The West End production of the two-time Tony award-winning Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, will open at the Aldwych Theatre in February next year. Based on the early life and career of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King, Beautiful has a book by Douglas McGrathwith words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and is directed by Marc Bruni. Choreography is by Josh Prince with set designs by Derek McLane, costume designs by Alejo Viettii, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Brian Ronan. Orchestrations and Music Arrangements are by Steve Sidwell. Beautiful - The Carole King Musical will be produced in London by Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Public booking for Beautiful - The Carole King Musical opens today, 5 September 2014, with London previews beginning on 10 February 2015 and with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015. Press night is on 25 February at 7pm.
Carole King said: “A few years ago I went to an early reading of a new musical about my life. Though some scenes about my younger years were very emotional for me, I could tell it was going to be a good show. I didn’t go to the opening on Broadway, but when I finally worked up the courage to see it, I loved everything about Beautiful! This show is an honest portrayal of my early life with Gerry Goffin and our friendship with our competitors Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It captures the essence of my emergence as a singer and my growth as a woman. I love that the next chapter of the Beautiful story is taking place in London’s West End. I have so many good friends in London and warm memories of good times there. I can’t wait to re-visit!”
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical is the untold story of her journey from school girl to superstar; from her relationship with husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, their close friendship and playful rivalry with fellow song-writing duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, to her remarkable rise to stardom. Along the way, she became one of the most successful solo acts in music history, and wrote the soundtrack to a generation.
With a cast of 26 and an orchestra of 12, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical features the Carole King classics including So Far Away, It Might As Well Rain until September, Take Good Care of my Baby, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Up on the Roof, Locomotion, One Fine Day, You’ve Got a Friend, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and I Feel the Earth Move, along with hits likeYou’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, On Broadway and Uptown from songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
Multi award-winning Carole King fought her way into the record industry as a teenager and sold her first hit, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, when she was just seventeen. By the time she was twenty she was writing number ones for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll, including The Drifters, The Shirelles, Aretha Franklin and The Monkees. In a first for a female singer/songwriter, King’s albumTapestry won all three of the 1971 key Grammy Awards—record, song and album of the year. The same year King also won the Grammy for Best Female Vocalist. With more than 25 million records sold, Tapestry remained the best-selling album by a female artist for a quarter of a century. More than 400 of her compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles and 6 Grammy awards.
The Tony award-winning Beautiful - The Carole King Musical continues at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway where is opened on 12 January this year and has subsequently become one of Broadway’s top selling shows, playing to capacity houses. A US tour will commence in September 2015 in Rhode Island.
The original Broadway cast recording of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical is available on Ghostlight Records via www.beautifulonbroadway.com/look-listen/music.
Casting and further information about the West End production of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical will be released at a later date.
