In an era when jukebox musicals proliferate, it’s sort of a no brainer to make a show out of one of the best selling albums of all time.
Carole King’s “Tapestry” comes from an era that is not generally well represented on Broadway — the singer-songwriter era out of Laurel Canyon, whose best work was stripped-down, focused and no frills — just the opposite, then of the kind of pizzazz that sells on the Great White Way.
Good thing that King’s story begins back in the era of the Brill Building pop that was the last gasp of the tin pan alley — and she had a passel of memorable hits, mostly written with her husband Gerry Goffin. So “Beautiful” (named after one of the lesser songs on “Tapestry”) is chock full of the kind of feel good hits like “Up on the Roof,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “The Locomotion,” “Chains” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
Because the action has the Goffin-King songwriting duo in competition with their friends Barry mann and Cynthia Weil, there’s a good deal of their hits as well, including “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” “On Broadway,” “Uptown” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”
And then sprinkled here and there like good time snippets from a Time-Warner 60s compilation infomercial, things from “Oh Carol” and “Be Bop a Lula.”
In the national road show production of the Tony-winning “Beautiful,” making its second stop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, the stage craft is busy and constantly moving in Derek McLane’s set — domestic upright pianos make way for the beehive of the songwriting offices, which make way for recording studios and big glitzy production numbers for unnamed TV shows by their approximations of the Drifters and the Shirelles.
Amid the dizzying changes of scene, they try to cobble together a story of a troubled marriage between King and Goffin, whose problems seem strangely personified by lyrics from “One Fine Day.” It may be a shock to those lured by the title and the vision of the woman chosen to play King — Abby Meuller, sister of the woman who won the Tony on Broadway — or by the stark but effective “So Far Away” that begins the show, that the whole “Tapestry” part comes only at the very end of the second act, where “It’s Too Late” becomes the emotional fulcrum for her parting ways with her husband.
(Though King always seemed so calm and clear about the decision, devastating in her noting that she “once loved you” in the cold past tense).
And to Mann and Weill, as she bids farewell, “You’ve Got a Friend.”
Even King may have a problem of how quickly things turn from chirpy 60s pop to her sophisticated introspective solo turn. I’m thinking a steeping in Laurel Canyon culture required a clearing of the head that would be longer than just wearing her hair curly.
Their whole handling of the indelible change of the British invasion seems a side story as well. King and Goffin produce “Pleasant Valley Sunday” for the Monkees, and it’s even more jolting when Mann-Weill write “We’ve Got to Get Out of this Place” for the Animals — songs meant to be written concurrently, though the Monkees had a hit in 1967; the Animals two years earlier in 1965.
Do jukebox musicals need stories? The one here seemed especially thin and rewritten so that every scene ended in a joke. I’m not buying that King’s mother was like the way she’s depicted here in any way. Let’s just hear the songs.
And for that, Mueller was great, handling even difficult things like “Natural Woman” with natural ease.
The problem under Jason Howland’s musical direction is to add a Broadway spin to everything — so that every number goes up an octave for a big ending, or singers vamp on their vocals when just doing the original the way it had been done would have been more honest less hokey and more effective.
You got the feeling that the guys singing the Drifters (and doing too much fussy choreography (from Josh Prince) weren’t familiar with the original recordings. Like the Shirelles and what were supposed to be the Chiffons, that meant a kind of generic wiping out of what made those groups great.
The touring company has a standout in Becky Gulsvig’s portrayal of Weill — all brassy and big on the vocals. But she wasn’t featured enough.
And though it built to the “Tapestry” triumph she only sang ultimately the title song of the show, as well as “I Feel the Earth Move” in the curtain call.
So what I’m saying means: No “Smackwater Jack”!