SummerStage Presents Beautiful in Concert
The Artist’s Visa is back after a long break and with it, The Summer! The Summer is one of my favorite times of the year in New York City. The weather is great, which allows to do many things outside including free Summer festivals.
Earlier this week, I attended a concert version of Beautiful, a Broadway musical that follows the story of Carole King’s life. This concert was presented as part of the SummerStage festival at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. SummerStage is New York City’s largest performing arts festival, which for the last 30 years has been presenting free performances in all five boroughs, featuring a line up of performers and events as broad as NYC’s diverse citizens.
Attending a FREE performance in NYC is not as easy as it sounds. If you want to attend any of the SummerStage events, I recommend you to get there early —30 minutes to an hour before the doors open— about three hours before the show is scheduled. When I arrived to Central Park (about two and a half hours before showtime), I was overwhelmed by the amount of people already in line. The diversity of the attendees was incredible. From my spot in line, I could see three very different groups of people. One was a Brazilian family —mom, dad and two daughters— the girls were playing with what looked like newly purchased toys from a shopping spree down 5th Avenue. Close by stood two young girls who sounded like transplants from the suburbs of Long Island. And directly next to me were 2 women visiting New York from Holland. We quickly began to chat and bonded over a discussion of theater and traveling. They spoke about their experiences in New York and we traded opinions of the shows we have seen. It seemed as if it were fate that I was standing next to tourists from Holland, as I am traveling to the Netherlands this week on vacation. We are even flying to Holland on the same day (although on different flights). The conversation quickly turned to a discussion on what we must see during our time abroad. It definitely made waiting in line much more pleasant.
Once the line started moving and we entered the Playfield, I got a chance to look around and liked the way the space was laid out. I loved that there was a designated area where people could roll out their blankets to sit on the floor. It really felt like an evening in the park filled with food/drink vendors with many options including vegetarian hot dogs, brick oven pizza, and of course wine and beer. After I settled down on a nice plot of land close to the stage, I received a call from a few friends who were joining our group with bad news. They had arrived only 30 minutes after the doors opened and were told the venue capacity was met and that they would not be allowed in. Despite this news, they still decided to have a good time and sit in the grass behind the venue, where they were able to listen to the concert. They weren’t able to see anything, but I made sure to send them some good shots of the performers through snapchat.
Hoda Kotb (host of NBC’s Today Show) emceed the concert with her energetic personality and brief intros which helped to lead the concert along (the concert was performed without the book written for the musical). The current cast and ensemble of Beautiful delighted us with amazing performances of some iconic music of the time. Beautiful not only features the music of Carole King (played by Chilina Kennedy) and her husband George Goffin (Scott J. Campbell), but also the music of her close friends, Cynthia Weil (Jessica Keenan Wynn) and Barry Mann (Jarod Spector), whom were a big influence in King’s life and their generation.
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Carole King’s life was very inspiring. She launched herself into the music business at the young age of 17. At age 20, she married Goffin, the love of her life, and together they successfully wrote #1 hits for performance groups. Years later, after a harsh divorce, King found a way to overcome the odds and discovered the power of her own voice, a voice that has characterized her generation. Carole King has written over 400 songs that have been recorded by thousands of artists, including herself. As an artist, I admire and strive for a career like that.
The SummerStage festival is playing through September 16. I highly recommend the concert version of The Wiz being presented on August 12 at 8 PM (get in line by 5:00 to be safe). The complete musical Beautiful, is playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on 43rd Street (between Broadway and 6th Avenue). Click on the links at the end of the post for more information.
Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share with all your friends.
Until next time!
:David