Review: Tony Winning Musical BEAUTIFUL Captivates at Pantages

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical/book by Douglas McGrath/words and music by Gerry Goffin & Carole King/Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil/music by arrangement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing/music director: Susan Draus/director: Marc Bruni/Pantages Theatre/through July 17

In the opening scene of the jukebox musical Beautiful, Carole King (Abby Mueller) sets the tone for the entire show. She is seated at the piano in concert at Carnegie Hall and describes to the audience how life takes a turn and what results is unexpected...and beautiful. In this Tony-winning show Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, we are taken through the musical history of the 60s when Carole King published music with her then husband Gerry Goffin (Liam Tobin). We see the Shirelles, the Drifters, the Righteous Brothers, for whom King and Goffin wrote tremendous hits like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "The Locomotion" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". We also see the harsh personal life that King suffered due to Goffin's drinking, infidelity and mental illness. Life was successful yet painful and eventually the pair parted, with the Brooklyn-born King going on to establish herself in LA in a whole new light with "It's Too Late", "You've Got a Friend", "So Far Away" as well as "Beautiful". Now onstage at the Pantages Beautiful is bound to please every fan of the 60s era of rock 'n roll music and bring an uplifting spark of encouragement to live out your dream.

First acts of musicals are usually long, tedious and many times unfulfilling. Not so with Beautiful! With terrific pacing from director Marc Bruni, the show takes off right at the top and does not lag. The scenes are short, often amusing and to the point thanks to the clever writing of Douglas McGrath...and the story not only follows King and Goffin, but also another dynamic pair of composers Cynthia Weil (Becky Gulsvig) and Barry Mann (Ben Fankhauser). The subplot of these two is more comedic in nature with Mann a neurotic and Weil remaining unsure of marriage, even though they are very much in love. They are just as good as King and Goffin professionally, but somehow fall a tad behind in getting number one hits...until "On Broadway", which puts them on top. A beautiful note in the story is that in spite of their competitiveness, Weil and Mann and King and Goffin stayed fast friends throughout their careers. So, with the story-line of Act One following both pairs of composers and all of their major hit songs, the show moves forward with a thrust that hooks you in and doesn't let go. Plus it has a whole lot of heart as did Jersey Boys. You rooted for Frankie Valli and his pals and you root equally here for Carole King to stand up and find that something better that she so deserves.

Act Two is more dramatic and serious with King leaving Goffin and Weil giving in to marrying Mann. Again there is a happy marriage of music and writing. The story moves forward with gusto and ends as it began with King's appearance at Carnegie Hall. There's even a lovely heartwarming scene of forgiveness between King and Goffin, bittersweet and realistic.

Under Bruni's slick direction and with Josh Prince providing lively, shakin' and groovin' choreography that suits the time period to perfection, the ensemble are all forces of nature to be reckoned with. Mueller is just right as the unusually enchanting King. A plain girl, down.to.earth and hardly movie star quality in looks, King possesses an inner beauty that Mueller expresses in leaps and bounds. Like her sister Jessie, who played the role on Broadway and won a Tony, Abby Mueller has a clear, resonating vocal sound and style remarkably like King. Gulsvig as Weil is delightful a la Eve Arden, a sardonic sounding post, and also possessing a wonderful vocal instrument. Fankhauser as Mann is Woody Allenish funny and likable without going to extremes. Tobin is not only physically appealing as Gerry but adds quite a lot of depth to make Goffin's behavior more comprehensible. Suzanne Grodner is fun as Genie Klein, Carole King's yiddisha mama and Curt Bouril as record impresario Don Kirshner adds just the right amount of playfulness and cool to make his character more than just another nasty show biz producer. All of the actors/singers/dancers performing the singing groups and individual stars are dynamite. Derek McLane's functional set puts us inside the world of the music business and Alejo Vietti's costumes are period spot.on.

Don't miss Beautiful! It's a classy bio musical that will keep you excitingly engaged and consistently entertained with a first-rate cast and creative team.

www.hollywoodpantages.com

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