Determination Brings 'Beautiful' To Denver Stage
DENVER (CBS4)- Sometimes it takes patience and determination to bring something "Beautiful" to the stage.
That's the case with Beautiful: The Carole King Musical set to open at the Buell Theater this summer.
For producer Paul Blake, this is musical that came knocking on his door.
"The phone rang one day and it was the man who is president of EMI Music. He owns these songs," Blake said. "As you see the show, you find out these were 'work-for-hire', these songs."
Those songs were written for music producer and publisher Don Kirshner. Kirshner eventually sold them and they ended up with EMI.
Back to that phone conversation with the president of EMI. "He said, 'I have an idea for a show with Carole King and I want to talk to you about it.'"
At first Blake deferred, saying he didn't have the right musical background. EMI persisted.
"He said, 'I know that you're person who got the Berlin sisters to give you the rights to write 'White Christmas.' They turn down everybody but they said yes to you.'"
But once Blake had the material in hand, there was yet another hurdle. It involved four songwriters with four catalogs.
"We found one of them wanted a retrospective of his material," Blake said. "One wanted a documentary of the period, one wanted a show that she already wrote and one didn't want the show to happened at all. That was Carole."
Blake didn't let the mixed messages and reluctance stop him.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opens at the Buell Theatre on July 19.
Raetta Holdman is a veteran newscast producer. She's been with CBS4 for more than 25 years, coordinating events -- large and small -- from the control room. Contact her by clicking here.
