A Beautiful Noise!

 A Beautiful Noise, a Neil Diamond story, begins with silence. Old Neil sits in a chair across from a therapist, neither are speaking and establishing that Neil is not comfortable talking about his life. The therapist knows nothing about Neil, his songs or his life. To understand this man, she pulls out a book of Diamond's songs, the lyrics and the motivation. Ya see, Neil is a man who has never been comfortable in his own skin. He's depressed, lonely and suffers from imposter syndrome. From there we go on a journey of the life of Neil Diamond, warts and all.

The thing about jukebox musicals authorized by the estates or families is that the controversy is avoided. The MJ musical ends before the allegations of pedophilia thus they are never covered. But this one, A Beautiful Noise, is dark and gritty like Diamond's voice. 

Young Neil, played by an understudy Joe Caskey (who was very good) writes songs for other people, disdaining the spotlight. The Monkees lived off Diamond's natural shyness and desire to stay out of the limelight. But then he meets Ellie Greenwich (Heidi Kettenring) a tough talking record agent who insists he sing his own songs. He starts at coffee houses supporting his wife and two kids, meets Marsha Murphey (a great Mary Page Nance) who becomes his second wife. Old Neil continues to open up about the songs, in effect telling his life story. 

The songs are performed like tribute band adoration. The crowd at times (especially the front rows) was really into it and I'm not sure they realized it really wasn't Neil Diamond on stage. Oh have fun I say.

Act 1 ends with Sweet Caroline and the audience participates as they should. Act 2 opens with, depending on my mood, my favorite Diamond song, Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show, with a full choir and dancers, It's quite good. 

Old Neil admits to the therapist he cannot perform any longer due to his doctor's orders. Performing is the only time Neil feels not alone. Now the whole therapist patient thing may sound corny, but it really keeps the show on track. Robert Westenburg as old, tortured Neil is fantastic and Lisa Renee Pitts as the therapist are both solid narrators. 

All in all, this is better than any jukebox musical I've seen. The story is real, the reactions are real and the darkness is real.

If you are a Neil Diamond fan, you will love this show.

Now the sound at the Orpheum. It wasn't bad. At first, the band was so loud I worried that they would drown out the story, however, they toned it down and everything was decipherable. 

And finally at the end, after the Holly Holy sing along, you get to do the Sweet Caroline sing along yet again. It wasn't Fenway Park, but it was fun. So Good So Good So Good!