Beautiful The Carole King Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome 0 Review

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Tue 30 Aug 2022 - Sat 03 Sep 2022

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome 0 Review

Premiered in California nine years ago, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical continues to pull in the crowds and it is easy to see why. A show bursting with personality, great characters, a heart-tugging storyline and some amazing songs played live by the multi-talented cast, what more could an audience ask for?

At Birmingham Hippodrome until September 3, the show covers the early part of Carole's career, from a starry-eyed teenager writing songs at the piano of her Brooklyn home and aiming for the big time – to reaching that big time but encountering heartache on the way.



And with tracks ranging from 'The Locomotion' to 'You've Got a Friend', it's also a reminder of a sixties heyday of songwriting which created tunes still immensely popular today.

Molly-Grace Cutler gives us a kooky and thoroughly likeable Carole who believes she can write great songs while at the same time being an awkward teenager full of self-doubt. Walking into the New York office of music impresario Donnie Kirshner (played by Garry Robson) and telling him she has songs for him when she's still a schoolgirl, this Carole is so personable, the audience is not only rooting for her but feels like she is their best friend.

What is more, Molly-Grace proves to be a fantastic singer and piano player while giving us a very believable Carole King.

When she meets fellow college student and hopeful lyricist Gerry Goffin, it seems like a match made in Heaven. Not only are the duo a songwriting dynamo team, they also fall in love but while Carole is content to become a homemaker to their two children, Gerry feels tied and his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic.

Tom Milner's Gerry is a complex character with plenty of his own baggage. Torn between his love for Carole and a desire for freedom, he embarks on a series of affairs that destroy both his personal and professional partnership with Carole.

In parallel, we meet their rival songwriting team, who are also their best friends. Barry Mann is a nervous hypochondriac played by Jos Slovick while Cynthia Weil, played by Seren Sandham-Davies, is a hip and fun-loving woman determined to build a career in a man's world.

And boy, did they write some songs! The hits just keep coming - 'It Might As Well Rain Until September', 'Some Kind of Wonderful', 'Take Good Care of My Baby', 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow?', 'Up On The Roof', 'One Fine Day', 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' and 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' - all of which are performed with plenty of skill and flair across a hugely talented cast.



Through these songs, we are also introduced to bands and singers from the time including the Drifters, the Shirelles, and the Righteous Brothers. All the cast are marvellous musicians, bringing the songs alive with an apparent ease that belies how much hard work must have gone into rehearsing this show.

What shines through is Carole's indomitable spirit. When her relationship fails, she strikes out on her own, moving from New York to California to create a new life and to write and perform her own songs including the best-selling album Tapestry.

A Leicester Curve production, directed by Nikolai Foster, Beautiful has plenty of lively orchestration created by Steve Sidwell. Frankie Bradshaw's sets are seemingly simple and yet ingenious giving us multiple locations while ensuring lots of space for musicians and musical instruments to appear as if out of nowhere.

Beautiful shows us fallible people and it is this which makes you love them. In a world of super-stardom, we see that at its heart were a handful of people trying to make a living, work out their lives and write memorable songs and music. The show doesn't shy away from the conflicts and the problems but it is overwhelmingly joyous, reminding us that where there's a will, there's a way.

Onstage at Birmingham Hippodrome until September 3 and returning to the region at Belgrade Theatre Coventry on November 1-5, for more information and tickets see www.birminghamhippodrome.com and www.belgrade.co.uk For more on the show see https://beautifulmusical.co.uk/tour

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!date 30/08/2022 -- 03/09/2022
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