The appeal of a jukebox musical is simple: audiences are drawn to music they know and love, to see a concert of hits, often part of the soundtrack of their lives, while also being told a story through those songs.
It hardly matters in terms of popular opinion that the stories are often formulaic, the plots thin; it’s still a value-added experience to take in a live performance with singing, dancing, and storytelling that also takes you back to gently revisit poignant moments of your own life through familiar tunes.
“A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical” fits the bill quite beautifully, indeed. Opening on Broadway in December 2022 and currently in its first national tour with a stop in Grand Rapids at DeVos, the show, with book by Anthony McCarten, offers a biography of the prolific American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, one of the best-selling musicians of all time, told chronologically through a hit parade of his most iconic Adult Contemporary songs.
Director Michael Mayer has accurately described the first act as “a musical wrapped in a play, and the second act is a play wrapped in a concert,” and all of it is essentially a memory play framed by the older, wiser, somewhat resistant Diamond (played by Tony-nominated Robert Westenberg) in therapy sessions trying to come to understand himself through the lyrics he’s written over more than half a century.
The narrative twists and turns are gentle and predictable for a budding and then hugely successful pop star: his ambitions destroy his marriages, he struggles to come home to himself or anyone else after becoming accustomed to the adulation of thousands of fans night after night, and he never quite overcomes the nagging self doubt born of a lonely Brooklyn childhood and the generational trauma passed down from his Eastern European Jewish immigrant parents.
But the most evocative tension in the show is the one that resonates unnamed: the fact that Diamond, now 84, who was involved in the development of the show, was forced into retirement by Parkinson’s disease. In a program note titled “Letter from Neil” he writes about both, saying that watching the show has been therapeutic, helping him come to terms with the realities of his life.
We feel that what we’re seeing on stage is real, witnessing the vulnerabilities and evolution of an icon; and we are fully aware that this is as close as we’ll ever get now to being audience to a Neil Diamond concert.
And it’s a delight. Whether you’re a Neil Diamond fan, just someone who can’t help chiming in whenever you hear “Sweet Caroline” in a crowd, or even if you roll your eyes at the idea of Adult Contemporary hits, the songs are unassailable. Diamond wrote some brilliant tunes, and Nick Fradiani, the 2015 American Idol winner, channels Diamond’s voice as well as his conflicted spirit. Morose and depressed in his personal life but ebullient as a stage presence, he captures the “velvet wrapped in gravel” and wonderful phrasing unique to Diamond’s singing—without veering into cheap imitation. Fradiani’s performance is extraordinary, and his success is ultimately what makes this show so utterly enjoyable.
Though there are some extraneous numbers, such as an interminable “Forever in Blue Jeans” over performed by Hannah Jewel Kohn as Diamond’s second wife, Marcia Murphey, most of the show’s other elements hit the right notes, from an excellent corps (terrific choreography from Yasmine Lee) who act as audience in the Greenwich Village club where Diamond got his start to being back-up dancers in his big concerts; to other supporting cast members (standouts from Kate A. Mulligan as Ellie Greenwich and Tiffany Tatreau as Jaye Posner); and terrific scenic design by David Rockwell, from stylish MidCentury suspension-bridge backdrops to two-tier Hollywood Square musician platforms; and snazzy, sparkly, colorful period costumes from Emilia Sosa.
And all of it, quite simply, provides an elegant, enjoyable showcase for so many excellent songs, about 30 in all. Highlights include “Hello Again”, “I Am . . . I Said”, “Play Me”, “Solitary Man”, invited singalong to “Sweet Caroline”, “Cherry Cherry”, and “Love on the Rocks” among others.
It’s a jukebox musical not unlike other successful jukebox musicals; and though it may be formulaic, the formula works. “A Beautiful Noise” is an enjoyable night out at the theatre and as close as you can come to seeing Neil Diamond live in concert.
A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical
Broadway Grand Rapids
April 1-6
https://grandrapids.broadway.com/shows/a-beautiful-noise/
