Months and months ago my youngest son’s sister-in-law had just seen the stage production of “Beautiful The Carole King Musical” at the Village Theatre in Issaquah. She recommended the live theatre. However the musical was sold out as was the Seattle area production. When I saw that Tacoma Musical Playhouse was scheduling the live theatre in July of 2024 Peggy and I were absolutely ecstatic. I started sharing the information with my Tacoma Rotary Club members and soon had a number of friends wanting tickets. We picked Sunday July 7th for tickets with a special dinner party following the Tacoma Production.
My wife and fellow writer Peggy and my cousin Lavinia Hart, an accomplished actor and director attended a special behind the scenes production of the upcoming Carole King musical. Every once in a while, Tacoma Musical Playhouse presents a free production where sometimes questions are answered and snippets of scenes are acted out or sung. It’s not something that is broadcast . . . but is often shared. There were people seated in every row and the teaser worked well on us. Soon our friends all had tickets for the July 7th production.
The musical carries audiences through Carole King’s life and career, the number of groups that had hit records via Carole King is astounding and the same goes with the producers that selected the woman who could reach out to the hearts of those who needed love or even just a good cry.
The production relied on the work of many actors. We got a good laugh out of Howy Howard as Neil Sedaka. We also liked Roycen Daley as the lead Drifter. The same goes with Stan Morrow and Alan Plaster as the Righteous Brothers. It was also nice to see Lanita Hudson performing in groups. Josh Wingerter did a good job as Gerry Goffin song writer and unfaithful husband to Carole King.
Kate Connors as Carole King did a very nice job singing and acting. With all the songs created by Carole King, TMP did a great job highlighting many as performing groups. Standing ovations usually start with a slight hesitation and then a wave of viewers rise to the occasion. At the end of the July 7th performance I think the entire audience arose as one.
July 28th . . . last day . . . https://tmp.org/
