Katie Brayben plays the title role in Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, opening at the Aldwych Theatre in February 2015. Picture: Craig Sugden
Katie Brayben will play the title role in the West End production of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical opening at the Aldwych Theatre in February next year. Alan Morrissey will play King’s husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, with Lorna Want as songwriter Cynthia Weil, Glynis Barber as Genie Klein, King’s mother, and Gary Trainor as music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. London previews begin on 10 February 2015, with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015 (press night will now take place on 24 February). Final casting will be announced shortly.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, is based on the early life and career of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King. Beautiful has a book by Douglas McGrath with words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and is directed by Marc Bruni.
Singer-songwriter Brayben is currently playing Princess Diana in King Charles III at the Wyndham’s Theatre and previously was seen in American Psycho at the Almeida Theatre. Her other theatre credits include Joking Apart for Nottingham Playhouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ragtime for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, 13 for the National Theatre, Company for Southwark Playhouse, Return to the Forbidden Planet on tour in the UK and Mamma Mia! both in the West End and on tour internationally.
Glynis Barber returns to the West End stage to play Genie Klein, Carole King’s mother. On television she is best known for playing Harriet Makepeace in Dempsey and Makepeace and Soolin in Blake’s Seven. Her previous theatre credits include Love Letters for Dundee Rep, Season’s Greetings on tour, Separate Tables and Make Me a Match for the Mill at Sonning, the national tour of The Graduate, And Then There Were None at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Once in a Lifetime for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Piccadilly Theatre and A Murder is Announced at the Vaudeville Theatre.
Alan Morrissey was last on stage in I Can’t Sing! at the London Palladium. His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Twelfth Night and As You Like It. For Shakespeare’s Globe he toured in Romeo and Juliet. His screen credits include Nick Van Barr in Holby City.
Lorna Want has most recently played Winnie in Annie Get Your Gun on tour in the UK. Her West End credits include Footloose, Evita, Parade, The Fantasticks and Dreamboats and Petticoats. Her regional theatre credits include Robin Hood for the Cambridge Arts Theatre, Peter Pan at the Manchester Opera House and Les Misérables at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
Gary Trainor’s theatre credits include Potted Potter at the Garrick Theatre and on tour in the US and Australia, The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham’s Theatre, The Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays, Into the Woods at the Landor Theatre, Jago at the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh and Prophecy at the Public Theatre in New York. He has also toured the UK in Buddy, Frankenstein: The Year Without a Summer, Stones in His Pockets and The Oxford Passion.
With a cast of 26 and an orchestra of 12, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical features the Carole King classics including ‘So Far Away’, ‘It Might As Well Rain Until September’, ‘Take Good Care of My Baby’, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, ‘Up On the Roof’, ‘Locomotion’, ‘One Fine Day’, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’, ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman’ and ‘I Feel the Earth Move’, along with hits like ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, ‘On Broadway’ and ‘Uptown’ from songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
Multi award-winning Carole King fought her way into the record industry as a teenager and sold her first hit, ’Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, when she was just 17. By the time she was 20 she was writing number ones for the biggest acts in rock‘n’roll, including The Drifters, The Shirelles, Aretha Franklin and The Monkees. In a first for a female singer/songwriter, King’s album Tapestry won all three of the 1971 key Grammy Awards – record, song and album of the year. The same year King also won the Grammy for Best Female Vocalist. With more than 25 million records sold, Tapestry remained the best-selling album by a female artist for a quarter of a century. More than 400 of her compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles and six Grammy awards.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical has choreography Josh Prince with set designs by Derek McLane, costume designs by Alejo Viettii, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Brian Ronan. Orchestrations and music arrangements are by Steve Sidwell.
The Tony Award-winning show continues at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway where it opened on 12 January this year starring Jessie Mueller as Carole King. A US tour will commence in September 2015 in Rhode Island.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical will be produced in London by Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
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