If you have ever seen City Center’s “Encore” series,where they revive old semi-popular Broadway Musicals “In Concert” for four nights and two days (the revival of :Chicago” got its start there) with the book before them, you might, as I did, expect the In Concert performance of the current smash hit “Beautiful” to be similar, but it wasn’t.
One part infomercial for the continuing production, two parts highlights from the musical score, MC’d by NBC’s Today Show Hoda Kotb, a full orchestra, two sets of male and female and singers joined Chilina Kennedy as ‘Carole King’, Scott J. Campbell as ‘Gerry Goffin’, Jessica Keenan Wynn as ‘Cynthia Weil’, and Jarrod Spector as ‘Barry Mann’ as they all performed some of the songs you know so well, from “Take Good Care Of My Baby” to a huge singalong to “I Feel The Earth Movie”.
But first Canadian singer songwriter Scott Shea had the unenviable task of warming up the audience with sweet honed Americana, and a wry sense of humor. An odd choice for a 60s revival program, Scott maintained his concentration and composure despite playing songs people didn’t know, and you might want to check him out under different circumstances.
I was surprised how much Chilina Kennedy resembled Carole King, whose early career, from Brooklyn teen and Neil Sedaka muse to LA singer songwriter divorcee, “Beautiful” details, even in an evening gown she had some of Carole’s fresh faced innocence, and “WIll You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, a pas de deux with Scott, had more puppy love than romantic fireworks.It is a real testament to such a professional Broadway star that Kennedy can perform pop with such ease: a completely different set of muscles than Broadway, though playing Mary Magdalene in “Jesus Christ Superstar” must have helped.
All these jukebox musicals have a similar problem, pop lends itself to a type of simplicity antithetical to Broadway. Carole King is not Stephen Sondheim. However, “Beautiful” answers this by taking the songs from Tin Pan Alley demo to finished product, so we get both parts, and last night it all worked out fine. The highlight here was not the highlight on stage, the two teams of singers, representing bands like the Shirelles and the Drifters, were a wonderful thing, belting versions of these classic numbers.
It was an early evening, a scant 65 minutes and it was over, leaving you wondering if it might be worthwhile going back again for a third time(!), or, not unlike Huda, a NINTH TIME!! With the recent death of Gerry Goffin, I myself thought “Beautiful” was a little cruel to his legacy, Goffin was a great lyricist and he comes across as weak and cruel in the musical, his ability and his damage intermingled in ways other characters really didn’t. The In Concert performance really answered that concern, left without a book to lean against, the songs, and Goffin’s words, were exactly where they deserved to be.
Also, a word of praise for Jarrod Spector who went from playing Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys to a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as Barry Mann. A superb performance made better by the only time a version beat out an original with an outstanding “Walking In The Rain”.
In 2015, nobody does a night of music like this better than SummerStage, this was a gift to New York City, for those of us who got in, and those of us who listened from just outside Rumsey Playfield, we will still love you tomorrow SummerStage.
Grade: B+
