Few people were expecting much when a jukebox musical biography about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons came to Broadway years ago, but Jersey Boys floored the theater world with such shabby tricks as a good surprise-laden story, sharp writing and first-rate staging. Ever since, producers have been in search of the next Jersey Boys.
Sorry to report, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ain’t it. Yes, it has a terrific set of songs from King’s trunk — numbers like “So Far Away,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “It’s Too Late” and “A Natural Woman” — and Jessie Mueller takes her place as a genuine Broadway star for her performance as reluctant singer/songwriter King.
But the script by Douglas McGrath is awfully weak and quippy, when it should be dramatic, and he uses only a few of King’s songs to further the story, settling instead for a string of presentational “and then I wrote” numbers, followed by slick but redundant cover versions by the likes of The Drifters and The Shirelles.
The show is directed by Marc Bruni, who staged the off-Broadway comedy act Old Jews Telling Jokes. (Make up your own punch line. It’s late and I’m tired.)
Still, the audience I saw it with seemed perfectly satisfied by the show, so enthralled by the songs that were the soundtrack of their Baby Boomer youth that they did not mind how lazily King’s story was told.
If I had to guess, I’d say Beautiful will have a long, healthy run — certainly remaining open as long as Mueller wants to stay in it — and the next show that tries to be a jukebox biography will have an easier time of it, because it probably won’t bother to roll up its sleeves and work on a worthy script and the audience won’t mind.
Next: The trip is almost over. Final two productions I’ll be seeing are Mothers and Sons and Buyer & Cellar.