As the first show of the day was not until after 5PM I was looking for an earlier show to kick off Day 3 at the Festival. I had seen posters for The Carole King Story the previous evening and the show was at a convenient time and location so in this new-found spirit of trying to be spontaneous I took a punt on it. And I'm so glad I did.
The show takes the form of an accompanied documentary and voiceover (it's called a show-umentary in the Fringe notes) with the accompanying singer/pianist very regularly bursting into whatever song is being discussed in the documentary at the time (you're never more than two minutes away from anther song). The singer/pianist was the fabulous Phoebe Katis, an accomplished singer/songwriter in her own right, and her performance was stunning. Beautiful covers of beautiful songs, with a stunning voice and exemplary piano playing. With the rather touching story unfolding in the documentary (which was hardly unfamiliar) and combined with Ms. Katis the show packed quite the punch.
The documentary takes Carole King's story up to Tapestry, then somewhat glosses over the subsequent 47 years but I suppose that's the compromise you make when you only have 55 minutes for a show.
All in all it was a great show, very emotional at times, with a wonderful performance from Ms. Katis singing and playing some of the greatest songs of all time.
Thoroughly recommended. The company that produced this also does similar shows about Joni Mitchell (also on at the Fringe) and James Taylor so will be intending to catch up with at least one of them.
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