More than two dozen of America’s best-loved popular songs – and the remarkable woman who wrote them – take the main stage at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Beautiful thrilled Broadway audiences for nearly six years, winning Tony and Grammy awards.
Beautiful is the warmly inspiring story of Carole King’s rise from hopeful teenage songwriter to superstar performer and recording artist. “This isn’t a one-woman show, or a ‘jukebox musical,’” says Chanhassen Dinner Theatres artistic director Michael Brindisi, who with his daughter Cat Brindisi-Darrow directs the musical.
Beautiful opens with King’s 1971 Carnegie Hall concert, then flashes back to trace her journey from her Brooklyn roots to Manhattan, center of the songwriting world in the late 1950s. There she meets her future husband and collaborator Gerry Goffin, and legendary producer Don Kirshner. “It was fortunate she ran into Kirshner, who became a lifelong friend,” says Michael. “He wasn’t your typical producer. He cared about the kids whose careers he nurtured, and wanted them to get ahead.” And get ahead she did, writing or co-writing 118 songs that hit the Billboard Hot 100.
With brilliant lyricist Goffin, King wrote the music for the pop soundtrack of the early ‘60s, with songs including “Up on the Roof,” “The Loco-Motion,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” and “One Fine Day.” These and many more are featured in Beautiful, in stunningly accurate renditions recalling original recording artists such as The Drifters, Little Eva, and The Shirelles.
Beautiful isn’t just a story of songwriting success. “Carole King broke new ground for women in the business,” says Michael. “In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, songwriting was a man’s world, but King changed that.” It’s helpful, he adds, that his daughter and co-director Cat brings “a strong female perspective to the project.”
By the time of that 1971 concert in New York, Carole King was enjoying the second act of her phenomenal career. According to Michael, “After her marriage to Goffin fell apart, she realized she would have to go it alone – ‘I should be the one to sing my songs,’ she finally decided. She’d never wanted to take that step – throughout her life, self-esteem was an issue – but when she did break out on a solo career, her old Brooklyn friends told her they knew she had it in her all along.”
What she had in her was 25 solo albums, including the 1971 classic Tapestry, which sold over 30 million copies worldwide. An audience that might have been too young to dance to the early King-Goffin hits was won over by “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” and King’s rendition of her composition “Natural Woman,” originally recorded by Aretha Franklin. Tapestry favorites, too, are a big part of Beautiful.
Beautiful stars Monet Sabel, a veteran of the show’s Broadway tour. “We searched for someone familiar with the story, and its New York City background,” says Michael. “And Monet is a fantastic actress.” He adds that he and Cat also “did a lot of research to flesh out the supporting characters – the real people who made the songs famous.”
“With a cast of 29 singers and dancers, a terrific book, and all the great tunes, Beautiful tells the whole story of Carole King’s career,” says Michael. “It’s a play for all generations. For young people, it shows that anything is possible.”
Reviewers agree with what Michael calls “spectacular” word of mouth. Beautiful is “not a revue or an echo, but a living thing,” says the Star Tribune. “It’s a beauty to experience.”
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is the feature production at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ main stage through September. For show times and ticket information, please visit chanhassendt.com.