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Musical Royalty

Photo by David Allen

Sing-along: From left, Manny Saiz, Jerome Mason and Andrea Brembry

TheatreWorks stages the

songs of Carole King

By Anne Gelhaus

If any popular musician could translate her music into a musical-theater format, you'd think Carole King could. Her songs are all stories in themselves, crafted to develop character and plot in an average of 3 1/2 minutes. Most of King's songs, however, don't lend themselves well to a typical musical-theater performance, which is by and large what the cast of TheatreWorks' musical revue Tapestry gives them. Songs like "Up on the Roof" and "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" that need a soulful voice to make them really resonate are instead sung in glossed-over tones that don't cut below the surface of the melody to the emotional richness underneath. Even more up-tempo tunes like "I Feel the Earth Move" are performed with forced smiles and false perkiness. (Granted, all six cast members were suffering from various degrees of the flu last weekend, and it's tough to sing through phlegm.)

There are moments in the show when a singer makes that necessary personal connection to a song. Andrea Brembry does it with a burning version of "Where You Lead," and Kathryne Morse (who, by way of disclosure, works in Metro's classified advertising department) hits her stride with "Jazzman." Nicholas Smith and Manny Saiz harmonize so beautifully on the ballad "Speeding Time" that the stage contrivances of their duet are forgivable. That's not the case with many of the numbers that involve two or more members of the company. Director Terry Barto adds to the show's formulaic musical arrangements with some repetitive staging: It doesn't take too long before the audience can figure out at what point in a song the featured vocalist will be joined by his or her backup singers.

This telegraphing works best in the segment of the show devoted to the songs King penned for '60s doo wop groups like the Shirelles and the Drifters. These singers performed tunes like "One Fine Day" and "Hey, Girl" with precisely choreographed moves that Barto has faithfully recreated. Barto's choreography also captures the inherent silliness of songs like "Go Away, Little Girl" and "The Locomotion," and the company seems to genuinely enjoy these numbers. The six singers are ably backed by a four-man band. There are moments, however, when the instrumentalists over-shadow the vocalists, as well as moments when the singers create far too much sound for the second stage of the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts. If all the musicians would keep in mind that they're playing to a small house, it would go a long way toward creating the intimate mood King's songs deserve.

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Tapestry plays Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday (Nov. 12), at 2pm through Nov. 12 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Castro and Mercy streets, Mountain View. Tickets are $15. (415/903-6000).


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