Jukebox musicals are usually not my thing.  “So this happened to me and then I wrote this and then I did this and out poured this song.”  Some are better than others both because the quality of the songbook varies and the life of the artist(s) is more or less interesting..

Beautiful: The Carol King Story has the very real advantage of having a terrific set of songs and interesting biography of it’s subject.  In addition the production credits are first rate and the talent of the performers (especially Chilina Kennedy) is amazing.  I am only getting to it late because it is just showing up on my discount sites.  It sells well to the tourist crowd because the music and theme are universally loved and the evening is predictably worth it.  I’ll vouch for that.  It still has the basic jukebox musical structure but the reliably wonderful music keeps you humming all night.  Highly recommended – for a jukebox musical, that is.

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes

TOMORROW: Another review – Hello Dolly! with Bernadette Peters