With A Smile On Your Face

Few artists have had as tremendous an impact on American music as Carole King. Since the jukebox bio musical was welcomed on Broadway more than a decade ago, it was only a matter of time before enterprising producers ventured to bring her life and music to the stage. Upon seeing Beautiful on tour a couple of years ago, I immediately decided that I needed to see it again. It was different than I had expected and I needed to see it again through different eyes. And so it was that I found myself on a Sunday evening in New York City, in search of a show. After stage dooring the final performance of Kinky Boots for well over an hour, I practically sprinted from the Hirschfeld to the Sondheim to get to my seat before curtain. Beautiful is well-written and expertly designed and it pays, pun intended, beautiful tribute to Carole King and her contribution to American music.

Beautiful spans the early years in King’s career – which began with a hit song at 17 years old – and concludes with the release of her monumentally successful album Tapestry. Married as a teenager to chemist and aspiring lyricist Gerry Goffin, King and Goffin pumped out hit songs as frequently as the rest of us pour a bowl of cereal (by which I mean a lot, I eat a ton of cereal). Goffin, brooding and discontent, bristled at the prospect of settling into family life, while King dreamed of a sort of suburban utopia. The love they shared was not enough to sustain their marriage. During the early phases of Beautiful’s development, King admitted to having little interest in seeing a musical adaptation of her life and, watching her story unfold on stage, it is not hard to imagine that were we in her shoes we would feel similarly hesitant. A perfect hand King was not dealt. But from what I have gleaned about the actual King from watching many concerts and PBS specials (and speaking to her oh so briefly at a Get Out the Vote rally many moons ago) she has an enviable resilience, her dry humor a defense mechanism that, rather than close her off from experience and emotion, sustains her positivity. Book writer Douglas McGrath captures King’s innate sense of joy. Indeed, it's not hard to imagine King uttering some of his quick-witted dialogue. 

If McGrath gives words to Carole King the character, it is up to the star to bring her to life. As Carole King, Chilina Kennedy, who has played the role extensively, has an assuredness that is in a class of its own. She imbues King with an inner strength that lies close to the surface, springing forward in the face of adversity. Importantly, Kennedy does a nice job of incorporating some of King's speech and singing patterns without simply seeming to mimic her. Evan Todd as Gerry Goffin, and Kara Lindsay and Ben Jacoby as fellow songwriters, friends and competitors Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann round out the leading cast. The talented ensemble of singers and dancers keep the show moving, playing multiple roles and inhabiting such famous singers as Neil Sedaka, The Drifters and The Shirelles.

The costumes, choreography and design of the show are superbly polished.  Synchronized doo-wop dancing is irresistible and Beautiful has smooth moves to spare. Crisp, shiny suits catch the spotlight with every bend of the knee and flick of the wrist. The set is understated but not boring. Take, for example, the multi-level 1650 Broadway set, a Brill Building type complex in the songwriting "block" of Manhattan. With its’ spare feel and visible steel, the set reinforces the sort of industrialized production of hits that came to be known as the Brill Building sound.

The high quality of the music featured in Beautiful is, of course, a forgone conclusion. King truly wrote the music of a generation. The music credits in the Playbill read like a comprehensive history of the American song. Beautiful showcases upbeat hits such as “The Locomotion” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” and nimbly transitions to heavier emotion with “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “One Fine Day.” The latter of which can be a fun, bouncy hit outside of the context of the scene. But here, when Gerry admits to having a relationship with singer Janelle Woods (who is on stage singing the song for a TV broadcast) and Carole takes over the song from Janelle, the song takes on a bittersweet note. The tone is perfect in that moment, the close of Act I. Note that as a Positive Patty I subscribe to the out of context version of the song when my alarm goes off at 7:00 in the morning.

I find myself at a loss for words to sum up the show. Maybe it's because Beautiful is just that. Beautiful. The conclusion of the show is perfect, ending with King's 1971 concert at Carnegie Hall and King, alone at the piano, belting the titular song. With humor, heart and a brilliant set of tunes, Beautiful will remind you of your youth or, if you're like me, make you wish you were growing up at a time when spunky girl from New York City was changing the music industry and paving the way for a generation of singers and songwriters.

A Tale of Two Dresses

Musical adaptations of hit films are downright ubiquitous on Broadway. What Hairspray kicked off nearly two decades ago (mother of pearl, typing that sentence makes me feel old) has continued with varied degrees of success. As with many things in life, quality and success do not necessarily go hand in hand. The Lion King continues it’s multi-decade run just a few streets over from Aladdin. For every Kinky Boots there is a Ghost: The Musical. I will leave it up to you to determine into which bucket each of these shows fall. A visit to New York City last week gave me the opportunity to see two members of the newer crop of movie adaptations: Pretty Woman: The Musical and Tootsie. Pretty Woman feels worn and sluggish while Tootsie brims with a fresh energy. Indeed, the only thing these two shows share is the fact that, at some point in the show, the main character is outfitted in a bright red dress.

The movie Pretty Woman was huge when it was released in 1990, and is probably best known for solidifying Julia Roberts as one of the biggest and most bankable Hollywood stars. With music by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Gary Marshall and J.F. Lawton, also the film’s screenwriters, the musical is a retread. The story, setting and time period are nearly cookie cutter copies of the movie and it suffers because of that. The chance to simply add music is not enough to warrant a transfer to the stage. Adapting a movie for the stage brings with it the opportunity to make changes and tailor the story for a new medium and, often, a new decade, but Pretty Woman does not take full advantage of that opportunity.

Samantha Barks and Andy Karl, in the undoubtedly difficult position of filling the shoes of Roberts and Richard Gere, do everything they can with the material. Barks and Karl are undeniably talented, as is the hard-working ensemble and supporting cast. But the story and music does not resonate. Watchable? Sure. Completely needed? Probably not.

By contrast, across town, the adaption of the 1982 Sydney Pollack film Tootsie hits all the right notes. Now set in the present day, and with the show-within-a-show flipped from a soap opera to a Broadway musical (meta opportunities abound), Tootsie makes the argument for its’ creation that Pretty Woman does not. The creative team of Robert Horn, David Yazbek, Denis Jones and Scott Ellis have crafted the quintessential musical comedy: song and dance, conflict and resolution, sarcasm and sentiment.

A man masquerading as a woman in order to get a job is tricky water to navigate in the #MeToo era and, while some of the topical references are a bit heavy-handed, the show successfully navigates relationships in many different forms: male friendship, female friendship, female/male friendship, romantic relationships and, perhaps most importantly, the relationship with oneself. The cast, led by future Tony Award winner Santino Fontana is exceptional. No really, I’m no expert, but Fontana’s hilarious and heartfelt performance as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels is brilliant. Dustin who? He commands your attention and earns your respect. The supporting cast features strong turns from Lilli Cooper as Julie, Andy Grotelueschen as Jeff and Sarah Stiles as Sandy. Stiles, as Michael’s codependent ex-girlfriend with a few hilarious peculiarities about her, is the definition of a scene stealer. I challenge you not to laugh when Sandy laments her attempt at doing the Dirty Dancing lift with her cat.

Still in previews, Tootsie cannot yet be judged as a final product, but, if the preview performance I saw is any indication, Tootsie has legs – and not just Santino Fontana’s gams in that iconic red dress. Tootsie has the energy and the compassion to strut down 46^th Street and into our hearts. So, I beg you Broadway audiences, please reward Tootsie’s quality with financial success so that it plays long enough for me to get back to see the finished product. Please.