welcome back beautiful the musical based
on the life of singer-songwriter Carole
King opens tonight at Miller Auditorium
the show crowd favorite critics darling
and joining me now in studio are two of
the stars of the show Allison Whitehurst
and Jacob himer welcome to both of you
thanks brother
thanks for getting up early and then
some press we appreciate it so this show
in in the show you guys play kind of the
best friends of her that's right yeah
but also aren't they kind of like are
they frenemies as well oh yeah because
they're songwriters right yeah they're
best friends and fierce competitors and
competitors yeah so what does I like to
play that it's a it's great because we
get away with everything because we get
to be the people who are comic relief
and also a romantic love interest okay
but we also get to rival them with like
these incredible songs in the show
so if Carole Carole and Jerry who you
know Carole Carole King and Gerry Goffin
come up with up on the roof we got to be
like yeah well we wrote on Broadway and
then we get to go on vacation together
so it's a good so this show it talks
about her younger years early years in
the industry and I think for both of you
what was most surprising what did you
learn about her career in general
because a lot of people do not know of
the crazy trivia behind her career
absolutely I think a lot of people know
Carole King for her work on tapestry but
they didn't realize that her career
began early early as a 16 year old
songwriter and she marched into that
office and wanted to get a job and she
did and there is just so much music that
she had written that were made popular
by other singers and artists that's the
thing people don't realize like hmm she
wrote for the Monkees yeah yeah and
there were for the Monkees they were for
the Shirelles and the Drifters little
Eva the locomotion see it was actually
her babysitter yeah see this is the kind
of thing people learn right but by a
seamless show and of course there's also
the amazing music do you have any
personal favorites mmm I will you still
love me tomorrow is one of my very
favorite moments in the show the words
and the music just blend so it as Jacob
has said multiple
it is the perfect song yeah now you both
play real-life characters hmm people I
should say are they are they both still
around
they are theirs they're definitely still
living they're still working together
the circulating music so Mary how was it
have you met them maybe you talking with
them what does that like to meet we have
yeah they've been to the show a few
times it's definitely surreal but it's
it's it's a real honor to play these
people were such a part of music history
and you get to put a face to people who
you only know their music so everyone
knows you know the animal song we got we
got to get out of this place but we're
like oh right these two people wrote
these incredible songs and yeah they're
a joy to play yeah what was the most
surprising thing you learned about her
career about Carole King's careers yeah
hmm what do you think people would home
might find the most surprising well I
just love how early she began that she
knew what she wanted from an early age
and didn't let the fact that she was
green or the fact that she was a woman
hinder her from that she just chased her
dream and chased what she loved and let
the rest of it fall as it may and I
really respect that about her and this
was at a time where that it was not very
easy for a woman especially to do that
in the music and absolutely and
particularly as a composer somebody
who's doing the music because later on
she wrote her own lyrics but Gerry
Goffin wrote the lyrics early on when
they were a team and Cynthia Weil the
character I play she says that it was
often known for women to be lyricist but
often they didn't think that a woman
could pound the keys the way that Carole
King did so she was she paved the way
for that have you both had a chance to
meet Carole yourself I have I have it
was wonderful I mean she truly is as
legendary as she is she is a normal
person no she meets you exactly where
you are she is kind generous with her
time I don't have enough good things to
say about her awesome
well the show opens tonight we've got
all the info on our website 13 on your
side calm break a leg tonight thank you
okay all right thanks you guys thank you
so much
[Music]