Beautiful, Indeed

                                                            Jessie Mueller as Carole King (Source: Broadway.com)

This weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the equally, if not ironically, “beautiful,” Stephen Sondheim Theater. The show itself was pretty spectacular, much of which had to do the actual source story that the book draws from. The story centers on King’s life from age sixteen, her tumultuous marriage to her lyricist Gerry Goffin, friendship with another hit-writing team, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, through the release of Tapestry in her late twenties. I have been a fan of Carole King for quite some time, since my dad always played her music around the house when I was growing up, but I had no idea about the fascinating life that she has led and all hit songs that she has written outside of Tapestry. Given her enthralling life, her story lends itself perfectly to being told on the Broadway stage.

Technically speaking, the set was spectacular, especially the massive Brill Building where King wrote so many of her early hit songs. Also fascinating to watch was the use of a moving piano, which tracked automatically around the stage, almost becoming another character in and of itself. And I need not even mention that the music is top notch, since it includes many hits from King’s best-selling album, Tapestry. The show also included many songs that King and Goffin as well as their friendly rivals, Weil and Mann, wrote for other artists such as “One Fine Day” and “On Broadway.”

One of the few flaws in the show (though it is a pretty key one) is the book. Though book writer, Douglas McGrath does a fine job at picking out each of the major events of King’s early adulthood, some of the story telling could have used a bit more creativity. For instance, the first act stalls a bit when the story falls into a trap of showing the two songwriting teams (King/Goffin and Mann/Weil) writing a song, followed by a performance from the group that ended up recording the song. Additionally, two of the story’s characters, Gerry Goffin and music producer Donnie Kirshner could have used a bit more fleshing out. Kirshner’s lines often felt too forced with supportive kindness for someone who was trying to get the absolute best out of his songwriters. For Goffin, I wish we were able to see more of the struggle that his character was going through. In Carole King’s memoir, she details Goffin’s drug use that caused severe depression and bipolar symptoms that led to the demise of their marriage. Perhaps to protect Goffin’s image with audiences, these shortcomings were only hinted at by having the character stutter some of his lines and constantly declare that he “needs some air.”

While the cast is top notch, the real spectacle of the show comes directly from King’s embodiment, Jessie Mueller. From the second the light shines upon Muller at the piano in the opening number, she has the audience in her hand. From her sound to her inflections, and even the way she plays piano, Mueller sounds and looks like a dead ringer for King, even adding a wonderfully soft tone of her own. Seeing the show it is clear to understand why she won a Tony Award for the role.