Beautiful

You may have noticed that I often mention the singer/songwriter Carole King. I have been a huge fan since she began performing and recording around 1970. I own nearly all of the 20+ albums she recorded (I did not purchase some of the “compilation” albums, as those songs were already on other albums I owned), and in my younger years it would be fair to say that I knew the words to virtually every song on every one of those albums. Our daughters can tell you that they grew up listening to Carole King and to their mother sitting at the piano trying to play and sing those songs.

In the early 1990s a show called “Tapestry” opened at an off-Broadway theater. Barry and I saw that show with a friend who had also been a fan. It was awful! I cannot even remember the storyline, but I remember feeling that they just clobbered her wonderful music. Our most vivid memory is that our friend kept making what would now be called “snarky” comments, albeit in Yiddish, throughout the performance.

[Full disclosure: I recently reminded the friend of this incident, and she had no recollection of it whatsoever. But Barry and I remember it quite vividly. I guess she decided it was not worth using up long term storage space in her brain!]

So when a musical called “Beautiful,” based on Carole King’s early career, opened on Broadway earlier this year, I was reluctant to go and see it. I did not even read the reviews, and even when Jessie Mueller won this year’s Tony award for best actress for her portrayal of Ms. King, I was still not convinced. But after our recent positive Broadway experiences with Eliana and Ella, Barry suggested (again) that we get tickets, and we went last night.

It was a good show, and Jessie Mueller was quite impressive. The story follows Ms. King’s early career, when she began at 16 writing songs recorded and popularized by other singers. It tells of her difficult marriage to song-writing-partner Gerry Goffin, and ends with her legendary 1971 concert at Carnegie Hall. Much of the score is music she wrote prior to her breakthrough “Tapestry” album.

I am glad I finally saw it, but I cannot say I loved it. I am simply too much of a Carole King purist: in my opinion, no one can sing her songs as well as she can (and that includes James Taylor singing “You’ve Got a Friend.”)

A couple of months ago, Carole King went to see the show, but must have been disguised so that no one knew she was there. After the show she made her presence known and joined the cast on stage. I found (of course) a YouTube video of that evening.

We are headed up to Sharon this weekend, and will be bringing Joshua back with us for his week in New York. Instead of American Girl and Broadway, we have tickets to two baseball games and hope to go see the Intrepid. It should be a fun week.

Have a good weekend!

Love,

Rebecca