Hailed as a fantastic catalogue of pop music, the award-winning musical about the record-breaking American singer-songwriter Carole King is making its way to Cardiff. Bronté Barbé is Carole King in the jukebox-dramatisation and honestly adapted West End musical Beautiful. At the young age of seventeen, King had her first hit Will You Love Me Tomorrow with Gerry Goffin, who she’d soon marry. The newly-wedded team, against friendly rivals Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and signed to Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music Empire based at 1650 Broadway, then continued to write number one hits for several Rock and Roll powerhouses, setting them up for a decade of song-writing success, and later on induction into the Songwriters as well as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Her divorce from Goffin (portrayed by Kane Oliver Parry) gave way to King’s eventual triumph as a solo artist and a shining discography, during the period of which she produced albums such as Tapestry, consisting of the classic You Make Me Feel Like (A Natural Woman) later covered by Aretha Franklin, and You’ve Got a Friend. Marc Bruni’s biographical stage play studded with much loved hits from the 60s and 70s encapsulates King’s break-away from her life and songwriting partner, and subsequent progression into the chapter of her life that ultimately defined her solo career.
With the achievement of having 118 pop hits chart on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1955 to 1999, and having pushed her way into the record business as a teenager fresh from Brooklyn before ultimately curating hits for The Drifters, The Shirelles and The Monkees, singer-songwriter Carole King heavily influenced the latter half of 20th century America. Now, the critically acclaimed musical account of the incredible singer’s life and the West End production tours the UK and Ireland, stopping off in Cardiff at the end of October to the beginning of November.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Fri 30 Oct – Sat 4 Nov. Tickets: £15- £49 Info: 029 2063 6464 / www.wmc.org.uk
words LAURA BLACKWELL