Casting Announced For Beautiful - The Carole King Musical At The Aldwych Theatre

Katie Brayben will play the title role in the West End production of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical opening at the Aldwych Theatre in February next year.  Alan Morrissey will play King’s husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, with Lorna Want as song-writer Cynthia Weil, Glynis Barber as Genie Klein, King’s mother, and Gary Trainor as music publisher and producer Don Kirshner.  London previews beginning on 10 February 2015 and with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015.  Press night will now take place on 24 February at 7pm.   Final casting will be announced shortly.

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, is based on the early life and career of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King.   Beautiful has a book by Douglas McGrath with words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and is directed by Marc Bruni.  Choreography is by Josh Prince with set designs by Derek McLane, costume designs by Alejo Viettii, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Brian Ronan.   Orchestrations and Music Arrangements are by Steve Sidwell.  Beautiful - The Carole King Musical will be produced in London by Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. 

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical is the untold story of her journey from school girl to superstar; from her relationship with husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, their close friendship and playful rivalry with fellow song-writing duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, to her remarkable rise to stardom.  Along the way, she became one of the most successful solo acts in music history, and wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Singer-songwriter Katie Brayben will play the title role of Carole King.  She is currently playing Princess Diana in King Charles III at the Wyndham’s Theatre and previously was seen in American Psycho:  A new musical thriller at the Almeida Theatre.  Her other theatre credits include Joking Apart for Nottingham Playhouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ragtime for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, 13 for the National Theatre, Company  for Southwark Playhouse, Return to the Forbidden Planet on tour in the UK and Mamma Mia!  both in the West End  and on tour internationally.  The screen credits include Vera and This Way Out.

Glynis Barber returns to the West End stage to play Genie Klein, Carole King’s mother.  On television she is best known for playing Harriet Makepeace in Dempsey and Makepeace and Soolin in Blake’s Seven.   Her more recent television credits include Glenda Mitchell in EastEnders, Jean McAtter in The Royal, Belinda in Family Affairs and Grace Barrowclough in Emmerdale.  Her other television credits include Visitors, Lucky Jim, The History of Mr Polly and Turkish Delight/Popcorn.  On film her credits include Point of Break, The Edge of Tomorrow, On The Nose, Deja vu, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Wicked Lady.  Her previous theatre credits include Love Letters for Dundee Rep, Season’s Greetings on tour, Separate Tables and Make Me A Match for the Mill at Sonning, the national tour of The Graduate, And Then There Were None at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Once in a Lifetime for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Piccadilly Theatre and A Murder is Announced at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Alan Morrissey was last on stage in I Can’t Sing at the London Palladium.  His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Twelfth Night and As You Like It.  For Shakespeare’s Globe he toured in Romeo and Juliet.  His screen credits include Nick Van Barr in Holby City as well as appearances in Doctors, Endeavour and The League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse.                     

Lorna Want has most recently played Winnie in Annie Get Your Gun on tour in the UK.   Her West End credits include Footloose, Evita, Parade, The Fantasticks and Dreamboats and Petticoats.   Her regional theatre credits include Robin Hood for the Cambridge Arts Theatre, Peter Pan at the Manchester Opera House and Les Miserables at the Birmingham Hippodrome.  

Gary Trainor’s theatre credits include Potted Potter at the Garrick Theatre and on tour in the US and Australia, The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham’s Theatre, The Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays, Into The Woods at the Landor Theatre, Jago at the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh and Prophecy at the Public Theatre in New York.  He has also toured the UK in Buddy, Frankenstein: The Year Without a Summer, Stones in His Pockets and The Oxford Passion.

With a cast of 26 and an orchestra of 12, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical at the Aldwych Theatre London features the Carole King classics including So Far Away, It Might As Well Rain Until September, Take Good Care of my Baby, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Up on the Roof, Locomotion, One Fine Day, You’ve Got a Friend, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and I Feel the Earth Move, along with hits like You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, On Broadway and Uptown from songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Multi award-winning Carole King fought her way into the record industry as a teenager and sold her first hit, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, when she was just seventeen.  By the time she was twenty she was writing number ones for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll, including The Drifters, The Shirelles, Aretha Franklin and The Monkees.  In a first for a female singer/songwriter, King’s album Tapestry won all three of the 1971 key Grammy Awards—record, song and album of the year.  The same year King also won the Grammy for Best Female Vocalist.  With more than 25 million records sold, Tapestry remained the best-selling album by a female artist for a quarter of a century.  More than 400 of her compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles and 6 Grammy awards.

The two-time Tony award-winning Beautiful - The Carole King Musical continues at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway where it opened on 12 January this year and has subsequently become one of Broadway’s top selling shows, playing to capacity houses.

Book your Beautiful - The Carole King Musical tickets for the Aldwych Theatre now!