‘Beautiful’: King created soundtrack for our lives

BEVERLY – The singer/songwriter Carole King has penned more than 400 songs that have been recorded by more than 1,000 artists, but it took her many years to figure out who was the best artist to sing her tunes.

The answer, of course, was herself. How she got there is the story in the North Shore Music Theatre’s splendid production of “Beautiful: the Carole King Musical,” now through Sunday, June 18.

For so many of us born in the years after World War II, King, her late former husband Gerry Goffin, and their close friends Barry Mann and the late Cynthia Weil provided the soundtrack and background music as we grew up in the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.

They did it by writing the hit songs for the great performers of the day, such as The Drifters or The Shirelles, before King made a bet on herself as a performer in 1971 and recorded her life-changing “Tapestry,” still going strong with more than 25 million albums sold.

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” covers the period of her life from the age of 16, when she began writing professionally, to her triumphant Carnegie Hall concert on June 18, 1971, her first concert performance in front of an audience.

And while her story and the musical’s book by Douglas McGrath aren’t quite as compelling as that of another jukebox musical, “Jersey Boys,” with its prison time and mobsters, there is enough angst and drama to keep you involved and entertained in the moments between the 27 musical numbers.

“Beautiful” was nominated for seven 2014 Tony Awards and won two – for Jessie Mueller in the lead role and another for sound design.

The former Carole Klein (Elena Ricardo) came out of Brooklyn not as a stunning beauty, saying about her looks — “I have the right amount of body. It’s not organized properly” – but as a stunning talent, smart enough to skip two grades and attend Queens College at the age of 16.

Very few women have had a hit song written about them (Neil Sedaka’s “Oh Carol”) by a high school boyfriend and then gone on to co-write a No. 1 hit (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”), all by the age of 17.

But King also became a mother for the first time at 17 with husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin (Jake Bentley Young), juggling her career and motherhood along the way, gradually winning over her skeptical mother Genie (Jean McCormack), still mourning her divorce after many years

Ricardo succeeds in both replicating the distinctive timbre of King’s voice and also as an actress in showing her vulnerabilities and strengths.

At a very young age, King and Goffin joined the stable of writers and musicians in the Manhattan music emporium of impresario Don Kirshner (Reed Campbell), grinding out hit after hit for the biggest names in pop and rock music.

Goffin wrote the lyrics and King the music as the partners became friends with their “next door neighbors,” Barry Mann (Jack Cahill-Lemme) and Cynthia Weil (Jessica Rush), who became music icons in their own right, and friendly competitors.

One of the best parts of “Beautiful” is the superb staging of the musical numbers, especially “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” written by Goffin and King for The Shirelles (Elizabeth Abadale, Courtney Blackmun, Ashley McManus, Tiffany Francis) and “On Broadway” (Mann-Weil) and “Up on the Roof” (Goffin-King) performed by The Drifters (Kobe Brown, Christoper McCrewell, Michael Anthony Nero, Chris Richie). The numbers are accompanied by some superb choreography by Marcos Santana, who also directs the production, which flows beautifully.

With the huge songbooks available to producers, the 27 musical numbers include beloved songs written by Goffin/King and Mann/Weil such as “I Feel The Earth Move,” “One Fine Day,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend” and the title song.

The entire score is performed flawlessly by the orchestra led by music director Camille Villapando Rolla.

The real Cynthia Weil died at the age of 82 on June 4, but of course she will live on wherever the musical “Beautiful” is performed, and in the music she and Mann created.

King’s personal life after her divorce from Goffin and the triumphs of “Tapestry” and Carnegie Hall continued to have some bumps and bruises, including four marriages in all, and the death of ex-husband Goffin in 2014.

But her legacy as both a songwriter and singer is secure and both she and lyricist Goffin were inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In “Beautiful,” King’s story continues to inspire and entertain and NSMT has opened its 2023 season with a surefire winner.

The North Shore Music Theatre production of “Beautiful: The Carole King Story.” Book by Douglas McGrath. Words and Music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and Barry Mann and Cynthis Weil. Direction and choreography by Marcos Santana. Scenic and lighting design by Jack Mehler. Costume design by Travis M. Grant. Sound design by Alex Berg and Don Hanna. Wig and hair design by Rachel Padula Shufelt. At the North Shore Music Theatre through June 18. Nsmt.org

Chris Richie, Christopher McCrewell, Michael Anthony Nero, and Kobe Brown (The Drifters) in “Beautiful – The Carole King Musical” at North Shore Music Theatre thru June 18, 2023. Photo © David Costa Photography