Beautiful

It was  lovely to return to The Princess Royal  for the second  time in 2024 to see Port Talbot MTC present the Welsh Amateur Premiere of Beautiful, The Carole King Musical.

This was the first time I would see this musical telling the story of the Grammy Hall of fame artist , and really admired the company for putting on new work.

Following a very warm welcome as usual from the company I was looking forward to seeing this production about the life of no doubt one of the greatest songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s.

The stage was simply set with the orchestra situated on the top of a rostra at the rear of the stage.

The scene changes were very slick and the orchestra under the batonship of Matt Hampson were well controlled and never overpowering.

The musical required a large cast with members of the ensemble playing many of the popular acts from that era ie Neil Sedaka, The Shirelles, The Righteous Brothers and many more. All of the supporting cast gave good performances adding to the flow of the musical.

Whilst it would be difficult to mention everyone of the talented cast I was impressed with Declan Stewart and Te Meo-Forde as The Drifters and Munachi Okafor as Little Eva, they commanded the stage well with their numbers , well done. Gaynor Williams as Genie Klein and Cat Hooper playing Betty/ Marilyn also proved their undoubted ability with some nice cameos.

Lee Bentley took on the role of Carole’s record producer Don Kirchner and he played it with the typical flamboyance that you would expect of music executives of that era.

Carole’s friends and fellow songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were played by Sam Freeman and Eleanor Williams. Both of these actors gave very strong performances both musically and vocally, I really loved Sam’s rendition of We gotta get out of this Place where he showed his vocal range.

Kallum Brain played Gerry Goffin, a difficult role as the musical showed his personality including his infidelity and breakdown. Kallum played this role really well.

All musicals of this genre require a strong performer for the Leading Actor , Port Talbot were very fortunate in this production to have Jessica Morgan playing the role of Carole King. Jessica gave an outstanding performance ,her musical numbers were performed impeccably and her character was totally believable. 

I know Jess has taken main roles in Panto locally when she was younger, but this was her first major role in a musical and she definitely nailed it.

There were many memorable moments in this show, including Up on the Roof, Do The locomotion, Natural Woman , and the aforementioned We Gotta Get out of this Place, but for me the quartet singing You've got a Friend was definitely one of the most poignant.

Congratulations to all the cast, crew and all of the production team for a very slick and enjoyable performance.

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.