Theatre Review: Beautiful: The Carol King Musical (Melbourne Production)

After the 'okay but not great' Bobby Darin musical Dream Lover in January, it was nice to get along to this show and thoroughly enjoy myself. This was everything Dream Lover should have been. Both artists have a huge selection of well known songs to use, each one lends themselves well to a theatrical show, and I would argue that Bobby Darin has a more interesting life story to tell. Yet, Dream Lover failed to capture the imagination in the way it should have (especially for me as a Darin fan), and Beautiful exceeds it on every level: Performances, Staging, Story Telling, Musical Arrangements.

The JukeBox musical is all the rage, and artists such as King are perfect for exploration in this format. King is the Queen of 'oh, did she write this one?' classics, although the show has cleverly snuck in quite a few songs that actually weren't hers, through the use of other characters.

Esther Hanford is exceptional as King, effortlessly portraying the singer in both musical performance and as a character. She is well supported by Josh Piterman as her husband, collaborator and source of pain and heartache. Both performers give highly energetic renditions of many classic songs and command the attention of the audience in every scene. Although, don't think that Lucy Maunder won't try to draw attention away, as she is fantastic as the sassy friend and rival in the song writing business.

The stage is well designed, allowing large scale instrument set ups to flow in and out and keep the plot moving along. Visually, its very interesting to look at (something Dream Lover struggled with, especially after they decided to put the band on the stage for the whole show).

As with all JukeBox musicals, there's a few too many songs, and because its not a true musical, the songs don't really advance the plot much, and so the story does crawl along slowly. But the songs are done so well, and with varied performances from a range of other singers (presenting artists who performed King's songs before she herself became a star). This helps a lot, as you don't tire of the same singer singing every song.

It's also a very funny show, with a lot of well timed jokes that hit at just the right moment.

Sadly, the show is almost done. If you have the chance to see it, I highly recommend it.