Broadway Alum Julia Knitel Will Lead the National Tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

You've got a new friend! Broadway understudy Julia Knitel will star as Carole King the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Knitel will take over for Abby Mueller in the touring production of the hit Broadway musical beginning September 13 in San Francisco. Erika Olson will also join the tour as Cynthia Weil.

Knitel has appeared on Broadway in Beautiful, where she's been the Carole understudy for the last year, and Bye Bye Birdie. Olson is a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon; her theater credits include Forest Boy, Eurydice, The Full Monty and Uncle Vanya.

Knitel and Olson join a company that includes Liam Tobin (Gerry Goffin), Ben Fankhauser (Barry Mann), Curt Bouril (Don Kirshner) and Suzanne Grodner (Genie Klein).

Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll. But it wasn’t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice. Beautiful tells the inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

With a book by Tony and Academy Award nominee Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince, Beautiful features a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil.