Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

On its first UK tour, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is enjoying a near sell-out run at Norwich’s own Theatre Royal this week.

Before seeing Beautiful, you might not realise just how many songs Carole was behind. Take a peak at the musical numbers though, and you’ll realise that King and her first husband Gerry Goffin were behind many of the biggest hits of the 60s.

Framed by her 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert, the musical sees a sixteen year old Carole (Bronte Barbe) sell her first song (It Might As Well Rain Until September) to Don Kirshner. She soon meets Gerry who will become her partner (both in songwriting, and in life – for the earlier years at least). Carole mentions that while the music comes to her easily, she struggles more with the lyrics.

The narrative is largely driven by King/Goffins constant competition and friendship with song writing duo Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. Punctuated with the occasional witty one liner, and performances from The Drifters, The Righteous Brothers, and the Shirelles, the songs are what makes Beautiful stand out among a sea of bio-musicals; Carole’s songwriting was prolific, with more than 1000 artists interpreting her songs, and 100 resulting in hit singles.

There are small references to how the songwriting foursome fit into the larger musical scene in the US throughout the musical: Carole and Neil Sedaka dated in high school, and her name was used for his hit Oh, Carol; Little Eva had been Carole and Gerry’s babysitter, and their track The Loco-Motion’launched her singing career with a US number 1. I would have liked to learn more about Carole, and how she went from songwriter to singer/song writer, but the musical packs in a large period of Carole’s life, and many of her biggest successes so I guess we can’t have everything.

Bronte shines as Carole, who comes across as a woman older than her years. This is something husband Gerry (Kane Oliver Parry) struggles with, and ultimately feels like he needs to escape from. With darker parts, the musical ends on a huge high, and you can’t help but sing along - if you’re one for getting a tune in your head, I suspect you’ll be singing I Feel The Earth Move for a few weeks after seeing Beautiful.

With an impressive dynamic set, and a very talented ensemble, make sure you get yourself down to see Beautiful (if you miss the Norwich run, it’s showing at the Ipswich Regent April 2018!)