THE HANGOVER REPORT – Paper Mill Playhouse serves up a crowd-pleasing revival of the popular BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL

Marrick Smith and Kyra Kennedy in Paper Mill Playhouse’s production of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” (photo by Jeremy Daniel).

I also recently had the opportunity to take a field trip out to Millburn, NJ to catch Paper Mill Playhouse’s revival of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The popular jukebox musical originally opened on the Great White Way more than a decade ago at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, making a bona fide Broadway star out of Jessie Mueller as Carole King — a performance which won the talented singing actress a well-deserved Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical. If you hadn’t already surmised, the musical tells the life story of the great Carole King, tracking her personal life and career from a self-doubting teenager to an empowered singer-songwriter of the highest order.

The Paper Mill revival has been directed by Casey Hushion, who sticks closely to the mold — both in look and in overall tone — created by original director Marc Bruni. The first two-thirds of the show are chock full of recognizable pop/rock songs from the 1960s (not necessarily written by King), effectively depicting the factory-like process utilized by recording studios to pump out radio-friendly hits during that particular era of the pop music industry. Although I wish more time were devoted to King’s “coming out” story during the 1970s — both in terms of the development of her distinctive signature sound, as well as her evolution into an independent woman — the musical is on the whole a crowd-pleasing affair that the folks at Paper Mill have done proud.

To be commended most of all is the cast, led by Kyra Kennedy as King. Her portrayal is convincing and appealing every step of the character’s journey, and she sings with an ease and throaty command that brings her own flair to the beloved Carole King songbook. Also doing fine work as her inconsistent husband Gerry is the handsome Marrick Smith, whose usually sympathetic performance adds complexity to the character and to his relationship with King. Rounding out the solid cast are the amiable duo of Jacob Ben-Shmuel and Samantha Massell as a competitive song-writing team (Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann), as well as Bryan Fenkart as an amusingly snarky music publisher.

RECOMMENDED

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL
Regional, Musical
Paper Mill Playhouse
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through July 3

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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