“A fun, energetic and emotional performance that will leave you inspired and in awe of a woman who achieved so much”.
Born in the 40s, Carole grew up playing Mozart and Bach on the piano but with a love for rock and roll, rhythm and blues and current pop music, Carole used the piano to sit and create her own songs with both music and lyrics including her first Number 1 hit “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”at the young age of 17.
This musical is dedicated to the astounding life of Carole across the 60s and 70s in and around 1650 Broadway, Brooklyn New York and Los Angeles. We see her fall in love with Gerry Goffin and marry him, have not one but two children with him and we see the strains of the marriage and the show touches on Gerrys continuing struggles with his mental health and eventually 9 years later, they divorce.
Along the way we see her develop friendships with a fun sense of competitiveness with fellow composers and lyricists Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann and we get to see a number of bands perform her chart hits including The Shirelles, The Drifters and The Righteous Brothers.
Everything about this production was great. The quality of talent on the stage was breathtaking and there were a few times my arms were covered in Goosebumps listening to Molly-Grace Cutler sing and play the songs of Carole. Especially “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”, “It’s Too Late” and “You’ve Got A Friend” in Act 2. Just wow! Molly-Grace is sure to have an outstanding career with a voice and musical talent as phenomenal as hers.
Seren Sandham-Davies (Cynthia) oozed talent and it was a pleasure to watch her scenes with Joe Slovick (Barry). Their energy and talent really had you believing in their relationship.
All of the cast played a crucial role in making this performance work as well as it did. The cast has been chosen incredibly well, with many of the cast able to switch and change between two or three roles in some cases including quite notably Kevin Yates who played both one of The Drifters and Lou Adler, along with some percussion performances during Molly-Grace Cutlers scenes. Kevin had great stage presence and really owned the stage when he was performing.
Award winning, Frankie Bradshaw has created a fantastic set for the production, the perfect compliment to Director Nikolai Foster who has worked wonders with this production. I last saw Nikolai Fosters work when she directed Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest with Birmingham Rep and I was impressed then too, but this performance, this might just be her best yet.
I could talk for hours about this show. It was fun, energetic, emotional and an amazing all-rounder. I want to watch it again.
You can catch Beautiful, The Carole King Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 3rd September 2022. But you will have to be quick as it is sure to be a sell out, if it isn’t already. Book your tickets here: https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/beautiful-the-carole-king-mu/
Disclaimer: I was invited along to the press showing. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.