’s performance at Carnegie Hall, directly after four Emmy wins (the first woman to get this honour). We then go back in time to smart, optimistic teenage Carole, who manages to sell a song to mogul Don Kirscher (played as an affable mentor figure by Garry Robson) and nets a job working out of Times Square. She forms a songwriting partnership with a boy from her college, the articulate but mercurial and easily frustrated Gerry (Tom Milner). Soon she begins seeing, gets pregnant by, and marries him. All by the ripe old age of seventeen!
The duo balance childcare with songwriting duties and a healthy rivalry with two colleagues down the hall, Cynthia Weil (Seren Sandham-Davies) and Barry Mann (Jos Slovick), an extroverted and sardonic odd couple whose own romance forms the B-plot of the story. This friendly competition spawns several hits as the couples race to number one. I was left staggered by just how many classics of the era were penned by these four, including ‘That Loving Feeling’, ‘Who Put The Bomp’, ‘Take Good Care of My Baby’, and many, many more.
Carole herself, played outstandingly by Mollie-Grace Cutler, comes off as an almost uniquely humble and empathetic star, clearly talented and driven but also generous. It feels as though most of the time, musical icons only make it to stardom via relentless self-preservation and room-filling bombast. It was refreshing to see an introverted, loving character reach the top without having to change themselves.
The small details are all immaculate, which may be part of the reason why the musical is so seductive. The stage design is phenomenal, using a ladder, billboards and a piano on wheels to create a multitude of places, alongside more-is-more lighting, and delightfully detailed costumes.
The ensemble cast flit in and out of different roles, forming a steady swing band until a scene demands The Drifters, Marilyn Wald, or The Shirelles. Special props to Amena Al-Kindy as Little Eva, who performs all of ‘The Loco-Motion’ on rollerskates. Songs are also used cleverly to underpin conversations - Goffin talking about escaping his difficult childhood home to go sit ‘On The Roof’. King wonders ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ about their relationship. The way songs are performed throughout - often first as rough drafts by King and Goffin then as more polished numbers by their eventual performer, brings an infectious joy to the proceedings. It’s never too long before another burst of music, and while there’s real drama and heartache (underpinned by excellent acting) the staging and storytelling make the show feel like a nostalgic headrush of memory.
An absolutely joyous night out, not to be missed.