1 April 2018

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Let's start with a disclaimer.  I am not a fan of musical theatre. There you have it. I can't stand the way the actors sing on stage. 

Okay, most musicals not written by Andrew Lloyd Webber might be from Broadway, but in London surely the pseudo (and shitty) Brooklyn accents could be given the push.  Just sing the effing songs.

I have been to a few before and have actually enjoyed them. Bombay Dreams was very good.  Can't remember any others mind you.

So when Claire suggested we go to see "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" at the Marlowe Theatre I was not fully enthusiastic. In the end it was marvellous. Superb in fact.

I knew most of the songs that Goffin and King wrote together but it was a complete surprise that their songs were performed by the Drifters. I knew about the Chiffons and Shirelles and even the Monkees.

There was a lot of humour and the play covers the years from when Carole first went to see Don Kirshner at 16 up until she released "Tapestry" in 1971. 

When I was a yoof it was seen as uncool to buy that album and "only girls" would buy it.  So it was a few years before I bought a copy on vinyl.  Have no idea where it is some forty plus years later.

One of the humorous parts is when Don says that he has a contract for songs for the Monkees. They ask who?  He says they are like the Beatles but they aren't a band. In fact they are a TV sitcom.  Everyone laughs.

In the end it was thoroughly entertaining evening.  

1 comment:

Trobairitz said...

I am glad you enjoyed it. They had been advertising it on our local stations that it was playing in a neighboring town a while ago, but I never heard any reviews on it. I too am not a huge fan of theater. Not sure why.