A man is sent to therapy by his wife because he’s difficult to live with. It’s a familiar story to many of us. But when the man in question is Neil Diamond, it’s a decidedly unexpected way to start A Beautiful Noise, the musical production of his life story now onstage at Broadway in Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre.
Watching the curtain come up on the 70-something singer-songwriter (Robert Westenberg) in reluctant session with a psychologist (Lisa Reneé Pitts) determined to help him get to the bottom of his lifelong battle with depression, one realizes this is not going to be the highly sanitized hagiography so common in musicals officially sanctioned by the artist.
It is to Diamond’s great credit that he authorized and collaborated in creating such a warts-and-all portrayal complete with affairs, divorces and children he left behind to spend most of his time on the road in order to fleetingly chase the clouds of depression away. But it shouldn’t be a surprise given that this is the artist who had an early hit with “Shilo,” in which he sings candidly about the imaginary friend who kept him company during a lonely childhood in Brooklyn.
The framing device works well. Within minutes, the pair are moved to the side of the stage to watch episodes of Diamond’s earlier personal and professional life as he relives them, often painfully. Like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol desperately trying to tell his younger self not to choose money over Belle, old Neil tries to take the pen out of young Neil’s hand as he signs a contract with mobbed-up Bang Records. And the therapist makes him rewind the breakup of his first marriage when she senses that he is sugar-coating the difficult emotional truth.
The opening lines of the show reveal the one song Diamond doesn’t want to talk about with the therapist: “I Am, I Said,” the closest a pop song has ever come to creating a visceral experience of battling depression. That moment hit home with me because “I Am, I Said” was one of my dad’s favorite songs, right up there with Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” and the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Sensing a theme here?
I took my dad to see Neil Diamond twice, both experiences he deemed “far out.” He had a way of clapping when he was really into a show, a powerful, almost thudding clap. I heard it in my own applause Wednesday night.
Because beyond the fascinating biographical parts crafted by Diamond and book writer Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody), A Beautiful Noise is so good, so good, so good. That’s thanks in large part to Nick Fradiani’s incredible performance as younger Neil. When he breaks out that “gravel wrapped in velvet” voice, you could close your eyes and think Neil had somehow come out of his forced retirement due to Parkinson’s thirty years younger and at the top of his game. Fradiani’s an American Idol winner, but he does more than nail Diamond’s singing style. He has the performance beats down pat, the mix of shy self-consciousness and old-school showmanship that made him the world’s biggest pop star in his heyday.
When you see Neil Diamond perform in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, which chronicles the final concert by The Band, he’s out of place compared to the more… organic singer-songwriters with guest slots. You think, Neil Young, that tracks. But Neil Diamond? And yet he is a brilliant songwriter and magnetic performer, able to spin hits out of the most unlikely material.
Like “Shilo,” “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” wouldn’t be anyone’s idea of a smash single, but Fadiani’s performance of it, from the sly, low and slow opening verses to the eruption of beautiful noise at the climax, reminds you of just how damn good these songs are. Diamond constructed them for performance and they translate beautifully to the stage, with the aid of Tony Award winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig), choreographer Steven Hoggett and a talented cast of dancers who provide sweet harmony vocals that make Neil’s ubiquitous sequins shine just a little bit brighter.
Standout performances from Hannah Jewel Kohn–every bit Diamond’s match as his second wife, Marcia Murphey–and Kate A. Mulligan, who kills in the Ellie Greenwich role (she also plays Neil’s mother, Rose), and Tiffany Tatreau as first wife Jaye Posner–keep the dramatic scenes buoyant.
But it all comes back to the music, with Fradiani turning in one standout performance after another. Even as someone who knows most of Diamond’s lyrics by heart, I had several “oh, yeah” moments when the show pulled out less-remembered songs such as the gorgeous ballad “Play Me” and two more soft-build numbers that turn into arena-shaking rave-ups: “Holly Holy” and “Soolaimon.”
Up to and including the post-bows audience singalong of “Sweet Caroline” with both Neils duetting, this is a feast of great music and outstanding performances. It’ll satisfy any Neil Diamond fan and make converts out of anyone who tags along to check it out.
One of my dad’s favorite t-shirts was one I bought him at a Neil concert in the aughts. It featured the key lyric of Diamond’s life: “Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of being a king, and then became one?” Whatever anxiety Diamond may still have about going back to being that frog, he can rest easy knowing he earned his crown and wore it well.
A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical runs through November 24 at Broadway in Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Jeremy Daniel
