Beautiful Noise review
If you are looking to draw an audience into what seems like a typical biographical jukebox musical, starting and ending your drama in psychoanalysis is a great device. Then again, âA Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical,â does not exactly play by all the rules of jukebox theater. It unfolds first as a hit parade within a dramatic retelling of Diamondâs 1960s beginnings in Act 1, followed by a second act set of sequined, post-1960s concerts spliced with portraits of a broken marriage and lonely childhood, and then a denouement of hardcore emotional resolve.
All that, plus sparkly fringe and a poignant, pre-intermission sing-along of âSweet Caroline.â Ultimately, âA Beautiful Noiseâ is victorious, but not without a few rough bumps along the way â much like the trajectory of Diamondâs life.
Within the âBeautiful Noiseâ framework, there are two Diamonds. There is Will Swensonâs low-voiced âNeil Thenâ from the 1960s to 1990s, a dark, cloud-haunted Jewish kid from Brooklyn looking for pop hits and respect as a poet. There is also Mark Jacobyâs gravelly âNeil Now,â an older man whose performing career was felled by Parkinsonâs disease, looking for connection with family and for inner peace in a way his younger self could not.
The younger Neil â depressed even after he achieves countless hits, first for other acts, then himself â craves success on his own terms in order to feed his family and soothe his restless soul. The older Neil seeks to cleanse himself from the darkness that made his younger years unbearable and ruined two marriages. This is how Neil gets to his therapist (Linda Powell) in the first place, hoping to come to terms with his demons.
The book by Anthony McCarten (the âBohemian Rhapsodyâ screenwriter whose Warhol-Basquiat play, âThe Collaboration,â will also open on Broadway this month), brings gravitas and humor to the âsolitary manâ with a voice of âgravel wrapped in velvet.â McCarten also lends necessary lightness to Diamondâs woe-is-me demeanor.
âWhat if woe is me?â poses Swensonâs Neil to Marcia Murphey, the soon-to-be-second Mrs. Diamond (Robyn Hurder) at Greenwich Villageâs Bitter End. The conversation, held at the start of his career as a singer, raises one of the many questions that Diamond faces both in his youth and in his dotage.
Diamondâs insecurity gets a boost of confidence with the aid of Brill Building songwriter and mentor Ellie Greenwich (Bri Sudia). A fictional recounting of Diamondâs dealings with Bang Records â a Mob-laced enterprise whose âGoodfellasâ vibe is heightened by the comedic talents of Michael McCormick and Tom Alan Robbins â shows an artist wrestling with his ambition to create smart songs driven by self-reflective introspection, rather than just pure pop.
That questioning of popâs value begins earlier in âA Beautiful Noise,â when the older Neil looks back at his first hit â âIâm a Believerâ by the Monkees â as a silly tune penned for quick cash. That is, until his therapist points out âIâm a Believerâ is rife with rhyming elements of pain and rain.
The book runs through Diamondâs two failed marriages (prior to his successful third) and his lost connection to his children due to the ravages of fame, tour schedules and professional determination â typical showbiz fare, with nothing special to make it unique to either Neil. The playwright also brings Diamondâs childhood â one of imaginary friends, a loving connection to Russian and Polish immigrant Jewish grandparents and his lack of fitting in â to bear on âA Beautiful Noise,â yet somehow misses the mark on how the dots of Diamondâs life thoroughly connect to the dark clouds that plague him.
What connects those biographical dots more completely are Diamondâs wildly contagious songs, and the ways McCarten, director Michael Mayer and producer-orchestrator Bob Gaudio (Diamondâs friend, consigliere and the one-time Four Seasons member whose own true story, âJersey Boys,â was a Broadway musical smash) place each tune within the dramatic framework of âA Beautiful Noise.â
Impressively sung and acted by Swenson in a manner that is Diamond-inspired and immersive without mere impersonation, the young Neil rips through a selection of his greatest hits and worst moments. A swinging âCherry, Cherryâ (complete with a â60s-era frug from dancer-vocalist Hurder) is interspersed with a swooning âSeptember Morningâ to illustrate the self-destruction of homey marital bliss with first wife, Jaye Posner (Jessie Fisher). Not long after that, an emotional Swenson and Fisher cleverly rewind the dissolution of a marriage with âLove on the Rocks,â with each fissure deepening with every note. When Diamondâs second marriage implodes, it is with a whisper â Swenson and Hurderâs pensive âYou Donât Bring Me Flowersâ â rather than a scream.
From there, Gaudio and Sonny Paladinoâs inventive orchestrations fill Diamondâs early hits with lounge jazz, country twitches and bold brassy eclat â giving a growly Swenson room to roam on songs such as âShiloâ and âPlay Me.â
Act 2âs spangle, sequin and fringe-heavy concert segments aptly portray Diamondâs schmaltzy 1970s and â80s. A humorous take on âSong Sung Blueâ acts as comic relief, but Hurderâs rendition of âForever in Blue Jeansâ is corny and out of place compared to Swensonâs musical and dramatic triumphs. And Jacobyâs sole vocal moment (âI Am⌠I Saidâ) handsomely portrays an older Neil resolving his lifeâs deepest questions in a fitting personal revelation before the full-cast finale of the gospel-laden âHolly Holyâ â and, of course, a reprise of âSweet Caroline,â the biggest of Diamondâs signature hits.
As in Diamondâs lyrics to the song âBeautiful Noise,â his story is the sound and vision of romance, fury, passing parades and moments of joy and strife. That fits him, and his musical of the same name, like a hand in a glove.
Last Update:November, 20th 2023
Beautiful Noise Lyrics
- Act I
-
Opening Montage Lyrics
- A Beautiful Noise
- I'll Come Running/ I Got the Feelin'/ I'm a Believer
- Iâm A Believer
- The Boat That I Row / Red Red Wine / Kentucky Woman
- Kentucky Woman
-
Into The Bitter End Lyrics
- Solitary Man
- Cracklin' Rosie
- Song Sung Blue
- Cherry, Cherry / September Morn'
- Love On The Rocks
- Hello Again
-
A Heavenly Progression Lyrics
- Sweet Caroline
- Act II
-
Entr'acte Lyrics
- Brother Loveâs Traveling Salvation Show
- Play Me
- Forever In Blue Jeans
- Soolaimon / Thank The Lord for the Night Time / Crunchy Granola Suite
- You Don't Bring Me Flowers
- Brooklyn Roads / America
- Shilo
- I Am... I Said
- Holly Holy