Carole King Musical ‘Beautiful’ Takes Pre-Broadway Run in San Francisco September 24

“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” a new production based on the music and life of Carole King, will have a pre-Broadway run in San Francisco before its previously announced New York debut next spring.

The California run will be staged at the SHN Curran Theatre, playing September 24-October 20. The production will be directed by Marc Bruni, known for “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” “Ordinary Days” and “Pipe Dream,” among other things. Bruni also worked on a reading of the musical last month.

The Broadway version is still set for a spring 2014 premiere, though no official dates or theater has yet been announced. Casting is still to come for both versions.

The production features a book by Douglas McGrath, who worked on the screenplay for “Bullets Over Broadway” with Woody Allen. He also is known for the Truman Capote biopic “Infamous” and the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” which starred Gwyneth Paltrow. Music in the musical, of course, will come from Carole King’s catalog, most of which was written with her former husband and co-writer Gerry Goffin.

When discussing the project previously, King said a musical version is like coming full-circle.

“What’s so great about this for me is that musicals were a major influence on my songwriting,” she said. “In fact, when Gerry and I first met, we made a bargain that I would write music for the Broadway show he wanted to write if he wrote lyrics for my rock ‘n roll songs. The songs took off, and the show idea never came to fruition. Now that our songs have merged with a Broadway show, we’ve come full circle.”

The musical covers not only King’s career as a performer, but also her early life in Brooklyn and her first career as a hit songwriter writing hits for other artists.