Sunday, November 3

Tag: Jos Slovick

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Scotland

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

‘But the music keeps playing And won’t let the world get me down.’ These lyrics from the title track of Carole King’s third album ‘Music’, released a mere 11 months after the legendary ‘Tapestry’ in 1971, could easily explain her life and career, neither of which were short of ups and downs. The question was, how on earth could anyone do it justice in just over two hours? The moment the lights went down from her seat at the centrally placed piano, Molly-Grace Cutler (Carole) banished any concerns. The opening lines of ‘So Far Away’ were a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck/lump-in-the-throat moment. Her voice (whether she’d worked on it or not) was uncannily ‘Carole’, the theatre pin-drop silent. There followed an entertaining, slightly rushed account of her early years; learning the p...
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Leicester Curve
East Midlands

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Leicester Curve

Carole King is such an exceptional songwriter (both with her husband Gerry Goffin and singlehandedly in her own right), that a biographical musical detailing her life and extensive back catalogue was inevitable.  Sure enough, ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ first hit US stages in 2013, transferring to Broadway in 2014 and the West End in 2015, and has also enjoyed a UK tour in 2017.  Leicester’s Curve have teamed up with the Theatre Royal Bath and the Mayflower Theatre Southampton to create a new adaptation, which has kicked off a new UK tour this week. Spanning 1958 to 1971, ‘Beautiful’ tells King’s story from being a 16-year-old aspiring songwriter, to finding success with Goffin (in more ways than one), rivalry with fellow songwriters and friends Barry Mann and Cynthia...