Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Aldwych / National Tour

Given the poor grosses, it was a matter of time before it happened. It'd had a great run and it'll probably have a long touring life.

Broadway seems to be culling shows left, right and centre at the moment!

Daisy Wood-Davis cast as Carole King.

An interesting choice. She was great in Hair.

Cameron Sharp cast as Barry Mann!! I'm glad Cam is back on uk shores!

Opening tomorrow at Bromley and whole run there sold out. I think this is going to do very well on tour.

Anyone heading to see this in it's opening few weeks? Interested to hear thoughts on the cast/this particular tour. Looking to book for Bristol seeing as I loved the show both in London and on the last tour

I was there last night for the first preview of what is easily my favourite of the many jukebox musicals. Functionally, this is all there. The cast know the lines, the vocals are good, the venue sound quality is good (although the vocals were often drowned out by the orchestra). As a whole show, this didn't quite gel for me, and I say this as someone who has seen the UK, US and Australian productions. But it was the first preview.

Now, I was in the very back row of the Circle, which in Bromley doesn't seem so far away and is a decent seat (good legroom), no one behind you etc. It was a quiet audience all night, good from the point of view of enjoying the show, bad in that there were no reactions to the jokes. The only big laugh all night came when Gerry reappeared at the end and I have no idea why the audience burst out laughing at that point.

Daily Wood-Davis was fine vocally as Carole, tried to get the mannerisms, but didn't have the voice. I know she's good on stage seeing her several times on the Hair tour. The main challenge I had was she played Carole as meek. I also didn't see much in the way of chemistry with her and Adam Gilliam (Gerry), who was also fine, but also underplayed his big dramatic moments.

Laura Baldwyn as Cynthia was pacing through her lines, particularly in the first half. Maybe nerves? She has a good voice when she sings. Oliver Boot (Donnie) and Susie Fenwick (Genie) were both fine. I warmed most to Cameron Sharp as Barry who sang well and managed to get most of the laughs.

Nice to see Grant McConvey back from the last UK tour.

One other downside of the Circle is you can the piano behind played on stage from the top and the synchronisation just isn't there yet.

Yesterday, this started about 10 minutes late, the break seemed a few minutes longer than usual, but this was still over by 10:10pm, which really did make me feel they were rushing.

I'm seeing this again in a few weeks, from much closer to the front, where hopefully the intimacy will work better. I think this will come together, but it isn't quite there yet, which was reflected by hardly anyone in the Circle standing up at the end, which is very unusual for a first preview.

I meant to post when I saw this in Hull on the 25th Jan, but I couldn't find the thread, so thank you for bumping it!

I had Vicki Manser as Carole, which was not surprisingly the reason I travelled to Hull. I saw the show almost 2 years ago on its original UK tour and would nearly say I disliked it. However this cast is much better in my eyes and Vicki is absolutely brilliant Carole. I saw her second show as alternate and you would have thought she'd be playing the role for years. Incredibly different use of her talents compared to Six and a much better use of them her rendition of Beautiful had me crying. The rest of the cast are brilliant to me, highlights of the ensemble are Jordan Fox and Toyan Thomas-Browne.

I will be seeing this again in Sunderland with Vicki as Carole again. I'm hesitant to see Daisy considering how much I enjoyed Vicki, but I likely will if I can get a cheap ticket for Saturday during the Sunderland run.

Vicki Manser posted about this earlier. I was supposed to be going twice at two different venues (wanted to make sure I definitely saw Vicki playing Carole!)

I had an email from ATG today, they plan to reschedule the Milton Keynes dates! 😀

I've had four identical messages from ATG about different shows. I think they are treating every show at every venue as postponed rather than cancelled at present.

Melissa Benoist was my first choice for the movie