Beautiful: the Carole King Musical at Orpheum Theatre, August 23, 2016

SHNSF presents Beautiful: the Carole King Musical
Orpheum Theatre
1192 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
8:00 PM, Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[8:m PM lights down, announcements, band out]

1. [8:m PM] Overture - Orchestra
2. [8:m PM] So Far Away - Carole King
3. [8:m PM] Oh! Carol - Neil Sedaka
4. [8:m PM] 1650 Broadway Medley - Ensemble
5. [8:m PM] It Might as Well Rain Until September - Carole
6. [8:m PM] Be-Bop-A-Lula - Ensemble
7. [8:m PM] Some Kind of Wonderful - Carole, Gerry Goffin and The Drifters
8. [8:m PM] Happy Days Are Here Again - Cynthia Weil
9. [8:m PM] Take Good Care of My Baby - Gerry and Carole
10. [8:m PM] Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) - Barry Mann
11. [8:m PM] Will You Love Me Tomorrow - Carole
12. [8:m PM] He's Sure the Boy I Love - Cynthia and Barry
13. [8:m PM] Will You Love Me Tomorrow reprise - The Shirelles
14. [8:m PM] Up on the Roof - Gerry and The Drifters
15. [8:m PM] On Broadway - The Drifters
16. [8:m PM] The Locomotion - Little Eva and Ensemble
17. [8:m PM] You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers
18. [8:m PM] One Fine Day - Janelle, Carole, and Ensemble
    [set ends 9:m PM]

[9:m PM lights down, announcements, band out]

1. [9:m PM] Chains - Carole and Ensemble
2. [9:m PM] Walking in the Rain - Barry and Cynthia
3. [9:m PM] Pleasant Valley Sunday - Marilyn Wald, Gerry, Carole and Ensemble
4. [10:m PM] We Gotta Get Out of This Place - Barry
5. [10:m PM] Will You Love Me Tomorrow reprise - Carole
6. [10:m PM] Uptown - Ensemble
7. [10:m PM] It's Too Late - Carole
8. [10:m PM] You've Got a Friend - Carole, Barry, Cynthia and Don
9. [10:m PM] (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Carole and Ensemble
10. [10:m PM] Beautiful - Carole
11. [10:m PM] I Feel the Earth Move - Carole King and Ensemble - not listed in program!?
    [show ends 11:m PM; bows and curtain calls, followed by an extended outro from the band as the crowd files out of the theater]

• Ben Fankhauser: Barry Mann;
• Becky Gulsvig: Cynthia Weil;
• Abby Mueller: Carole King;
• Liam Tobin Andrew Brewer: Gerry Goffin;

• Curt Bouril: Donnie Kirshner
• Suzanne Grodner Alaina Mills: Genie Klein (Carole's mother)
• Sarah Bockel: Betty, Ensemble
• Britney Coleman: “Uptown” singer, Ensemble
• Rebecca E. Covington: Janelle Woods, Ensemble
• John Michael Dias: Neil Sedaka, Bobby Hatfield, Lou Adler, Ensemble
• Andrew Brewer Matt Faucher: Bill Medley, Nick, Ensemble
• Ashley Blanchet Rosharra Francis: Little Eva, Ensemble
• Salisha Thomas: Lucilla, Ensemble
• Delaney Westfall: Marilyn Wald, Ensemble
• Josh A. Dawson: Ensemble
• Sidney Dupont: Swing
• Ryan Farnsworth: Ensemble
• Jay Mckenzie: Ensemble
• Paris Nix: Ensemble
• Noah J. Ricketts: Ensemble
• Ximone Rose: Swing

• Susan Draus: conductor, keyboards;
• Nick Williams: associate conductor, keyboards;
• Dwight Okamura: keyboards;
• Eric Stockton: guitar;
• Dave MacNab: guitar;
• Sasha Jacobsen: bass;
• Shannon Ford: drums;
• Arthur Storch: percussion;
• Steve Parker: woodwinds;
• Tim Devine: woodwinds;
• Chris Barnes: trumpet, ?flugelhorn;
• Kevin Porter: trombone, ?bass trombone, ?contractor!?;

• Marc Bruni: director;
• Joe Dulude II: makeup designer;
• Ross Evans: associate director;
• Gerry Goffin: words & music;
• Peter Hanson: production stage manager;
• Jason Howland: music director;
• Hiro Iida: electronic music designer;
• Peter Kaczorowski: lighting designer;
• Carole King: words & music;
• Sherry Kondor: executive producer;
• Stephen Kopel: casting;
• Jon Krause: stage manager;
• Charles Lapointe: hair & wig designer;
• Barry Mann: words & music;
• Derek McLane: scene designer;
• Douglas McGrath: book;
• John Miller: music coordinator;
• Josh Prince: choreographer;
• Brian Ronan: sound design;
• Christine Russell: executive producer;
• Steve Sidwell: orchestrator, vocal and incidental music arranger;
• Alison Solomon: associate choreographer;
• Billy Jay Stein: electronic music designer;
• Alejo Vietti: costume designer;
• Cynthia Weil: words & music;
• Stacey Zaloga: assistant stage manager.

See Wikipedia for a synopsis and other helpful info about this musical.

At the conclusion of the first act, my primary thought was, “meh, too much white bread,” for indeed, the construction recipe of choice morsels of teeny bopper pop is bland and tasteless. Like cotton candy puffs, it might taste heavenly at first, but too much will induce gastric distress before satisfying any serious hunger.

Thankfully, the second set introduced more substantial tunes, as the lyric pieces were stitched together in order to relate the story of Carole King's metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. Nothing stunning there either (after all it's what we expect when we see a caterpillar), but hugely more satisfying than the succession of Shoo Be Doo Wop-pop tunes that filled the first set.

Would i recommend the show? I'd say it depends on how you feel about the stronger material of the second half: if you like it, then sure, take a chance and see the play. You'll learn a bit about these pain and sorrow that stimulated creation of Carole King's masterpiece, Tapestry.

And somehow I seem to have misplaced my program with timing info, so there's only placeholders listed above. I'll probably find it someday when I'm sifting through the piles of crap around here, but until then, you get absolutely nothing!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!