Carole King bio-musical Beautiful finds a place in audience’s hearts

There was a time in the 70s when it was easier to identify anyone who didn’t own Carole King’s Tapestry than those who did.

Esther Hannaford as Carole King and Josh Piterman (Gerry Goffin) in Beautiful at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre. Photo Joan Marcus

There was a time in the early 70s when it was easier to identify anyone who didn’t own Carole King’s Tapestry than those who did. It was — is — an intimate, embracing expression of love, loss, joy and the whole damn thing of being a woman.

At just the first few notes of It’s Too Late and You’ve Got a Friend there are sighs and intakes of breath from the audience at the King bio-musical Beautiful, and not just from women. People get these songs. The merest whisper brings back floods of memories or triggers new emotions. It’s what great popular music does.

Expertly directed by Marc Bruni, Beautiful doesn’t match the music for originality but does have the advantage of an original central figure in Esther Hannaford’s appealing, delicately calibrated and gloriously sung King. Diffident and unglamorously decked out in sensible skirts and blouses, Hannaford’s King is a quiet heroine but one with ­resolve and spirit.

Beautiful briskly traces King’s path to Tapestry in 1971 and, in the same year, a concert at Carnegie Hall. Back in the 1950s the precociously talented King is only 16 when she sells her first songs. Soon she hooks up with lyricist Gerry Goffin (Josh Piterman), they marry, produce babies and hit songs, and navigate the changing tastes of the 1960s.

It’s not all top-of-the-charts splendour. Goffin goes off the rails and King struggles with her self-image. She’s the brilliant composer of Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Some Kind of Wonderful and One Fine Day, but she’s also a betrayed wife and mother who desperately wants a conventional family life.

Douglas McGrath’s book is utilitarian at best as it puts out signals that could be seen from Mars and races across plot points. “I need to work on my lyrics,” a young Carole tells a friend. Goffin walks past. Bingo. That of course leaves room for big production numbers featuring hot groups of the era, amusingly choreographed by Josh Prince in the highly stylised manner of the day but perhaps not danced with the requisite polish by the otherwise engaging ensemble.

Crucially for the purposes of Beautiful, King and Goffin were far from alone in writing to order for 60s pop groups. They became close friends as well as competitors with Cynthia Weil (given fizzy, sexy confidence by Amy Lehpamer) and Barry Mann ­(impressive newcomer Mat Verevis). That team’s On Broadway, We Gotta Get Out of This Place and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling add oomph to the playlist.

In the end it’s Hannaford’s night as she movingly inhabits King’s eventual blossoming into a woman who accepts herself, her voice and her place.

Musical Theatre

Beautiful, Lyric Theatre, September 23

Tickets: $60-$195. Bookings: 136 100. Duration: 2hrs 25mins including interval. Booking until January 21.