Review: 'Beautiful' at Croswell Opera House a heartfelt, uplifting tribute to Carole King

ADRIAN — Whether you grew up with Top 40 radio in the ‘60s and ‘70s, or discovered that music more recently, you certainly know Carole King’s music even if you don’t realize it.

After all, King was partly or completely responsible for a whole string of hit tunes as a composer and, later, as a singer. And for a lot of people around today, music like hers formed the soundtrack of their early lives.

Hence the musical “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” a warm, affectionate look at King’s personal life and her rise from 16-year-old budding songwriter to one of the top artists of her time. The show is now onstage at the Croswell Opera House, coincidentally following right on the heels of another jukebox musical, “Jersey Boys.”

“Beautiful,” whose book was written by Douglas McGrath, is stuffed full of more than two dozen hits of the era, but in a somewhat different twist for a musical of this type, not all of the music is King’s.

Rather, quite a few of the tunes were written by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, who were themselves responsible for hits such as “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” “On Broadway,” “Walkin’ in the Rain,” “Uptown,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” and (with Phil Spector) “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”

All of those tunes are in “Beautiful” as well, because a big part of King’s story is the friendly rivalry she and her partner/husband Gerry Goffin were in with Weil and Mann. The two pairs of songwriters competed to see who could create the next hit tune and which megastar(s) of the era would record it, and it’s fun to watch how that rivalry plays out.

The story begins with a brief scene from King’s 1971 Carnegie Hall concert and returns to that performance at the end of the show, not only bringing things full circle but also allowing for a key character to return to King’s life in a gently sweet way.

Personally, I find Act II to be somewhat undeveloped plot-wise compared to Act I, but there are still plenty of nice moments in it, and of course lots of great music too all the way up to the raise-the-roof finale (which comes complete with audience participation).

The Croswell’s production, directed and choreographed by Debra Ross Calabrese, is a fine rendition of the show, with terrific performances throughout the cast list and from the first song to the last.

Emma Skaggs is perfect in the lead role, playing King with a depth and sensitivity that easily gets the audience invested in the character, and fully able vocally to bring King’s music to life — and to do so as her character goes from her 16-year-old self to a confident, poised woman coming into her own a dozen years later.

Preview: 'Beautiful' at Croswell Opera House explores life, music of songwriter Carole King

“Beautiful” marks Skaggs’ Croswell debut, and here’s definitely hoping it’s not the last time audiences here get to see her.

The show’s other major cast members are sure no slouches, either.

Steven Kiss, who over the years has proven himself to be an extremely versatile performer, turns in a tremendous performance as Gerry Goffin.

Goffin was a huge talent as a lyricist, as all the hits he created with King proves, but he had plenty of struggles and flaws too, and Kiss ably captures that complicated nature. He has to move between Goffin the phenomenal lyricist, Goffin the philanderer, and Goffin struggling with his mental health, and he does it all deftly and with all the vocal abilities Croswell audiences have come to know he can bring to bear.

And then there’s Katelyn Lesle Levering, who from both an acting standpoint and a vocal one is flawless as Cynthia Weil. She not only sparkles in the role, playing Weil with warmth and spunk, but she’s also a tremendous foil to Sam Ramirez as Barry Mann. Ramirez himself does a great job, besides giving Mann a certain hangdog nature that’s really pretty funny, and he and Levering play off each other to a T.

Besides the hugely satisfying performances by that particular foursome, seeing how the rivalry between the two teams of writers plays out is a lot of fun, as I noted earlier. “Beautiful” may exist for its music, but there’s plenty of humor underpinning it too.

As for the other major characters, superb performances also come from Chris Stack as Don Kirshner (and, briefly, as one of two perfectly deadpan Righteous Brothers, alongside Jared Freeman) and Lydia Schafer as King’s mother Genie Klein.

The performers playing the Drifters (Dominique Glover, JeeMell Green, Brian Jones, and Jonathan LaBelle) and the Shirelles (Sabriyah Davis, Autumn Bradford, Anjewel Lewis, and CaSaundra Taulton) most certainly light up the stage with their renditions of tunes like “Up on the Roof, “On Broadway,” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” One of Davis’ other roles is as Little Eva, and her version of “The Locomotion” is another crowd-pleaser.

Calabrese’s direction moves the action right along even through a huge number of scene changes that sure put the crew members through their paces. She also creates some really fine onstage moments, from the big production numbers all the way down to the way Skaggs, Levering, and Ramirez join together in a touching rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend.” That scene is one of the show’s especially nice moments, and with these performers, it works exceptionally well.

The production’s technical elements came together well on opening night, with Karl Kasischke’s projection design lending a nice touch to the visuals, and the orchestra under Josh Glover’s direction did a fine job with all the iconic music this show contains.

It all adds up to a first-rate rendition of this uplifting, heartfelt and funny tribute to one of pop music’s true trailblazers. If you’re at all a fan of Carole King’s music, or of early pop in general, or you’re even just interested in a story about that pivotal time in American music history, the Croswell’s version of “Beautiful” is right on the money.

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If you go

WHAT: “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 13; 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 14; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 16

WHERE: Croswell Opera House, 129 E. Maumee St., Adrian

TICKETS: $22-$44 for adults, $15-$25 for students

HOW TO ORDER: By calling 517-264-7469 or online at croswell.org

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Review: 'Beautiful: The Carole King Musical' at Croswell Opera House