Hull New Theatre – until 25 January 2020
Reviewed by Catherine McWilliams
4****
A solitary grand piano stands on the stage at the start of Beautiful, the orchestra plays and then Carole King (Daisy Wood-Davis) is on stage singing “So Far Away”. This is Carnegie Hall in 1971 and Carole King’s first ever concert. She starts to reminisce and we go back to the beginning in Brooklyn, to see how it all started.
And what a story it is, we first meet a 16 year old Carole persuading her mother to let her go up to Broadway to try and sell her song. She is taken on by Donnie Krishner (Oliver Boot) at 1650 Broadway and the music comes thick and fast from her first setting foot in the building. There is an incredible “1650 Broadway Medley” sung by the ensemble as she enters the building, full of snippets of hits and giving an idea of the life and excitement of the building.
Add into the mix her relationship with her husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin (Adam Gillian) and the friendship and rivalry with the songwriters Cynthia Weil (Laura Baldwin) and Barry Mann (Cameron Sharp) and you have a fabulous story, beautifully told.
The music is wonderful, whether performed by the songwriters as they pitch to Donnie or the ensemble as they become The Drifters and The Sherelles “performing” on tv. The hits and number 1’s just keep coming, 26 songs in all, and I guarantee you will know them all. The orchestra (musical director Andrew Corcoran) provided wonderful backing music throughout the show.
Daisy Wood-Davis is undoubtedly the star of this show, she is a triumph and thoroughly deserving of the standing ovation that the audience saved for her coming on stage to take her bow. Whether as the 16 year old Carole pitching to Donnie and interrupting the lyrics to explain what the backing music should be or as the older Carole she was totally convincing. Her initial rendition of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” as she first read the lyrics gave me goose bumps, and “You’ve Got A Friend” sung to (and with) Cynthia, Barry and Donnie was a real tear jerker. The relationship with Adam Gillian as Gerry was convincing, with the many women in the audience willing her to ditch him!
Laura Baldwin as Cynthia Weil and Cameron Sharp as Barry Mann made a great partnership, both have wonderful voices and bounced off one another with ease. A highlight of the show for me was Cameron Sharp’s performance of “We Gotta Get Out of This place”, it was just fantastic.
The costumes were spot on, so true to the years as the story moved on. I have to say that Little Eva’s dress was a real treat. The sets appeared simple but were very clever in suggesting where the action was set. I am not sure whether there was a sound problem last night, especially in the first half as I struggled to catch some of the beginning of songs and the speech.
The incident has to be mentioned… Carole had just finished pitching a song to Donnie when a member of the theatre’s staff quietly and calmly appeared on stage and gently ushered the cast off. The audience waited and then a disembodied voice was clearly heard from the wings “just push the button” and the safety curtain came down. An announcement was made that there was a technical issue, which to the delight of the audience was very quickly solved. The curtain came up and the cast, with consummate professionalism, were frozen in position waiting to restart. And the show then zipped back into action.
At the end of the show my friend said “I’m going to go home and play her music” and I suspect that there are an awful lot of last night’s audience playing Carole King today. This is a wonderful night out at the theatre, full of fabulous music that will make you go out singing and definitely one to make you feel good.