FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH – UNTIL 9th APRIL
REVIEWED BY RACHEL FARRIER
4****
This musical about the life of Carole King was written by Carole King herself (with collaborators) but rather than being a cringey ego trip, it is a sweetly honest account of both her professional and personal life, and how they were entirely intertwined for most of her life, for good and ill. The script has a definite flavour of New York sass and humour about it (King grew up in the city) which felt refreshing although the dialogue sections come very much in second place to the musical numbers and there were some fairly wooden exchanges throughout. However, as soon as a musical number or interlude was under way, the stage lit up with the tremendous musical talent of the performers – the cast ARE the band for the show.
Molly-Grace Cutler as Carole produces an outstanding performance both vocally and on the piano (at the same time!), as well as occasionally playing the guitar and percussion. Her rendition of ‘It’s too late, baby’ was particularly spine-tingling, although she shone in every song that she performed. In fact, every cast member appeared to play several instruments and sing, and effortlessly glided between them throughout. With every song, everyone on stage was playing something if they weren’t dancing and this gave a wonderful energy to the entire show. Other stand out performances came from Seren Sandham-Davies as Cynthia Weil with an incredible voice and excellent comic timing, as well as Kevin Yates whose voice seriously impressive. Jos Slovick as Barry was excellent and deserves a special mention for managing to tune a guitar that had clearly lost its key, whilst in the middle of some fairly involved dialogue.
As Carole King wrote for other groups and singers before becoming a solo artist in her own right, the appearance of The Shirelles, The Drifters and The Righteous Brothers (amongst others) singing songs she had written was a brilliant highlight – cast members fully inhabited the roles of the various band members and there were some fabulous shimmy-ing and sashay-ing dance routines.
For me, the performers were let down by the set, which had a rather high school production vibe about it, and the fact that the wings of the set were open to audiences at either side was slightly distracting – although this is perhaps intentional to create the impression that the audience are ‘backstage’ with Carole and her fellow performers.
Overall, this is a brilliant night out, and even if you aren’t a Carole King fan, you are likely to be swept along by the energy and talent of the performers on stage.