Review: YOU'VE STILL GOT A FRIEND at Theatre By The Sea

Theatre By the Sea wrapped up its 93rd season in unprecedented fashion-with the incredible world premiere of "You've Still Got a Friend: A Musical Tribute to the Lives and Friendship of Carole King & James Taylor".

With "You've Still Got a Friend" diving deep into the life of the two incredible musicians, it had me intrigued, to say the least.  A world premiere?  Sweet.  Of these two musical legends, hell yes!  And the night was nothing short of amazing.

Hunter Brown is a perfect and very personable James Taylor-voice and guitar- and Allie Seibold plays a stunningly-perfect Carole King, piano playing and all.  While the pair helped to belt out a combined 32 songs during the night-many you know but also a number of others you forgot that Carole wrote that made other singers famous-"Take Good Care of My Baby" or "Will you Still Love Me Tomorrow" to name a scant few, the pair would also serve as narrators of the lives of King and Taylor, sprinkling a lot of little-known facts that helped pave the way for the huge successes to come.  Here's one-Carol was initially spelled without the "e" but added it in high school to differentiate herself from two other Carol Kleins in her class.  Another went in depth on the heart-wrenching story behind one of Taylor's most famous songs, "Fire & Rain" (number 2 song the week I was born!).

In addition to the incredible voices of Brown and Seibold, what I loved about the musical is it wasn't just their lead voices we heard.  Other songs, perhaps an octave higher than what the main singers could handle or looking to get as close to the actual voices as possible, the rest of the band often piped in to enhance the songs, not just the talented backup singers Elizabeth Nestlerode and Charlie Wehde but also the fabulous voice of lead keyboard Sophie Amelkin, who added an incredible level to "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" with Seibold and Nestlerode-likely the best musical set you will ever see- and Musical Director/Lead Guitarist Seth Eliser.  Rounding out the band included Bass Player Bobby Brennan and Drummer Louis Tucci.

I often wondered about the relationship between King and Taylor. Were they lovers?  Just friends?  How did they meet?  How did they maintain that friendship?  (all will be answered this night)  We've all heard of the songs that they shared or covered of each other like "You've Got a Friend", one of the many superb song duets of the night, or that King wrote "Up on a Roof"?? but how much did we really know?  Answer: Not a hell of a lot.  But this Tribute got to the meat of the matter-the struggles, the divorces, King's fear of performing, Taylor's constant drug issues, their activism and finally, their peace.  It's a musical journey that will leave you singing with each tune as well as emotional when you realize what these people went through on the path to becoming musical icons.  

While I'm an admitted 80's musical junkie, I know all of these sings because of my older sister and the records she would play all day long when I was running around the house as a clueless six-year-old.  It was awesome that I was able to bring her to the show, really the true reason that I even know about the album "Tapestry" or "Sweet Baby James (another wonderful story on the origin of a song that will bring you to tears) and the show was like a dedication to her and all people who lived through these incredible musical times. 

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