I am not, I know, the right person to be writing a review of a musical, a genre and format that I have rarely found entertaining. Too much song and dance, not enough story for my tastes. But I do like Carole King's music so I tried to keep an open mind in approaching Beautiful.
It tells the story of the teenage King, looking to get her songs published, her songwriting partnership with Gerry Goffin which also resulted in their marriage, and the first steps in her subsequent solo career as a singer/songwriter. Also the friendship and rivalry between the Goffin/King partnership, and that of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann who had a a string of hit songs working for the same publisher.
With most of the first act given over to songs that the two couples wrote for other acts and zipping through most of the sixties the actual dialogue is limited and the trauma of the Goffin/King breakup is made to appear like an afterthought in their lives. With such poor material it's really only Amy Ellen Richardson as Weil that is able to make any impact as a character that's not entirely 2-dimensional.
Things improve in the second act where the focus is more on King's burgeoning career as a singer/songwriter. In part because the songs are so much better, and delivered with less of the dance antics that went before, and partly in giving Bronte Barbe a chance to shine as a singer (although Richardson continued to act her off the stage....).
As befits the genre it ends on a high and a strong feelgood factor, so I left with a smile, despite the thin quality of the fare on offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment