Review: Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, a joyous experience that pulses with life

Rami Malek won the Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, Taron Egerton was lauded at the Golden Globes for his performance as Elton John in Rocketman, and even Weird Al is getting a biopic with Daniel Radcliffe at the helm.

By becoming stars, musicians are made into myths and icons, known by everyone while still shrouded in mystery.

But we want to know the people who pour their hearts out to us, who make us cry and swoon with their music - and that's where musicals such as Beautiful come in.

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, tells the story of one of the most successful female songwriters of the 20th century.

Carole King wrote the soundtrack to a generation, with countless classics such as (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Take Good Care of My Baby, You’ve Got a Friend, So Far Away, It Might as Well Rain Until September, Up on the Roof, and The Loco-Motion - the last of which Carole and her husband bizarrely wrote for their baby-sitter.

In a world in which artists are increasingly groomed for the spotlight from a young age, the children of wealthy and media families, stories like Carole's are rejuvenating.

Beautiful shows Carole as a starry-eyed teenager from Brooklyn, bright and exuberant, who dreams of writing hit songs for the stars.

After fighting her way into the record industry at 17, Carole falls head over heels for fellow musician Gerry Goffin and becomes pregnant.

The musical team get married, with the pair juggling parenthood and songwriting, nursing a friendly rivalry with fellow songwriters - Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.

Carole and Gerry's songs soar to the top of the charts, but the cracks start to show as Gerry falls into a depression, and a schism unfurls between the pair.

How do you write love songs with the man who broke your heart?

Beautiful is a joyous technicolour experience that pulses with life and feels like a party.

Set to an energetic soundtrack of beloved 60s and 70s hits, the musical has an infectious sense of fun that infiltrates the audience, which makes the pangs of heartbreak even more painful.

Seren Sandham-Davies as Cynthia Weil is a pleasure to watch, overflowing with zeal and life. Her cattiness when Carole's hits eclipse hers is delicious, and their evolution from rivals to friends is wonderful to see.

But Molly-Grace Cutler as Carole is the tour-de-force of the show, with an incredible voice that is by turns enlivening and eviscerating. She is animated and dynamic as a budding songwriter with the energy of Tigger, but after being broken by the strains of marriage, her pain and resilience shine through.

Her performance is quite simply, staggering.

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical is at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday.

For more information and to book tickets, go to birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/beautiful-the-carole-king-mu/#performance_content.