Review: BEAUTIFUL at Pioneer Theatre Company is a Wonderful Feel-Everything Musical

Pioneer Theatre Company brings the Broadway hit BEAUTIFUL back to Utah with a new professional production that re-introduces the wonderful feel-everything musical.

BEAUTIFUL: THE Carole King MUSICAL (book by Douglas McGrath) tells the life story of Carole King using her songs and those of her contemporaries, especially Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weill, and Barry Mann. The Broadway production was nominated for a slew of Tony Awards in 2014, winning Best Actress for star Jessie Mueller. As a 16-year-old, King sells her first song and meets her writing partner and husband-to-be Goffin. The life they share together and with friends and fellow songwriters Weill and Mann is filled with friendly competition and fraught with personal difficulties, but the troubles only help King to truly discover her own voice.

Sara Shepherd as Carole King, a role she played on the national tour and in several other regional productions, is someone the audience identifies with and roots for as she ascends her path to stardom.

Anthony Sagaria brings a likeability and a sadness to his portrayal of Gerry Goffin.

Stephen Christopher Anthony as Barry Mann and Lee Alexandra Harrington as Cynthia Weil have great singing voices, but more importantly, feel like our friends as much as Carole’s. 

Other highlights include Mary Fanning Driggs as Carole’s mother, Genie, Jason Andrew Hackney as Don Kirshner, and an ensemble of energetic singers and dancers that bring the hits to life alongside the dynamite orchestra conducted by Helen Gregory.   

The set by Jason Simms combines two intricate sets of staircases and landings with furniture and pianos that set the stage, providing simple but effective scene changes, along with a backdrop of neon light musical notes used sparingly at key times.  The lighting by Dawn Chiang, costumes by Kara Harmon, and hair/makeup by Kate Casalino complete the picture of the 1960s music scene.

The sound at the reviewed performance was sometimes spotty, and it’s difficult to discern whether the book scenes were intended to come across as nearly unamplified, but if so, natural sound should always receive lower priority than the ability of all audience members to hear and understand. 

BEAUTIFUL plays through March 1, 2025. 

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