Beautiful at the Bristol Hippodrome (until 07 April)
When it comes to musical royalty you can’t get much more exalted than American singer / songwriter, Carole King. Born in 1942, King always knew that music was the career that she wanted, and boy what a career did she have and in fact still has.
Whilst many of you will know King for her best selling album, Tapestry, released in 1971 and reputed to have sold over 25 million copies to date, how many of you actually know that King was a prolific songwriter writing many hits for other artists. Working for American music publisher, Donny Kirshner, she, along with first husband Gerry Goffin, penned hits for the likes of The Shirelles (Will You Love Me Tomorrow?), Bobby Vee (Take Good Care of My Baby) as well as surprisingly for her nanny, Eva Boyd, who you will perhaps better know as Little Eva who took the song The Locomotion to number one in the US charts.
It’s a songbook and back catalogue that we all know with songs that probably formed the backdrop to many of our early musical experiences and it’s all now brought together in Beautiful, the musical about King’s life.
If you like your music, then you can’t fail to be entertained for the 2 ½ hours or so this show plays for (including interval). The songs just keep coming and coming and the tunes just fly by performed by a cast who clearly enjoy performing them. But it’s the backstory that really makes the artist and the show as you realise the life King has behind the glare of the pop charts is not all glitter and gold. As the success increases, her marriage to Goffin slowly falls apart causing heartache and pain. However, throughout it all King soldiers on. In fact she does more than soldier on, she takes everything that is thrown at her in her stride and grows both as a woman and also as a performer.
The story is well told and the cast deliver it with aplomb. At the end of the evening you can’t help but come away singing the lines to one or more of the songs you’ve listened to. A great night out to the soundtrack of many a person of a certain ages youth. And did you know that Neil Sedaka dated a young Carol Klein and wrote hit the hit ‘Oh! Carol’ about her?
Beautiful plays at the Bristol Hippodrome until 07 April and the tours the UK. For a full list of dates and venues visit www.beautifulmusical.co.uk/tour/
