King's classics on stage a trip back in pop history
Beautiful captures personalities that made memorable music
By the time she was 18, Carole King was writing hits already for such artists as the Shirelles. So was this kid from Brooklyn preternaturally gifted, a hard worker, or both?
“I’m hardly taking anything away from her work ethic, which is very strong,” Douglas McGrath says.
“But at the same time, she had an almost magical ability to hear melodies. She just heard melodies in her head. And they came fairly quickly. She didn’t work three weeks to write a song.”
McGrath is the writer of the book for the Broadway hit Beautiful — The Carole King Musical. The Tony Award-winning work follows King’s early years as a songwriter, up until her own declaration of independence with the 1970 album Tapestry.
Along the way, the Broadway hit delivers such classics like as I Feel the Earth Move, One Fine Day, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, You’ve Got a Friend and the title song.
King wrote many of those early hits with her then-husband, Gerry Goffin. The two would commute to Manhattan and work alongside another singer/songwriter team, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Beautiful finds drama in King’s relationship with Goffin, as well as the relationship between the two couples.
“Right from the beginning, she (King) said they have to be a part of it (the story),” McGrath says.
“They were on the other side of a wall from Carole and Gerry. So you can imagine that, when one couple was quiet, working on lyrics or just not playing the piano, they would hear through the wall what the other couple was writing. I loved that.
“Also, Barry and Cynthia are fantastic people, really funny and smart. To an untrained ear, their songs sound like Carole and Gerry’s. But when you listen, they have a different sound. It gives the musical variety.”
The story tries to stay true to the Mad Men era in which its set. How much the culture has changed since Beautiful’s 2013 Broadway debut can be seen in the way audiences now react to some of the moments depicting the relationship between Goffin and King.
Sarah Bockel, who plays King in the touring production coming to Vancouver, said “there’s a joke where my husband (Goffin) looks at the other woman in the room, then looks directly at me and points at me and says, ‘I dig that outfit,’ suggesting to me that I need to dress better. That never gets a laugh anymore, and it used to get a huge laugh.”
At another point, Goffin (Dylan S. Wallach) is coming onto King.
“He says something along the lines of, ‘As a writer, I feel we would best benefit from a more intimate relationship.’ He’s flirting with her. And sometimes people groan at that line now. We feel that.
“Gerry needs to be a likable guy, especially at the beginning. So we play with it, we make it light. I really want to portray their partnership, especially at work, being equal. That’s why they fall in love. Because they inspire each other creatively.”
The setting is another interesting aspect of Beautiful. King and her co-songwriters worked on Broadway in an office building alongside other tenants who were engaged in what were perhaps less glamorous activities. This reminded McGrath, whose writing credits include a season of Saturday Night Live, of his days writing comedy at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
“That’s how I first got hooked on the idea,” McGrath said. “It fascinated me, how you might have a guy who can repair your shoes, next to a guy who might do your taxes. And then there’s a woman writing some of the greatest songs of the 20th century.”