REVIEW: 'Beautiful: The Carol King Musical'

"I'm just a normal person. Who wants to see a normal person sing?"

"Um, other normal people?"

This exchange between Carol King (Sarah Bockel) and a studio musician doesn't happen until the second act, but I think it's a nice introduction to, and even summation of "Beautiful: The Carol King Musical."

Even without the show opening at King's Carnegie Hall debut, we as the audience know from the beginning how high her star will rise. That doesn't keep you from rooting for her from the very first moments, though. We quickly watch a 16-year-old King sell her first song to a major publishing company and fall in love with her future husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin (Andrew Brewer). The story offers a behind the scenes look (if, perhaps, likely a bit dramatized for the stage) at where Carol King started and her journey from "normal person" songwriter to superstar as she finds her voice and her self.

Bockel, a dead ringer for King, is endearing as heck in the role. She brings a likeable amount of spunk and resiliency to the part -- the latter more evident in the second act as we watch her and Goffin struggle in their writing and their marriage. Goffin makes some bad choices. And it's hard to empathize with or even root for a character who does wrong by a lovable protagonist. But Brewer's Goffin is one of the strongest and most relatable performances in the show, in my opinion. Clearly dealing with mental illness -- likely manic depression -- Goffin does seem to do the best he can in the circumstances the couple find themselves. To a point. People make mistakes, but when King has finally had enough and ends the marriage, the cheer from Tuesday's opening night audience was justified -- and felt like a release. There's the Carol we've been waiting for. After the dissolution of her writing duo, King finds herself writing on her own and you can feel the show building to her triumphant arrival.

I was surprised at the amount of humor in the show; it felt every scene had laughs. King delivers a few of them, but the standout comedic moments came from Cynthia Weil (Sarah Goeke) and Barry Mann (Jacob Heimer) -- King and Goffin's best friends and friendly writing competitors on the other side of the office wall.

A lot of the music written by King and Goffin we know today, even if, like me, you didn't grow up with it. But much their writing credits were unknown to me. So, of course, the music is wonderful. Seeing the other side of the curtain, so to speak, of the entertainment business and how some of the biggest songs from the glitzy 1960s and '70s came to be was a pure joy to watch unfold on stage. But watching Carol King discover her own confidence and self-worth was even more beautiful.