Jake Epstein, Jarrod Spector, Anika Larsen and More Join Jessie Mueller in Beautiful—The Carole King Musical
Jake Epstein, Jarrod Spector and Anika Larsen will make Beautiful music with Tony nominee Jessie Mueller in the new Carole King bio musical. Directed by Marc Bruni and choreographed by Josh Prince, Beautiful—The Carole King Musical begins performances at Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre on November 21, with opening night slated for January 12, 2014.
In addition to Mueller as Carole King, Beautiful features Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Spector as Barry Mann and Larsen as Cynthia Weil. The company also includes Jeb Brown as Don Kirshner, Liz Larsen as Genie Klein and an ensemble members Ashley Blanchet, E. Clayton Cornelious, Joshua Davis, Alysha Deslorieux, Kevin Duda, Carly Hughes, Sara King, Rebecca LaChance, Douglas Lyons, Chris Peluso, Gabrielle Reid, Arbender Robinson, Rashidra Scott, Sara Shepard, Antoine L. Smith and Melvin Tunstall.
Epstein currently appears as the Peter Parker/Spider-Man alternate in Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark; he is best known for his role as bipolar musician Craig Manning on TV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation. Broadway audiences know Spector for his long-running stint as Frankie Valli in the Tony-winning musical Jersey Boys. Larsen appeared on Broadway in Xanadu, Rent, All Shook Up and Avenue Q.
Featuring songs written by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and a book by Douglas McGrath, Beautiful tells the story of King from her early days as a Brooklyn teenager (named Carol Klein) struggling to enter the record business to her years spent as a chart-topping music legend.
Beautiful will feature set deisgn by Derek McLane, costume design by Alejo Vietti, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, sound design by Brian Ronan, wig and hair design by Charles G. LaPointe, orchestrations and musical arrangement by Steve Sidwell and music supervision by Jason Howland.
Beautiful will receive its world premiere at San Francisco’s SHN Curran Theatre September 24 through October 20 before hitting Broadway.
