Beautiful: The Carole King Musical: History and Key Facts

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath with songs by Carole King with Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann with Cynthia Weil, and others. The musical is a biographical piece depicting King’s songwriting career from her hiring at Aldon Music in 1958 to her debut performance in 1971, including her marriage to Goffin and their friendships with Mann and Weil.

The original production of Beautiful received its world premiere at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, in October 2013, with direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince, and starring Jessie Mueller in a Tony Award-winning performance as Carole King and Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin. It made its Broadway debut at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in January 2014. A West End production starring Katie Brayben as Carole began in February 2015. In March 2022, a new version of the production was launched for a UK tour from the Leicester Curve.

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