Screenwriter-director Douglas McGrath has lined up a Broadway project, penning the book for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which is aiming for a Rialto run in spring 2014, according to the title’s producers.
The co-writer of pic “Bullets Over Broadway” (also lined up for a Main Stem bow next season, with a book by the film’s co-scribe Woody Allen) and the writer-director of films including “Emma,” “Nicholas Nickleby” and “Infamous,” McGrath had an Off Broadway stint earlier this year with the world preem of his Nixon bio-play “Checkers.”
“Beautiful” will feature familiar tunes by the songwriting team Gerry Goffin and King as well as by duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Biographical storyline follows King’s life and career beginning with her early days in Brooklyn and her start in the record biz when she was just a teenager, going on to pen a string of hits with Goffin, also her husband.
Casting, Rialto dates and full creative team are not yet locked. Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing produce the tuner, with plans for a fall 2013 out-of-town run in a city to be determined. Producers Friday morning confirmed the early word first circulated at website Showbiz411.
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Song list also had not been set. King’s catalog includes such well-known songs as “It’s Too Late,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Tapestry.”
