Preview: ‘Beautiful’ begins 16-show run at Reynolds Hall in The Smith Center
Back in the late 1960s and early ’70s, the center of the music world was The Brill Building at 1619 Broadway in New York City’s Tin Pan Alley. As seen at Sunday’s closing of JERSEY BOYS at Paris Las Vegas, it was a rabbit warren of songwriters, record producers, tiny studios and scrapping record labels.
My office then where I published Go Magazine was just two blocks away above The Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway. There were hundreds hawking their wares as new groups and wannabe stars. Many sought fame, but only a few were wanted.
I will be overcome with nostalgia tonight 50 years later as BEAUTIFUL — THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL starts a 16-show run at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. As editor of the radio station national charts weekly, I knew all the players from Don Kirshner, the producer who made it big, to songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who wrote hit after hit.
It was my longtime pal Neil Sedaka who introduced Carole to Don, another friend from his days with The Monkees who signed them to his music company where Barry and Cynthia were in the stable of writers at 1650 Broadway. My pal Ron Dante is still a good friend to this day, and we always break bread when he performs in Las Vegas.
Carole sold her first song when she was just 16 years old taking the subway into Manhattan from Queens before she burst into her own stardom with “Tapestry” in 1971. That trio could do no wrong as the cash register rang with “Walking in the Rain,” “Soul and Inspiration” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” which became one of the most played songs in the last century.
Carole wrote several of her own hits with husband Gerry Goffin, including “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and the Little Eva lollipop number “Loco-Motion.” The college classmates from Queens married as teenagers when she discovered that she was pregnant.
Actress and singer Julia Knitel is in the title role after a year on Broadway as understudy. This is the show’s second year of a national tour and first time in Las Vegas. It continues its record-breaking run on Broadway, where it won two 2014 Tony Awards, plus a 2014 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
We’ll hear songs that brought acclaim to The Shirelles and The Drifters. The cast: Curt Bouril plays Don Kirshner, Erika Olson as Cynthia Mann, Liam Tobin as Gerry Goffin and Barry Fankhauser as Barry Mann.
Producer Paul Blake said: “We’ve cast two wildly gifted young performers as BEAUTIFUL’s leading ladies. Julia has proven how brilliant she is every time she’s played the role. Erika is talented, spunky and great fun as Carole’s best friend.”
BEAUTIFUL opened on Broadway in January 2014 with a phone book-length list of recording moguls and singers in attendance. Carole herself didn’t go, saying it would be too painful to relive the heartbreak of her early days.
But don’t think for a moment that BEAUTIFUL is depressing because it’s filled with those uplifting, rhythmic hits of singalong joy. Heartstrings are tugged with happiness and hurt mixed with success and failure.
Carole attended BEAUTIFUL in disguise two months after the grand opening and surprised the cast onstage raising $30,000 from three donors for Equity Fights AIDS singing “You’ve Got a Friend” with the cast.
The show is the inspiring true story of her remarkable rise to stardom as one of the most successful solo acts in pop music history writing the soundtrack of a generation. I’ve no doubt that the earth will move tonight because every song in BEAUTIFUL has been a hit — and they’re still hits when they’re sung today.
