Review: BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is exhilarating at North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly, MA

Jukebox musicals tend to be hit or miss.

Definitely in the hit column is "Beautiful - The Carole King Musical," which sold out its pre-Broadway run at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in 2013, and then moved to New York where it had a five-year run at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Touring productions of the show have played Boston in 2015 and 2019.

With music by King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and others, and a book by Douglas McGrath, an exhilarating production of “Beautiful” is now on stage at Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly through June 18.

The action centers on King – brought to vivid life by Elena Ricardo, who previously played the role as a replacement on Broadway, and on tour – whose legendary music career is followed from its early days as an ambitious 16-year-old songwriter to the phenomenal success of her recording and performing career.

Along the way, we see Carole meet and become romantically involved with the emotionally troubled Gerry Goffin (Jake Bentley Young), who becomes her songwriting partner and frequently unfaithful husband. While working for music producer and publisher Don Kirshner (Reed Campbell), King and Goffin meet Barry Mann (Jake Cahill-Lemme) and Cynthia Weil (Jessica Rush), who become a competing songwriting duo and also their best friends.

The camaraderie among King, Goffin, Mann, and Weil gives the story genuine warmth, with Mann’s persistent hypochondria adding many laughs. Cahill-Lemme and Rush are well paired as a couple who are slow to commit to each other even as their devotion to one another rapidly deepens. The scenes involving Mann and Weil are especially touching since the couple had been happily married for 62 years when Mann passed away on June 1.

The considerably rockier connection between King and Goffin, with its professional highs and personal lows, is movingly play by Ricardo and Young throughout with help from McGrath’s excellent book – and, of course, the duo’s songs, including “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” and “Up on the Roof.”

The songs – under the quick-paced direction and choreography by Marcos Santana, as complemented by Travis M. Grant’s period-appropriate costumes – are performed by the principals along with a very talented ensemble winningly portraying some of the big names of the 1960s, including Kobe Brown, Christopher McCrewell, Michael Anthony Nero, and Chris Richie as the Drifters, Ashley McManus as Janelle Woods, Elizabeth Adabale as Little Eva, and Adabale, McManus, Courtney Blackmun, and Tiffany Frances as the Shirelles.

Justin Michael Duval and Seth Eliser also step into the spotlight as the Righteous Brothers for “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” the Mann, Weil, and Phil Spector composition that was one of the most played songs of the 20th century.

Also doing fine supporting work are Jean McCormick as Carole’s sometimes sour but always loving mother Genie Klein, Reed Campbell as Kirshner, the boss with an eye on the bottom line whose heart is in the right place, and Allie Seibold as Carole’s ever loyal longtime friend, Betty.

While the acting is above-par throughout, it’s the music that makes this show. Witness the beautiful pairing of Cahill-Lemme and Rush on the Mann and Weil love song “Walking in the Rain,” Cahill-Lemme’s solo on “We’ve Got to Get Out of This Place,” and Ricardo’s impressive takes on some of King and Goffin’s biggest hits like “One Fine Day” and “Chains.”

And after King climbs out from under the rubble of her failed marriage to Goffin and goes on to record her landmark 1971 album, “Tapestry,” Ricardo sheds her character’s performance anxiety to nail spot-on renditions of some of the album’s biggest hits including “Beautiful” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in a finale that rocks the house.

Elena Ricardo (Carole King) and the cast of "Beautiful - The Carole King Musical" at North Shore Music Theatre through June 18. Photo credit: Paul Lyden.

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