Beautiful wins big at 2015 Grammy Awards
And the winner is... Beautiful: The Carole King Musical! Last night, the 57th Annual Grammy Awards took place in Los Angeles and in the category of 'Best Musical Theater Album,' Ms. King and co. fought off competition from West Side Story (San Francisco Symphony), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, and Disney's Aladdin. The Grammy Award is shared by the musical's Tony Award-winning leading lady Jessie Mueller and producers Jason Howland, Steve Sidwell and Billy Jay Stein.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on 12 January 2014, following previews from 21 November 2013. It is now taking bookings through to 24 May 2015.
The musical opened on Broadway to generally positive reviews, with most critics praising the music and performances whilst finding the book ad staging weak: "Friendly, formulaic bio-musical" (NY Times); "Marc Bruni's production only occasionally resurrects the bubbly verve and energy of those glorious songs"(NYP); "If you go to "Beautiful" for the songs, you'll probably have a great time. Just don't expect anything more"(Record).
It received two Tony Awards at the 2014 ceremony, including Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for the show's star Jesse Mueller who sang live with Carole King at the awards.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical "charts the rise of the famous singer-songwriter as she goes from being Carol Klein, a simple girl from Brooklyn to an international recording artist. It shows her fighting her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock 'n' roll."
The principal cast currently includes Jessie Mueller (Carole King), Scott J. Campbell (Gerry Goffin), Anika Larsen (Cynthia Weil), Jarrod Spector (Barry Mann), Paul Anthony Stewart (Don Kirshner), and Liz Larsen (Genie Klein).
The musical features music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil with a book by Douglas McGrath. It is produced on Broadway by Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and features direction by Marc Bruni, design by Derek McLane, sound design by Brian Ronan, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, choreography by Josh Prince and costumes by Alejo Vietti.
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