“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” Makes The Earth Move For Broadway Audiences

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” remains the Cinderella story of Broadway. The engaging tale of an insecure Brooklyn girl from meager beginnings, but with limitless talent and potential, remains not only entertaining but inspiring!

Carole King‘s story is the stuff that dreams — and brilliant theater — is made of. The working class girl from a blue-collar, single-parent background, literally finds her voice when she ventures into Manhattan’s legendary Brill Building where historic hits were pumped out like pancakes by a short-order cook.

Shining star, Chilina Kennedy embodies the brilliance of one of the finest songwriters and performers in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

Her performance carries the audience through a fascinating and engaging story-line that carries Carole from her uncertain Brooklyn beginnings, to winning over the legendary publisher, producer and talent scout Don Kirshner (charmingly brought back to life by talented Paul Anthony Stewart) with her infectious and soaring songs!

After hearing Carole’s  brilliantly personal, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” Kirshner instinctively knows that it will work for his globe-topping girl group, The Shirelles, who make it the first-ever number one single for an African American girl group.

It is in these early magical days at Manhattan’s historic Brill Building — the Ford factory of the greatest hits in American pop music — that Carole meets the other musical giants that created the soundtrack of a generation.

Kara Lindsay and Ben Jacoby bring their own chemistry and energy to the magic songwriting duo of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann whose friendship and songs (including “You Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,” “He’s So Shy,” and “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”) inspired Carole  to the lofty peaks she would reach herself.

It is also where she meets her muse and husband Gerry Goffin (a nuanced and talented Evan Todd), with whom, she would pen some of the greatest songs in history, including “A Natural Woman,” “The Locomotion,” and the Monkees’ hit, “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”

All of these songs help illustrate the love, pain, and betrayal that make up Carole’s story and the three people that help define her destiny.

Sadly, it is only the collapse of her relationship with her first love that frees her to be the performer that produced one of the most important and best-selling albums of all time — and create the “Tapestry” of her life and career.

“Beautiful” delivers an unparalleled score which is the soundtrack, not only of Carole’s life — but for us all.

As theater, it offers a gripping, funny and entertaining tale that both satisfies and inspires! In performance, it is nearly as beautiful as the career Carole used to enthrall generations of music lovers.

See “Beautiful” at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 121 West 43^rd Street

For tickets, go to Beautiful The Carole King Musical On Broadway.