BEAUTIFUL- A Helpmann Award Winning Musical Opens In Brisbane This Week

Joyous Broadway hit Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will make its official Brisbane premiere at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC tomorrow night, after taking home top honours in five categories at this year's Helpmann

Awards - including Best Musical and Best Female Actor in a Musical for leading lady Esther Hannaford.

This is the last chance to see Beautiful anywhere in Australia. The musical must leave Brisbane on Sunday 2 September. Final tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday 20 July from QPAC or beautifulmusical.com.au.

The uplifting true story of the most successful female songwriter of the 20th century features a cast of 24 performers, including six Queenslanders. Along with two gongs at Act II of the Helpmann Awards on Monday night, the musical also took home Best Direction of a Musical, Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical, and Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Cairns-born Mat Verevis at Act I of the theatre industry's annual honours on Sunday.

Beautiful celebrates Carole King's remarkable rise to stardom, including her troubled relationship with husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin and their close friendship and playful rivalry with fellow song-writing duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

The feel-good song list is jam-packed with timeless hits from the 60's and 70's, including You've Got a Friend, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, It's Too Late, Locomotion, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, I Feel the Earth Move, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, On Broadway and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. It was written by the Oscar, Emmy, BAFTA and Tony Award-nominated Douglas McGrath, directed by Marc Bruni and choreographed by Josh Prince.

Critics have been unanimous in praise for leading lady Esther Hannaford's "sublime performance" (Daily Telegraph) since the Australian premiere at Sydney Lyric Theatre in September 2017. She is one of the country's most awarded performers, now with two Helpmanns, a Sydney Theatre Award and three Green Room Awards to her name. Completing the principal cast is Josh Piterman as 'Gerry Goffin', Lucy Maunder as 'Cynthia Weil' and Helpmann Award-winning Queenslander Mat Verevis as 'Barry Mann' in his profesional music theatre debut.

Stage veterans Mike McLeish as 'Don Kirshner' and Anne Wood as King's mother 'Genie Klein' complete the principal cast. The ensemble includes Queenslanders Marcus Corowa (Maryborough and Bowen), Lorinda Merrypor, (Rockhampton and Mt Gravatt), Naomi Price (Stafford), Sean Sinclair (Ipswich) and Angelina Thomson (Gold Coast) along with Jason Arrow, Stefanie Caccamo, Doron Chester, Barry Conrad, Andrew Cook, Julia Dray, Akina Edmonds, Michael Hart, Nana Matapule, Joseph Naim, Ruva Ngwenya, Rebecca Selley, and Chloé Zuel.

The company is one of the most multicultural ever seen on the Australian stage, with performers from a mix of ethnic backgrounds including Aboriginal, Croatian, Ecuadorian, Egyptian, Indonesian, Maori, Mauritian, South African, South Sea Islander, Tongan, Ukrainian and Zimbabwean.

Beautiful made its world premiere on Broadway in January 2014 and opened in London in February 2015, amassing two Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Along with a continuing Broadway season it is now on tour across the UK and US. In Australia the musical premiered at Sydney Lyric Theatre in September 2017 before a Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Long before she was Carole King, the chart-topping music legend, she was an ordinary girl with extraordinary talent. She sold her first hit, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, at just 17. By the time she was 20 she was writing number ones for the biggest acts in rock 'n' roll, including The Drifters, The Shirelles and Aretha Franklin. But it wasn't until her personal life began to crack that she finally found her own voice and stepped into the spotlight.

Carole King was initially hesitant to see it after watching part of an early reading; giving the musical her blessing but telling the creative team it was too emotional to watch her own life replayed onstage. She finally saw it three months after the Broadway opening - sneaking into the theatre wearing a disguise and surprising the cast and audience onstage after the performance.

For more information about Beautiful: The Carole King Musical or to book tickets visit beautifulmusical.com.au.

To post a comment, you must register and login.