They were chasing hits while collaborating and competing with each other all in a 9 to 5 job during an era where the push was on to make American pop music even more popular.
In Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, opening Tuesday at Theatre Under the Stars at the Hobby Center, the story of these pop composers is a large part of how King rose from writer to superstar performer.
Barrett Riggins (last seen at TUTS in Memphis and Beauty and the Beast) plays Barry Mann who ends up pairing with (and later marrying) fellow songwriter Cynthia Weil while King teams up(also later marrying) with Gerry Goffin. As the Tony Award-winning musical unfolds, one marriage remains solid, the other not so much.
But the music they were writing has lasted. From Carole King : “So Far Away,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “It’s too Late,” “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman,” – are just some of the songs the musical contains. From Barry Mann: “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” with the Righteous Brothers, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Cynthis Weil and Barry Mann: “Walking in the Rain.” Gerry Goffin: “Take Good Care of My Baby with Carole King. The list, as Riggins puts it, “is immense.”
“Barry Mann [who wrote] was a songwriter born in Brooklyn and I’m a songwriter living in Brooklyn so there’s a unity there that’s really fun and a unique opportunity for me. I’ve been writing as well as acting my whole life,” Riggins says.
Asked to describe his character, Riggins says: “Barry is a extremely neurotic and competitive young songwriter when we meet him. What’s so fun about Beautiful, of course, [while] people are coming to see the history of Carole King, the show tracks these two pairs of songwriters. You see them both as contracted songwriters in this period of creative ecstasy in the ‘60s as they both were trying to one up each other.
“One team would come out with this No. 1 hit and the [other] team would respond. I think the audience gets caught up in the competition and it’s very fun.”
There is still collaboration in songs being written today, but not in exactly the same way, Riggins says. As depicted in the musical, “It was at this building, 1650 Broadway, which was actually the scrappier younger brother to the Brill Building which was even more sort of the songwriting institution factory.
“This was many of the record labels had contracted singers as well,” Riggins says. “It was a 9 to 5 job, grab your coffee, and you write. You pump out pop songs and then they make a demo and pair it to an artist.”
“I think there was a thrill as well for Mann and Weil to be chameleonic composers. They worked for decades. They worked in the theater, in film, in pop. You see them even in the show going from what we would consider early rock and roll sounds to much more ‘60s -inspired songs sung by the Monkees or more psychedelic protest rock. The fact that this was all coming from the same voices.”
“The story of Beautiful is ultimately the story of how Carole King came to realize she should be the one singing her own songs and to take ownership of that.”
Performances are scheduled for May 19-31 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8887 or visit tuts.org. $60-$169.
