Broadway smash hit Beautiful The Carole King Musical comes to London

Douglas McGrath is a filmmaker and playwright. His films include the Oscar-winning Emma, Nicholas Nickleby and Infamous; the two documentaries His Way and Becoming Mike Nichols (Emmy nomination); as well as the screenplay for Bullets Over Broadway (Oscar nomination.) For the theatre, he has written Checkers and The Age of Innocence. His book for Beautiful was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.

Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Gerry Goffin met Carole King at Queens College and their musical collaboration began almost immediately. They married in 1959, and that same year wrote their first hit song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” (The Shirelles).

The duo penned over fifty Top 40 hits including “The Loco-motion”, “Natural Woman” and “Up On The Roof”. In 1987, Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Goffin passed away on June 19, 2014. His work has left an indelible mark on pop music.

Pop music would be very different without the contributions of Carole King, who at age 17 wrote her first #1 hit with Gerry Goffin, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, for the Shirelles.

The dozens of chart hits Goffin and King wrote during this period became legendary, but it was 1971’s Tapestry that took King to the pinnacle, speaking personally to her contemporaries and providing a spiritual musical backdrop to the decade.

More than 400 of her compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles and six Grammys.

Barry has written the melodies of some of the most influential pop songs in musical history. In addition to ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, the most-played song of the last century, and the songs heard in Beautiful, he composed later standards like ‘Somewhere Out There’ (winner of two Grammys), ‘Here You Come Again’, ‘Sometimes When We Touch’, ‘Just Once’ and ‘Don’t Know Much’.

Together, he and Cynthia Weil have amassed an incredible 112 pop, country and R&B awards from Broadcast Music Inc. for significant radio airplay. He has been inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cynthia is known as the lyricist of classic songs such as ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, the most-played song of the 20^th century. In addition to the songs heard in Beautiful, she set the words to later standards including ‘Somewhere Out There’, ‘Here You Come Again’, ‘He’s So Shy’, ‘Just Once’ and ‘Don’t Know Much’, to name just a few.

Weil has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honoured with multiple Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards for ‘Somewhere Out There’ as the Motion Picture Song of the Year and Song of the Year.

Grammy award winner, Tony, Emmy & Olivier nominated arranger, composer, producer, conductor and trumpeter, Steve Sidwell, has featured on numerous albums, television shows, advertising campaigns and films with his distinctive and innovative orchestrations and compositions.

Television commissions include: the 79^th Academy Awards; the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony; the Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony; BBC Special for VE Day 75 years; BBC Special for VJ Day 75years; the BBC Music Awards; The Voice Series 1 & 2; Robbie Williams Live at The Albert Hall; Children in Need Rocks; and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Theatre credits include: orchestrating Beautiful: The Musical; The Christmasaurus; Bat Out of Hell The Musical; We Will Rock You; Made In Dagenham; Our House; and Daddy Cool.

Film credits include: Film Music Co-Producer on Bohemian Rhapsody, Moulin Rouge!; Romeo + Juliet; Bridget Jones’ Diary; Teachers Pet; The Spongebob Squarepants Movie; and Finding Nemo.

Recording Credits include: Robbie Williams; George Michael; Paul McCartney; Sir Mick Jagger; Mark Knopfler; Amy Winehouse; Snow Patrol; Lily Allen; James Bay; Hozier; Faithless; Cheryl Cole; Muse; Dizzee Rascal; Mika; Take That; Annie Lennox; Leona Lewis; Tom Jones; Sting; Elton John; The Feeling; McFly; Will Young; Bryan Ferry; Joss Stone; Eric Clapton; Rod Stewart; Stevie Wonder; Gregory Porter; Ellie Goulding; Jess Glynne; The Who; Ian Dury; Wet Wet Wet; Charlie Watts; Henry Mancini; and Michael Nyman.

www.stevesidwell.com

Current projects as Orchestrator and Music Supervisor: Grease, Dominion Theatre West End; 101 Dalmatians, Regents Park; The Late Toy Show, The Dublin.

Recent credits: The Magician’s Elephant (Orchestrator) RSC; Talent Sheffield Crucible; Grease Curve and UK tour; Daisy, Workshop; West Side Story Curve (Supervisor only); Curtains UK Tour, Miss Littlewood RSC; Sweet Charity Water-mill; An Officer And A Gentleman UK Tour (Supervisor only); A Little Night Music Watermill; Scrooge; Legally Blonde Curve; Sister Act UK Tour; The Hired Man NYMT; Fiddler on The Roof UK Tour; The A to Z of Mrs P Southwark Playhouse; Jungle Book Glasgow Citizens Theatre; Dear World Charing Cross Theatre; Chess UK Tour, (Winner 2010 Touring Whatsonstage Award); Copacabana; Spend Spend Spend (Winner 2009 Regional Theatre Award for Best Musical); Sunset Boulevard Comedy Theatre; Martin Guerre; Hot Mikado; Ten Cents A Dance; Piaf; Carmen; Gondoliers; Pinafore Swing Watermill Theatre; Privates On Parade West Yorkshire Playhouse.

In 2006 Sarah won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for her Orchestrations on the Watermill Theatre Production of Sweeney Todd, which transferred to The Trafalgar Studios and Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

As Composer: Extraordinary Women GSA; The Lost Toys Big Adventure White Rock Hastings; Many Pantomimes for Chipping Norton; The Secret Garden Chester; The Marriage Of Figaro Watermill; Peter Pan Oxford Playhouse; A Star Danced Watermill; The Last Fattybottypuss In The World Regents Park; Tales My Lover Told Me Kings Head; A Womb With A View Radio 4; The Challenge The Shaw Theatre.

As Pianist: Bette Midler and Me Edinburgh Fringe; Julian Clary; Fascinating Aida; Lily Savage; Dillie Keane; Alvin Stardust; Barb Jungr; Issy Van Rand-wyck and Lucie Jones; Lauren Samuels and Sophie Evans all at The Crazy Coqs Zedels.

Leah was recently choreographer on the 5-star smash hit The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre). She has a plethora of experience on stage and on screen, following a performing career in London’s West End and internationally.

As Movement Director: Disney’s Aladdin (working with Naomi Scott and Will Smith)

As Assistant Choreographer: Disney’s Aladdin (feature film), Little Mix’s Women Like Me music video (choreographer Jaquel Knight), Jax Jones’ Summertime Ball performance (choreographer Jay Revell)

  Leah is thrilled to be choreographing this brilliant new production of Beautiful and would like to thank Nikolai for this extraordinary opportunity.

Tarik (he/him) was born in Melbourne, Australia and grew up training at his mother’s dance school Dance Explosion.

Choreography credits include: additional choreography for ink’d (Colchester Fringe), Make-A-Wish Australia Annual Gala (2015), Redken Brews Official Launch (Melbourne, Australia), and Resident Choreographer for FX Entertainment (2015). Tarik has assisted choreographers; Joey Pizzi, Tara Nicole Hughes, Rob Rich, Freya List and others.

As a performer Tarik’s Film/TV credits include: Angus in Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid (2023) and Big Night Of Musicals (BBC1). Tarik will appear as Prince Abdullah in Aladdin Live! (Digi-Capture) upcoming release on Disney+.

As a performer, his Theatre credits include: Scarecrow + Dance Captain in The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre), Prince Abdullah in Aladdin (West-End), Twig in Bring It On (Australian Premiere), iNk’d (Colchester Fringe), MADIBA (Australian & New Zealand Tour), ZUP (La Compagnie Urbaine – Switzerland), The Lion King (Melbourne, Australia & Shanghai, China) and the choreographic workshops for Bat Out of Hell (West-End).

As a performer his Dance/Stage credits include: FKA Twigs (World Tour), Justin Bieber, Aston Merrygold, Keala Settle, Melbourne Fashion Week, Paul Smith, Samsonite, Pringles and many more.

Tarik would like to thank Leah Hill and Curve Theatre, for the opportunity to undertake the role of Associate Choreographer on this exciting, newly imagined production of Beautiful.

Instagram/Twitter: @tarikfrimpong

www.tarikfrimpong.com