molly

Molly-Grace Cutler as Carole King

Beautiful

The Carole King Musical

Malvern Theatres

****

Happy days are here again at Malvern Theatres with Beautiful, The Carole King Musical. Feel the earth move under your feet with Molly-Grace Cutler’s stunning performance on the keys surrounded by talented 60s artists from The Drifters, Righteous Brothers and The Shirelles.

This popular jukebox musical spans the teenage years of King’s early musical career from the first number one hit Will You Love Me Tomorrow? with then-husband Gerry Goffin, (Tom Milner), to the release of the Tapestry album in 1971, with hits such as Beautiful and Natural Woman.

Frankie Bradshaw’s set captures the vibrant, creative charm of a bustling recording studio where King meets producer mogul Donnie Kirshner, (Garry Robson) and song writing couple, Cynthia Weil, (Seren Sandham-Davies) and Barry Mann, (Jos Slovick), which then transforms to New York’s Carnegie Hall.

A heart-warming medley of classics help to tell the emotional tale of heartache, adultery, mental illness, as husband Gerry struggles, and the plethora of complications life can throw at you mixing a career with family life , combined with humorous performances from The Righteous Brothers, aka (Peter Mooney and Dan-De-Cruz). There are references to when King dated Neil Sedaka, (Dan-De-Cruz), in high school Oh! Carol.

One of the standout performances comes not from King though but when Barry Mann performs We Gotta Get Out Of This Place with Cynthia Weil which was written for The Animals. From the flowing fur-trimmed dresses for The Shirelles and glittery suits for The Drifters, costume designer Edd Lindley brings the 60s and 70s to life in cloud covered fabric.

Naomi Alade, Amena El-Kindy and Louise Francis were a joy to watch as The Shirelles not to forget Adrien Spencer too and Kemi Clarke, Myles Miller and Kevin Yates with Dylan Gordon-Jones as The Drifters, all added to the memorable performances throughout the night.

‘Everybody’s doing a brand new dance now, come on baby, do the locomotion’ but make sure you take your sunglasses as the stage lighting is dazzling.

It’s not too late to see Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, at Malvern Theatres until Saturday May 7th. Tickets are available from the Box Office 01684 892277 or online, at Malvern 

Emma Trimble

03-05-22

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