My 'beautiful' experience playing US singer Carole King in new Scottish production of hit musical

As she prepares to play Carole King in a new production of Beautiful at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Kirsty Findlay tells Mark Fisher how the singer’s life story ‘makes you feel like you want to either burst into tears or dance’

The music of Carole King has a special place in Kirsty Findlay’s heart. In 1988, her mother, June McCreadie, appeared on the TV talent show New Faces singing one of King’s hits. “The first time I ever heard a Carole King song was when my mum sang Beautiful,” she says. “It was the Barbra Streisand version, but it wasn’t that much different!”

Findlay grew up in a musical household (her dad and uncle were in her mum’s band) and was aware of the singer-songwriter in the same vague way many of us are. Not everyone knows the name of Carole King, but few can have escaped her many hit songs. In the UK, more than 60 of them reached the charts, among them It’s Too Late, I Feel The Earth Move and Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But Findlay’s real entry point came from an unexpected source. “As a teenager, my way in was Gilmore Girls,” she recalls.

Kirsty Findlay PIC: Fraser BandKirsty Findlay PIC: Fraser Band
Kirsty Findlay PIC: Fraser Band

The theme tune of that series was a version of Where You Lead, a song first heard on Tapestry, King’s 1971 album that sold in excess of 30 million copies. Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has a shrewd ear for music and also gave King a cameo as Sophie Bloom, the owner of the kind of music shop where Pleasant Valley Sunday – another of her hits – would be playing in the background.

“I was one of those people who didn’t know her too well and then someone was like, ‘Oh yes, that’s a Carole King song,’ says Findlay. “She wrote over 400 songs or something ridiculous.”

Now she has been cast in the lead role of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and, naturally, her mum is delighted. “I think this is going to be one of her favourite things she’s seen me in,” says Findlay, who was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role along with the cast of Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour and appeared Off-Broadway in Islander: A New Musical.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That many do not know King’s name is not entirely accidental. Writing her first songs with Gerry Goffin, whom she married at 17, King was a reluctant star. The duo were happy turning out hits for Bobby Vee, Little Eva, the Drifters and many others and, although King reached number three in the UK charts in 1963 singing It Might As Well Rain Until September, she was primarily a writer.

“She still feels like she could walk past you in the street,” says Sam Hardie, the show’s director. “She doesn’t hold herself as if to say, ‘Look at me and this is what I’ve achieved’. She really is a natural woman for all she’s accomplished.”

Findlay agrees: “She was never interested in fame. She didn’t even want to be a singer. She was at the back, writing all the music. That’s where her happy place was.”

A case in point is 2018 when King received a Kennedy Center Honour for lifetime achievement in the company of Barack and Michelle Obama. “Aretha Franklin comes on stage to sing A Natural Woman and she is just in the audience as if it is Aretha’s song,” says Hardie. “To watch her celebrate Aretha – it feels like she’s just singing along as an audience member not as the creator behind it, which speaks volumes about her and who she is.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Written by Douglas McGrath, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical appeared on Broadway a decade ago. The West End production followed hot on its heels. It tells King’s story between the ages of 16 and 29, from writing Oh Carol for Neil Sadaka to striking out with a post-divorce cry of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

“The music is incredible,” says Findlay, who accompanies herself on the piano in the actor-musician show. “It’s in the melodies, the way that it’s written, but also in the lyrics that Gerry Goffin wrote – Will You Love Me Tomorrow, A Natural Woman – he was one of those anomalies that can write about a woman’s experience in such an intimate way. The combination of their skills is incredible.”

For Findlay to play a high-achieving woman who shuns the spotlight creates an unusual tension in a musical. “The reason it’s so easy to connect to her is she’s such a people person,” she says. “She grounded and her priorities are clear. She wants to make good work but she’s always wanted to have a family and a life outside music. After the timeline of the show, she went off-grid for years in the middle of nowhere. She’s an easy person for people to relate to even though she has this massive career and incredible talent. She knows she can do it well in the same way that anybody can do their job well.”

Rather than try to mimic King or any of those who covered her songs, they are interpreting them as characters. “We’ve spoken a lot about capturing the essence of their energy,” says Hardie. “There’s so much feeling behind all her songs and that’s why they feel intimate. You feel like you want to either burst into tears or dance. In a world where women were the housewives and limited in what they wanted to be, to see Carole King do this, while still maintaining and loving a family, and championing other artists, she is a winner – she won for us all!”

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 7 June–28 September.

Dare to be Honest
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice