Tapestry Rewoven: Slow Burn Spins Beautiful into Gold

By Joanie Cox Henry

Photo By Larry Marano

There are musicals that entertain, and then there are musicals that transport you — that reach into the chambers of memory and pull something warm and luminous into the present tense. Slow Burn Theatre Co.'s production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is emphatically, joyfully the latter.

Running through March 1 at the Broward Center's Amaturo Theater, this production announces itself as something special from its very first notes. Douglas McGrath's book is shrewdly constructed, tracing King's remarkable arc from a fiercely ambitious Brooklyn teenager born Carole Klein, armed with nothing but an extraordinary ear and an unshakeable conviction — to the artist who would redefine American popular music with the seismic Tapestry. What could easily become a breezy jukebox exercise instead reveals itself as a genuinely moving portrait of creative self-discovery and hard-

won independence.

At the center of it all stands Monet Sabel in a performance of uncommon grace and depth. She inhabits Carole King with startling authenticity, navigating the character's decades-long evolution with intelligence and emotional precision. When she finally unleashes "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," the theater doesn't merely applaud. It breathes together. That is the mark of a genuinely extraordinary performance.

Director Patrick Fitzwater guides the production with a confident, elegant hand, never allowing the parade of beloved songs such as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Up on the Roof," "You've Got a Friend" to overwhelm the intimate human story beneath them. Cat Pagano's choreography crackles with period authenticity, and the ensemble, particularly the Shirelles and the Drifters, delivers sequences of such infectious vitality that the audience can barely remain in their seats.

The supporting cast rises magnificently to every occasion. Lindsey Corey brings razor-sharp wit and genuine warmth to Cynthia Weil, while Nick Anastasia's Barry Mann is wholly endearing. Milo Alosi renders Gerry Goffin with a complicated, magnetic charm that makes King's devotion entirely comprehensible.

Beautiful is, in every sense a reminder of how popular music can carry the whole of a life within it.

https://slowburntheatre.org/profile/beautiful-the-carole-king-musical/