Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Posted: February 5, 2015 Filed under: Becca Doodle - Happy, Broadway, Comedy, Drama, Musical | Tags: anaturalwoman, barrymann, beautiful, broadwayreview, caroleking, carolekingbroadway, carolekingmusical, cynthiaweil, gerrygoffin, ifeeltheearthmove, jessiemueller, jukeboxmusical, musicalreview, onbroadway, onefineday, somekindofwonderful, thelocomotion, tonywinner, upontheroof, willyoulovemetomorrow, youvegotafriend Leave a comment
I’ve never been one to seek out a jukebox musical. Story is too important to me, and more often than not, that little detail falls to the wayside in this style of show. Not familiar with what a jukebox musical is? I guarantee you know one. It’s when a musical’s score is populated by songs that are already written. Typically a show will stick to one artist or band (Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, Movin’ Out, American Idiot), or it’ll be an entire genre (Motown, Rock of Ages, The Marvelous Wonderettes). Most of the time a plot is “applied” to the music, while others are turned into a biopic, the story of how a band came to be. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, if you haven’t guessed from the title, is one of the latter. It’s not a story based on Carole King’s music; it is Carole King’s story – how she got started in the music business, her path to fame, her hit songs with her then-husband Gerry Goffin, her heartbreaks, friendships, and everlasting kindness.
The reason this show is the success that it is? In my mind, aside from the music obviously being so damn good, it’s Jessie Mueller. Hands down. She won the Tony last year, and I was psyched to see her on stage again. I missed her Broadway debut in the Harry Connick Jr. flop, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, but I did see her as Cinderella in Into the Woods at Shakespeare in the Park and in the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Despite Clear Day’s lack of success, Mueller made a splash and thankfully hasn’t left us since. That voice! I don’t know anyone else who makes a sound like that. And it seems she can do anything with it, shifting from style to style effortlessly (check out her pipes on Seth Rudetsky’s “Obsessed”). I suggest you catch her before her last performance on March 6th, and check out show clips here and here. And while you’re at it, watch this to see when Carole herself came to see the show, surprising the cast, after very publicly announcing that she would not be coming to see it.
Anyway, back to the show. The book is so-so. There are definitely enough songs to fill a two-and-a-half-hour musical, but there might not be enough story. Actually, that might not be the issue; I was never bored. I was frustrated with the writing itself, the actual dialogue. It’s a little cheesy for my taste, and a few scenes are written so poorly that I was actually in shock that they made it this far without being revised. But who knows, maybe it’s just me. The book is formulaic, but it’s what we’ve come to expect with biographical jukebox musicals. For example, once Carole and Gerry are on a roll writing hit after hit, the convention is set up in which they write a new song, talk about who should sing it, and then…enter The Drifters! Or The Shirelles! This happened time and time again, but I liked that each time a group sang one of the songs, a different ensemble member was featured with the solo. “The Locomotion” in particular was GREAT.
Aside from its weaker points, Beautiful comes with a chic set, Tony Award-winning sound design, fun costume changes, and King’s canon is smartly used. It’s a hoot to hear how music changes from the ’60s into the ’70s. And no matter how cliché the script can feel, it’s still lovely to watch Carole grow and gain confidence as a performer and as a human being.
Ya know, since I don’t attend many jukebox musicals, I’m not used to being in a house with an audience that has a vocal reaction every time a new tune begins. I could tell how hard the woman next to me was trying not to sing out loud. There were ladies a few rows down from us full out dancing in their seats. It was distracting at first, but once I leaned into it and accepted that it’s simply part of the drill with such classic tunes, I found myself bopping right along with ‘em.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Book by Douglas McGrath, Words and Music by Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Man, and Cynthia Weil, Directed by Marc Bruni
Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Open-ended
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
Pictured: Jessie Mueller
It’s Gonna Be a Happy New Year!
Posted: December 31, 2014 Filed under: Miscellaneous, Videos | Tags: happynewyear, intothewoods, jessiemueller, kelliohara, kennedycenterhonors, laurabenanti, newyearseve, tomhanks, youbettaglean 4 Comments
Friends! I promise I’ll be returning in the blink of an eye with more reviews. I’ve got Honeymoon in Vegas and Constellations on deck, and let’s not forget “Into the Woods!”
But since we’re all on holiday, let’s step off the interwebs for a bit this evening and look forward to the New Year approaching. My pal Dina and I create a slogan each year to pump us up. This tradition started on NYE 2007 back when it was easier to rhyme – we had “Great in ’08,” “Divine in ’09,” “Zen in 10,” “Leaven in ’11.” Ya know, some real classics. It’s been trickier lately with these darn teens. Nonetheless, this year we ask that you…drumroll please…glean. That’s right: “You betta glean in 2015.” Gather gradually bit by bit. Gather what, I hear you say? Anything, my friends. Knowledge, love, art, anything.
Oh! Before we abandon the Internet, I’ll leave you with one video in honor of tonight’s celebrations –goddesses Laura Benanti, Kelli O’Hara, and Jessie Mueller singing “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors for Tom Hanks.
Now…glean. Happy New Year!
Photo Credit: Diana Chan
Pictured: Liz Wasser, Becca Schneider, Nathan Greene, and Dina Percia delving into ’12
Tony Tony Tony: A Recap
Posted: June 13, 2014 Filed under: Broadway, Musical, Play, Revival, Tony Awards, Videos | Tags: aladdin, alancumming, audra, audramcdonald, beautiful, bridges, broadway, cabaret, caroleking, gentlemansguide, hedwig, hughjackman, idinamenzel, if/then, jamesmonroeiglehart, jeffersonmays, jessiemueller, kelliohara, lenahall, neilpatrickharris, nph, rocky, stevenpasquale, suttonfoster, tony, tonyawards, winners, wolverine 1 Comment
So I know I’m beyond behind on my reviews, but I figure we should take a moment to discuss Sunday night’s Tony Awards. Did you watch? DVR it for later? I got comfortable in my pajamas and sat back to enjoy an evening of theatre. Here’s a brief look at my take on some of the highs and lows of the evening.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jessie Mueller! Carole King! A wonderful performance and a much-deserved win for Miss Mueller as Best Leading Actress in a Musical. I haven’t even seen the show, and I love her! I do admit that I was also deeply rooting for Kelli O’Hara as it was her fifth nomination and she certainly deserves it after all these years. Perhaps next year for The King and I? Nonetheless, Jessie has been taking the theatre community by storm ever since On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. I’m stoked for her and can’t wait to see Beautiful.
Three words: Idina. Effin. Menzel. Well, let me back up. First there was Jonathan Groff’s brilliant introduction, and then the house was subsequently brought down with her If/Then 11 o’clock number. And yet, people haven’t been talking about it! I did not see my Facebook or Twitter feed freaking out afterward. Weren’t you watching, theatre fans? Honestly, in my eyes, this may have been the performance of the evening.
Also, let’s rejoice for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder – a fantastic performance and an even more hilarious introduction by Jefferson Mays. Let’s hear it for the underdog of the season actually getting its due with its multiple wins.
Cabaret and Alan Cumming? Solid of course.
James Monroe Iglehart’s praise shout.
Lena Hall’s heartfelt speech.
I also want to give a shout-out to Sutton for always being glorious.
And that Hedwig performance?? Yes! I’m so excited to see it in a few weeks!
And perhaps the ultimate highlight of the evening: Audra. Tears. Will Swenson. Tears. Standing ovation. More tears. Making history in two ways. For those of you who don’t know the momentousness of Audra’s win on Sunday for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, she is now the winner of the most Tony awards. She had five, tying with Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris, and now she has a whopping six, on top of the fact that she is now the only person who has won in all four performance categories! Audra McDonald = Queen of Broadway. Can she host next year?
LOWLIGHTS
Clint Eastwood and whatever that presenting was supposed to be.
The opening? I’m sorry, I just wasn’t into it. I do like how so many shows had cameos, and the awkward elevator ride with NPH was delightful, and I understand that they likely didn’t bother with a “traditional” opening number because it could never compete with last year’s. But seriously – Hugh Jackman just bouncing the whole time? Yes, I know it refers to something specific, but we’re really going to take an obscure reference and make it the centerpiece of a four-minute opening number? C’mon Tony writers, you can do better than that. You want more people to tune in? Don’t lose them in the first few minutes!
Sting, I’m bored.
Aladdin’s Friend Like Me was like watching a seizure on stage. And listen, if the funniest part of the song is when the Genie stops to sing from different Disney movies, then I think there’s an inherent problem with the show. People out there who want to spend money on Aladdin? I’m just saying – that’s the best you’re gonna get. They played their best hand on Sunday, so if you didn’t enjoy that number, you might want to reconsider your options.
Zach Braff’s hair.
I thought ROCKY was a musical. Also? Shortest fight ever.
This has been a common rant on Facebook and everywhere else so I won’t digress too long, but I will say I too am tired of the out-of-place Hollywood actors presenting. I love you Tina Fey, but why are you up there and not a Broadway vet? It’s all to improve ratings and get viewers, right? Well, ratings were lower this year. Maybe they should focus more on the theatre community and what we do best and feature more performances from the current season instead of a Music Man rap with LL Cool J and T.I.? Sure, The Bridges of Madison County closed, but couldn’t we get a song with Steven and Kelli? Anyway, more on that and the recent Tony Award Administration Committee ruling in a later post.
All in all, it was a relatively smooth evening without too many hitches, and we got to see some great numbers (go here to watch the rest of the performances). Here’s to another season of theatre!
Becca on Broadway 