Simply Beautiful - The Carole King Musical

The only word to describe this wonderful musical is ‘awesome’. Anchored by a simply beautiful performance by Molly-Grace Cutler who played the fabulous Carole King, her stunning singing voice stole the show…

This very energetic and infectious show started with the hit song ’So Far Away’, with the words ‘Beautiful’ lighting up the stage. A perfect start to a magical musical.

Growing up in Brooklyn with her mother Genie, played by Claire Greenway, the 16-year-old is a typical teenager who has fallen in love with writing music. At the young age of 16 her dream is to meet with the popular music publisher Don Kirshner, played by Garry Robson, who is a very fair but eccentric man and he knows what he wants. Standing before Don she belts out the hit ‘It Might As Well Rain Until September’ and he agrees to give her a chance in the industry.

Now for the romantic side to the story… While attending college she meets with the very handsome Gerry Goffin, played by Tom Milner, and it is wonderful to watch their relationship flourish on stage. He is an avid songwriter and the pair agree to work together which leads to them getting romantically involved and she quickly falls pregnant. The enchanting pair agree to get married and seem very happy together as they start making a name for themselves in the music industry writing for The Drifters, The Righteous Brothers, The Monkees, The Shirelles and even The Beatles.

However, as their success continues in the music business it is clear Gerry is not very happy in the marriage and begins an affair with Janelle. Carole is left absolutely heartbroken and asks him to end the affair so they can make their marriage work and they go onto to have another child. However, with the affair still looming will their marriage last the distance?

While collaborating on their music Gerry and Carole become great friends with the beautiful Cynthia Well, played by Seren Sandham-Davies and Barry Mann, played by Joe Slovick who also have a perfect presence on stage. The pair share some great comical moments, however Cynthia is very reluctant to marry Barry, as she believes their relationship is perfect the way it is and doesn’t want to ruin what they already have. Will she finally say ‘Yes’ when he gets down on one knee?

This tremendous show features many different hit songs including "I Feel The Earth Move," "One Fine Day," one of my personal favourites "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Locomotion” and “You've Got A Friend”.

The choreography by all of the cast was lively, colourful and soon had the audience off their seats.

A truly magical performance by everyone - an absolutely fantastic production.

Book Now - Grand Opera House (goh.co.uk). The show runs until Saturday, 01 October