Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.
The original production of Beautiful received its world premiere at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, in October 2013, with direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince, and starring Jessie Mueller and Jake Epstein as Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It made its Broadway debut at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in January 2014. A West End production starring Katie Brayben as Carole began in February 2015. A U.S. tour launched in September 2015.
The musical opened on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim
Theatre on January 12, 2014, after previews from November 12, 2013. In addition
to Mueller as King, the cast features Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Anika
Larsen as Cynthia Weil and Jarrod Spector as Barry Mann.[3]
King attended the April 3, 2014 performance and appeared on stage with the cast
at the curtain call, singing "You've Got a Friend" together with them.[4] On the fifth anniversary of the production's opening
on January 12, 2019, Carole King appeared on stage to perform the show's
closing number "Beautiful" and finale alongside star Chilina Kennedy.[5] The production will close on October 27, 2019 after
60 previews and 2,418 regular performances. Upon closing, the production will
be 27th longest-running musical in Broadway history.[6]
Synopsis
Act I
At Carnegie Hall in 1971, Carole King sings "So Far Away". Then, in Brooklyn 1958, 16-year-old Carole tells her mother, Genie, she is going into Manhattan to try to sell a song to music publisher Donnie Kirshner. In the long tradition of mothers, Genie is opposed to her daughter's wish and in the equally long tradition of teenagers not caring about their mother's opinion, Carole goes anyway. At 1650 Broadway, she hears the "1650 Broadway Medley". She then sings her new song "It Might As Well Rain Until September". Donnie says he will take it and hopes she has others. At Queens College, Carole meets a handsome young lyricist named Gerry Goffin. They agree to collaborate, musically and romantically, which in both cases turns out to be a fertile arrangement. When they go to Donnie's to play their new song, Carole confesses to Gerry that she is pregnant. Gerry asks her to marry him. It gives her an extra depth of feeling when she sings their new song for Donnie, "Some Kind of Wonderful", which The Drifters then record.They get an office at 1650. While there, Carole meets a new lyricist Cynthia Weil ("Happy Days Are Here Again"), who is looking for a composer to work with. Gerry and Carole sing their new song "Take Good Care of My Baby", during which Barry Mann, the composer with the office next door, enters. Barry meets Cynthia and they decide to collaborate. As they begin to work, sparks fly. Donnie tells them he needs a song for the Shirelles. The couples compete for the job. In Donnie's office the next morning, Carole and Gerry present "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". Cynthia and Barry perform "He's Sure the Boy I Love". Donnie picks Carole and Gerry's song for The Shirelles and it goes to no. 1. And so, on either side of the same wall, a competition is born. The two teams turn out an amazing parade of songs: "Up on the Roof", "On Broadway", "The Loco-Motion" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".
Gerry and Carole are at the taping of a TV special where their new song, "One Fine Day", is being performed by the dazzling Janelle Woods. During a break, Gerry confesses to Carole that he is restless in their marriage. He wants to sleep with Janelle, and he doesn't want to lie about it. Carole is stunned. As the song begins again, she takes it over and sings it herself.
Act II
Carole is in a recording studio doing a demo of "Chains". Gerry is off with Janelle but tells her he will meet her later. Nick, a guitarist, asks Carole to come sing at the Bitter End sometime but she declines — she's a songwriter, not a singer. The thing with Gerry is getting her down so she goes and talks to Cynthia who is also having trouble with Barry — they split up. Carole decides to tell Gerry he has to end the affair with Janelle. As she leaves, Barry comes in. He and Cynthia make up and play their new song, "Walking in the Rain". Gerry shows up, but he is not making sense. He eventually has a breakdown. At the hospital, he tells Carole he will end the affair with Janelle and that he wants to come home. She suggests they make a new start and move to the suburbs ("Pleasant Valley Sunday").Barry, Cynthia and Donnie come to see the new house. Barry plays their new song, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Depressed that he and Carole can't do as well, Gerry leaves in a funk for the city. While he is gone, it comes out that Barry and Cynthia have seen him with another woman, a singer named Marilyn Wald. Carole goes to Marilyn's apartment and Gerry is there. It's the final straw, and she ends their marriage. At the Bitter End, where Barry and Cynthia hear their song "Uptown", Carole explains she went to Los Angeles for a vacation and has started writing on her own. Nick, the guitarist from the studio who asked her to sing with his group, is playing there and urges her to sing. She sings her new song, "It's Too Late". She decides to move to Los Angeles. At 1650, she says goodbye to Donnie, Barry and Cynthia and plays them a parting present "You've Got a Friend".
In Los Angeles, she records her album, Tapestry. The session goes well until the last song, which she is afraid to sing. It's a song she wrote with Gerry and she is afraid of the feelings it may stir up. Her producer, Lou Adler, persuades her. She sings "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". The album is a smash. Carole is at Carnegie Hall for her concert, and is met by Gerry, who apologizes for the way he mistreated her in the past and gives her a final prediction - "you're going all the way". Carole takes to the piano, and performs for her audience.
Musical numbers
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Act 1
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Act 2
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Stephen Sondheim
Theatre
Stephen Sondheim
Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's
Theatre, is operated by Roundabout Theatre Company.
Designed
in the Neo-classical style by architects Paul R. Allen and Ingalls &
Hoffman, it was built by and named for actor-producer Henry Miller. His
financial backers were Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, owner of the lot at 124 West
43rd, and Klaw & Erlanger. The 950-seat theatre opened on April 1, 1918,
hosting the play The Fountain of Youth. It was the first air-conditioned
theater in Manhattan.
The
theatre had its first hit show with Noël Coward's The Vortex in 1926.
Following Miller's death that year, the theatre was managed by his son, Gilbert,
who bought the Klaw & Erlanger interest and paid 25% of the gross take of
each play he produced to the Milbank Memorial Fund, Anderson's legatee..
From the 1930s through the late 1960s, the theater enjoyed its golden years,
with performances by Helen Hayes, Leslie Howard, Lillian Gish, Douglas
Fairbanks, and Ruth Chatterton gracing its stage.
In
1966, the Miller family sold the theatre to the Nederlanders, who sold it on in
1968 to Seymour Durst. It showed feature films as the Park-Miller until it
became a porn theater called Avon-at-the-Hudson. In 1978, it was converted into
the discotheque Xenon. On August 31, 1985, the space opened as SHOUT, a
nightclub featuring music from the 1950s and 60s, which operated for six years.
The space reopened in 1995 as Club Expo, under the management of Matthew
Johnson of Samba Brands Management.
In
1998, the facility briefly returned to performance use as the Kit Kat Club, a
“club within a club” concept developed by Johnson and his partners. Named after
the Berlin nightclub in the 1966 musical Cabaret, the Kit Kat Club
housed Roundabout Theatre Company’s popular revival of the musical. After
hours, the location served as a popular nightclub featuring burlesque
entertainment and dancing. On July 22, 1998, a nearby construction
accident temporarily closed the building and forced Roundabout Theatre Company
to relocate to Studio 54 to finish their production. The Kit Kat
Club continued to operate as a nightclub and a venue for private parties until
it closed on April 11, 2000. The space was rechristened the Henry
Miller when Urinetown opened in 2001.
The
theater closed in 2004, the interior demolished and subsequently rebuilt by the
Durst Organization to make way for the 57-story Bank of America Tower. Its
neo-Georgian facade, landmarked by the city, remains, and includes a 1,055-seat
theater designed by New York firm of Cook+Fox Architects within the new structure. With bank facilities
located above, architects were forced to design and build the new theater
underground. This makes the theater one of only two subterranean houses on
Broadway. In 2007, the Roundabout Theatre Company announced it would operate
the theater as its third Broadway venue. The new theater opened in September
2009 with the Roundabout Theatre Company production of a revival of the musical
Bye Bye Birdie.
On
March 22, 2010, his eightieth birthday, Roundabout announced that Henry
Miller's Theatre would be renamed to honor American composer and lyricist Stephen
Sondheim. The official unveiling and lighting of the marquee of the new Stephen
Sondheim Theatre took place in a ceremony on September 15, 2010.
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