Beautiful, The Carole King Musical At New Theatre, Cardiff Review

Reviewed by Mrs_Taylor

I knew that Carole King had written and sang the album Tapestry but hadn’t realised just what a prolific songwriter she is – she is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th Century in the US. Will You Love Me Tomorrow? The Loco-Motion, Chains and One Fine Day are just some of the songs Carole King wrote with her husband Gerry Goffin and all these songs (plus many more) are sung in this musical. And what a beautiful musical it was!

It starts out with the actors already on stage chatting to each other even before the lights come down which is not a normal way to start a show but it worked. Straight away you knew this musical was to do with the song writing business and what happens behind the scenes.

The entire set was absolutely fantastic with really slick and creative transactions – a lot of the time the stage is set up to look like a recording studio but different parts of the set could easily turn around or be taken on or off stage depending on if they were needed which meant it was easy for different scenes to be set in many different locations or for a particular prop (like the piano) to become centre stage. The set changes were often done by the characters which worked really smoothly in transitioning one scene to another. And the lighting was perfect throughout!

Carole King is played by Molly-Grace Cutler who was truly sensational. Her voice was just beautiful and the energy she brought to each scene was astounding. Even in the scenes where she wasn’t centre stage she was often in the background dancing or playing the guitar. The other three main characters – Tom Milner who plays Carole’s husband Gerry Goffin, Seren Sandham-Davies as Cynthia Weil (a lyricist for many classic songs) and Jos Slovick as Barry Mann (another famous songwriter) were also brilliant. In fact the talent from all of the cast was incredible – pretty much all of them sang and played at least one instrument throughout the show with some playing two or three!

The musical follows Carole from a teenager writing her first hits, through family life and the most famous songs that she co-wrote with her husband to her solo album Tapestry. It is absolutely full of hit songs but also highlights some of the struggles she went through with her marriage.

My seats were in the circle which had a great view of the stage and in the interval you had the option to buy ice cream from the theatre (which I haven’t seen since before COVID) or go to either of the two bars to get drinks.

This musical is not to be missed! It will leave you feeling happy and singing along to all the songs. It’s on at The New Theatre, Cardiff until Saturday 28th May so make sure you book your tickets now!

Rating: 5/5

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (inc. interval) starting at 7.30pm

At: New Theatre, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3LN

Ticket prices: £16 – £48 and may include a £3.65 transaction fee to your order

Tickets can be booked by visiting:
https://newtheatrecardiff.co.uk/Online/tickets-beautiful-the-carol-king-musical-cardiff-2022