Beautiful, Aldwych Theatre

Musicals stand or fall on their books; docu-musicals are defined by them. Even a bunch of great songs won’t entirely carry an evening on Broadway or in the West End and it’s certainly no coincidence that Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s cracking book for Jersey Boys helped catapult Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons back into the public’s consciousness. Their songs aren’t a patch on Carole King’s extraordinary back catalogue of goodies but then again it’s not just King’s songs that make Beautiful – the Carole King Musical engaging. The rivalry between Gerry Goffin and Carole King and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil is the dynamic which more than anything drives Douglas McGrath’s serviceable book – that and a neat line in song cues. Isn’t it always the fun part of so-called Jukebox musicals – anticipating where and when those old favourites are going to pop up?

Mostly we are there at the moment of their inception in Beautiful as Katie Brayben’s sensationally convincing King knocks them out at the piano (real frisson-inducing moments) or lets Gerry Goffin’s lyrics gently unlock them. And we are there as the star turns which carried them into the hall of fame elaborate them from plain keyboard renditions into lushly arranged chart-toppers. The spirit of a prolifically fertile era rules here and right at the start of the show – we begin where we end with “So Far Away” from Carole King’s solo debut at Carnegie Hall – we are spirited in flash-back to Donnie Kirshner’s “song factory” where a terraced gallery of studios are alive with the sounds of iconic hits. The show effectively explodes into life here and (for those of us of a certain age) it is that element – far more than the ups and downs of King’s professional and personal relationship with Goffin and indeed the happy rivalry with Mann and Weil – which is bound to be the reason we are there.

There are some great “turns” in the offing: Ed Currie and Dylan Turner as the Righteous Brothers in “You’ve Lost That Lovin Feeling”; or Ian McIntosh’s likeable hypercondriac Barry Mann ripping out a terrifically full-throated rendition of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”.

But the show belongs to Katie Brayben’s wonderfully unassuming assumption of Carole King whose quest for normality, for true love and family values, was never going to stifle such a mighty talent. And how moving it is that after such a collaborative young life writing songs for the great and the good of pop music she should in her solitude find it within herself to fashion one of the great pop albums of all time – Tapestry. The moment where Lou Adler persuades her to at least have a go at a song so personal that she is mindful of omitting it is the biggest goosebump moment of all – and my goodness Katie Brayben devours “A Natural Woman”. Don’t miss her.