“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” tells the story of the beloved singer-songwriter’s early adult life, but also gives a history of American popular music between the late 1950s to early 1970s. King started her career writing songs for other artists as diverse as The Drifters, Aretha Franklin, The Righteous Brothers and The Monkees with her husband, lyricist Gerry Goffin.
After divorcing Goffin, she took the brave step to start a solo career, ushering in the singer-songwriter era and creating one of the all-time classic albums of that genre in 1971 with “Tapestry”. The current production at the Riverside Center For The Performing Arts features an excellent cast, choreography, and music.
Ashlee Wauldbauer who previously demonstrated her acting and singing chops at Riverside in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, “Ghost”, and “They’re Playing Our Song” plays King with an authentic performance that captures many stages in her career. This is enhanced by over 16 costume and hair changes during the show.
“There’s not many jukebox musicals that cover that wide an age range,” Waldbauer said. “The show goes from her being 16 to 29 years old when she performs at Carnegie Hall, which is incredibly young for such an accomplishment in someone’s life. I honestly feel so lucky to be taking on this role because I feel like I’m in the right age range to play all of these ages that she spans throughout the show.
“I’m 27 years old so I feel really connected to all of the many situations that she has gone through. Plus I think Carole is extremely relatable. So it wasn’t hard to tap into what it was like as a 16-year-old Ashlee as well.”
Highlighting King’s Brooklyn roots is a strong performance by Kathy Halenda as her mother Genie. Recently seen in Riverside’s production of “The Wizard Of Oz” as the Wicked Witch Of The West, Halenda provides many comic and touching moments in this show.
The musical swings between stage performances of artists who sang King and Goffin’s hits to personal details of their rocky musical and personal relationship. Brian Nabors is moving in the role of Gerry Goffin, who fights demons of mental health, addiction, and unfaithfulness.
Director/choreographer Jacquez Linder-Long and assistant choreographer Stephanie Wood bring performances of early hits by The Shirelles to life with singing and dancing by Kadejah Onē, Aniyah Lee, Tyandria Jaaber, and Khanner Milan. The Drifters also had a very stylish presentation as played here by TJ Pursley, Don Seward, Carl Williams, and Anthony Williams. Tyandria Jaaber has a show-stealing performance of Little Eva’s big hit “Locomotion”. Kevin Cleary and Zachary Spafford perform the vocal stretching Righteous Brothers hit “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”.
That last song was written by friends of King and Goffin, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, a fellow songwriting team and romantic partners who marry late in the show. Played here by Sarah Mae Andersen and Matt Beary, their relationship is an interesting contrast to King and Goffin’s difficult marriage.
Off set, Beary also happens to be engaged to Waldbauer. Beary first came to Riverside as a replacement in “Jersey Boys” for the character based on Joe Peschi.
“We met on a cruise ship a couple years ago where I was doing ‘Six The Musical’ and Matt was doing ‘Jersey Boys’,” said Waldbauer. “I was in Florida doing a production of Oliver and I randomly got a call from [Riverside CEO and artistic director] Patrick [A’Hearn] who said, ‘Hey I know Matt has done Jersey Boys before, do you think he could come in and help us out for a couple weeks?’ This is our first contract working on the same show together so it’s been really fun.”
Waldbauer really steps out with her vocal numbers in the second act of the show, which follows Carole King as she develops her solo career. She manages to evoke King’s sound without sounding like a tribute band artist.
“I’m aware that I’m not on stage to do an impression of her or impersonate her because I’m also Ashlee and an actor and want to bring myself to the role as well,” Waldbauer said. “Carson Eubank and I worked really well together in terms of trying to figure out a good mix between bringing my personal vocal style and mixing that with Carole’s as well.”
Eubank is the musical director and conducts the eight-piece orchestra that makes the songs come alive.
“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” is a drama, jukebox musical and concert all in one and will please music and theater fans.
If you go
“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” Riverside Center for the Performing Arts,95 Riverside Parkway, Fredericksburg
Runs until Nov 10. Tickets are $55-$82
