Review: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL National Tour at Durham Performing Arts Center

A Beautiful Noise is a biographical musical about legendary singer/songwriter Neil Diamond. The story chronicles how a poor Jewish kid from Brooklyn became one of the most universally adored showmen of all time. With his first break into songwriting in the 1960s, his meteoric rise in the 1970s, and plenty of crushing disappointments and heart-stopping triumphs along the way.

Following its world premiere at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston, A Beautiful Noise opened on December 4th, 2022 at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. Despite mixed critical reviews, the show started strong at the box office. Yet as ticket sales went “up and down” in the preceding months, the production ended its run on June 30th, 2024 after 657 performances.

We’ve seen countless jukebox/biographical musicals over the years. They’ve all had different approaches. This one in particular does something unique. The book by Anthony McCarten, who’s no stranger to writing about musicians from having penned 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody and 2022’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has an interesting framing device. The story begins with a present day Neil Diamond, retired from touring due to his Parkinson’s diagnosis, in a therapy session. During it, the therapist brings out a book of all of his songs. As he looks through them, memories come back to him from his career. Act I follows how he became a recording artist. Act II follows his life as a global superstar. Not to mention that some of the songs are reimagined as book numbers quite effectively.

Under Michael Mayer’s direction, everyone in the cast brings the house down with such enormous amounts of energy that successfully feeds off the audience. Even the ensemble, credited as ‘The Noise.’ Starring as Neil Diamond - Then is 2015 American Idol winner Nick Fradiani. When it comes to the musical performances, they all come naturally to him thanks to his background as a recording artist. Yet as an actor, he delivers a very charismatic star turn. In his bio, he mentioned that his parents took him to his very first concert when he was 3 years old to see Neil Diamond. So it feels like destiny for Fradiani to now be playing the legendary singer/songwriter. Appearing as Neil Diamond - Now is Robert Westenberg. It almost feels poetic seeing him take on this role. As an actor, he was previously very prolific from the 1980s to the 2000s, with appearances in the original casts of Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and The Secret Garden. This tour marks his first major acting credit in years as he’s spent the past decade and a half teaching musical theatre at different colleges. Westenberg has some of the meatiest material in the show which he absolutely nails. He didn’t sing anything until near the end of the show, and when he did, it gave me chills.

At the performance I attended, Ginger Hurley went on for Hannah Jewel Kohn as Neil’s second wife, Marcia Murphy. She did a wonderful job in the role while also providing killer vocals and dancing. Other highlights of the cast include Tiffany Tatreau as Neil’s first wife, Jaye Posner; Tuck Milligan as producer Fred Weintraub and gangster boss Tommy O’Rourke; Michael Accardo as songwriter/record producer Bert Berns and Neil’s father Kieve Diamond; and Kate A. Mulligan as singer/songwriter/record producer Ellie Greenwich and Neil’s mother, Rose Diamond. I’d also like to highlight Steven Hoggett’s lively choreography, Emilio Sosa’s retro costumes, and Kevin Adams’ excellent lighting.

For my first show of 2025, A Beautiful Noise was ‘so good, so good, so good!’ Baby boomers may get the most out of it, but youngsters should still find themselves toe-tapping countless times throughout the night. This not only serves as a nice throwback to a bygone era, but also as an empowering tribute to a music icon. The national tour is currently playing at the Durham Performing Arts Center through January 12th.

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