Theatre Review: ‘Beautiful’ brings story of Carole King to life

Does a scintillating evening marveling at the genius of songwriter/singer Carole King, performed by an extremely talented cast, accompanied by a fine orchestra, sound good?

It is.

I urge you to hasten to witness City Springs Theatre Company’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” running through May 18 at the Byers Theatre as they close their seventh season in style.

“Beautiful,” directed by Shane Delancey, has a book by Douglas McGrath, words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. The music director/conductor is Chase Anderson, and the choreographer is Jordan Pretorius.

The show is a “jukebox musical.” This term has gotten a bad rap in some quarters, but it simply means that a majority of the songs are well-known, pre-existing popular music, rather than original music composed for the show.

City Springs recently had a thrilling, mega-hit jukebox musical; perhaps you saw it or heard of it: “Jersey Boys.” And there’s obviously an audience for these types of musicals, because “Beautiful” ran on Broadway for five years.

“Beautiful,” of course, is the story of Carole King, beautifully portrayed and sung by Megan K. Hill. We see her as a Brooklyn High School girl, yearning to pay a visit to 1650 Broadway in Manhattan – the famed Brill Building – so she can sing and play her music to industry big shots.

Her well-meaning mother, Genie (Courtenay Collins), thinks it’s a dreadful idea and worries about what could happen. But 16-year-old Carole is unstoppable.

Carole almost immediately finds allies at 1650, chief among whom is Gerry Goffin (a fine, subtle performance by Nick Walker Jones), who becomes her boyfriend, writing partner, and husband.

Music exec Don Kirshner (Jordan Sam Rich) likes her music and encourages her; so do Cynthia Weil (Lily Kauffman) and Barry Mann (Haden Rider).

Even though Carole collaborated with The Righteous Brothers, The Shirelles, and The Drifters, probably the most fun is seeing her gather the confidence of knowing she can be a performing star of her own music, not just the composer. Perhaps you’ve heard of her incredible, bestselling album “Tapestry.”

Act I may be a bit slow-moving at times, but things soon pick up: Carole’s final performance, her debut at Carnegie Hall, is thrilling.

“Beautiful” is a show full of real talent and pizazz; you’ll be astonished anew at how many hits Carole wrote and have become part of your internal repertoire — whether you knew it or not.

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