Carole King musical is, indeed, ‘Beautiful’

Broadway fans critical of “jukebox musicals,” those thinly veiled attempts to string together a cluster of pop songs for little reason and with even less story, may change their tune in light of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

The 2013 Tony- and Grammy Award-winning musical, which opened its weeklong run Tuesday night at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts with another weeklong run beginning June 20 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, raises the bar significantly for this particular theatrical conceit.

One could even say that the story about one of music’s most influential modern singer/songwriters lives up to the show’s name, which is drawn from one of King’s more popular songs.

At the very least, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical paints a fascinating portrait of the development of pop music in the 1960s and ‘70s taken from an insider’s view and paired with an ongoing domestic struggle that inevitably forced the former Carole Klein to sacrifice domestic bliss in favor of artistic success (which, to be fair, was not her idea.)

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And it’s all made more poignant given the amazing success of King and her former husband, the late Gerry Goffin, in writing what the latter originally described as “silly pop music junk.”

The musical pair’s impact notwithstanding, book author Douglas McGrath’s carefully selected biographical details and director Marc Bruni’s rapid pacing create a two-and-one-half hour show that really “sings,” so to speak. Based on the response of Overture’s near-capacity crowd, it could have gone on for twice as long and it still might not have been enough.

The scenario starts at the point when Carole Klein/King (a very effective Julia Knitel) sells one of her first songs as a teenage student at Queens College in New York. (She skipped two grades in public school, which accounts for her youth.)

While at college, she meets Goffin (Liam Tobin in the handsome-cad-soon-to- be-diagnosed-as-bipolar-and-destroyed-by-drugs role.) Together they begin writing songs, she the music, he the lyrics.

In no short order, the 17-year-old King gets pregnant, the couple gets married and the budding artists struggle while living with King’s mother Genie (Alaina Mills in this production.)

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Yet they manage to turn out a wealth of pop songs for a variety of artists, many of whom appear on stage to perform the hits that King and Goffin wrote for them. In fact, watching actors portraying Neil Sedaka, the Shirelles, The Drifters and others help give the show its energy and inventiveness, which in turn helps move the narrative along at a brisk pace.

Credit scenic designer Derek McLane with a creative, flexible set, the props and set pieces of which move around almost as quickly as the actors themselves.

The story is given depth by the presence of fellow songwriting couple Barry Mann (Ben Fankhauser) and Cynthia Weil (Erika Olson). Although never known as performers, the real-life artists also wrote a wealth of hits, including “On Broadway,” “You’ve lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, “We Gotta get Out of This Place” and others.

The proximity of the pair play an effective counterpoint to Carole and Gerry’s more troubled relationship. Barry and Cynthia also help fuel the surprisingly plentiful humor that runs throughout the show.

In the end, Carole is a single mother moving to California and learning to sing her own songs. The result, of course, is King’s landmark album Tapestry, and that’s when most of the rest of us first discovered her enormous talent.

ON STAGE

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, runs June 13 – 18 at Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State St., Madison. Tickets run $45 to $135 and can be purchased by calling the Overture box office at 608-258-4141 or by visiting overture.org.

The same company performs the show June 20-25 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St., Milwaukee. Tickets are $36 to $151 and can be purchased through the Marcus Center box office at 414-273-7206 or by visiting marcuscenter.org.