Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre
Director Jessica Fisch and cast members Kaitlyn Davis (‘Carole King’) and Erica Stephan (‘Cynthia Weil’), from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre, sat down with me via video chat to discuss the production.
Those interviews are below.
Jessica Fisch directed this production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre. Her previous credits include Dear Jack, Dear Louise at Northlight Theatre (which garnered Jeff Award nominations in the “Director – Play - Large” and “Production – Play – Large” categories) and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express at Drury Lane Theatre (also nominated for the “Production – Play – Large” Jeff Award).
To watch the interview with Jessica Fisch, click the play button below (or click here to open the vidoe player in a new tab/window).
Click here to display the video player on this page.
To listen to the interview, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Kaitlyn Davis portrays Carole King in this production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre. Her previous credits include national tours of both Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and The Phantom of the Opera.
To watch the interview with Kaitlyn Davis, click the play button below (or click here to open the video player in a new tab/window).
Click here to display the video player on this page.
To listen to the interview, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Erica Stephan portrays Cynthia Weil in this production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre. Her previous credits include Cabaret at Porchlight Music Theatre (for which she received her first Jeff Award in the “Performer in a Principal Role – Musical” category) and Damn Yankees at The Marriott Theatre.
To watch the interview with Erica Stephan, click the play button below (or click here to open the video player in a new tab/window).
Click here to display the video player on this page.
To listen to the interview, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Ill. runs through January 7, 2024.
For more information, and to purchase tickets, you can visit The Marriott Theatre's website.
Mike Reflects
When I’m seeing a show for the first time, as I did here, I like to go in blind. I don’t look at the cast recording track list, or even the songs in the Playbill. I find out what the next song will be when I hear it.
I recommend that, especially with this show. Many of the song intros are quips, that lose something if you know what’s coming, or, like Kaitlyn mentioned, just an all around surprise, like Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, which don’t start as you’d expect.
Which also means that I don’t know what songs are in a show like this until I’m watching the show.
I went to the show opening night with a friend that I hadn’t seen since last year. On the way to the theatre, we were catching up, and conversation turned to the passing of Chicago radio legend Dick Biondi, as well as his friendship with singer Bobby Darin.
I pointed out that Bobby was long overdue for a musical of this sort. What I didn’t realize was that he was a part of this one.
The third song in the show, a medley introduction to the Brill Building at 1650 Broadway, features Bobby Darin’s Splish, Splash.
While the show is called Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, it’s really not. She’s a focal point, the lens through which the story is told, but the main character is really the Brill Building.
During a part of the show talking about what it meant to be writing songs for the TV band The Monkees, I couldn’t help but think back to a scene from The Simpsons where Marge is talking to her therapist about how The Monkees didn’t write their own songs. And I wondered why they’d need to, when they could get songs from the likes of Carole King and Neil Diamond in the Brill Building.
While not everyone gets a stage presence, and many of those who do are fleeting—my friend even asked me who Neil Sedaka was when I mentioned him after the show—the friendly competition with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, as well as the general staging of the production, really give you a feel for the massive role the building played in this story and music history.