REVIEW: A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
Through 09/28 @ Proctors Theatre, Schenectady
Photos by Jeremy Daniel
“I was grateful and moved by the question of how do we go on when we lose our power to be who we are.”
Who would have predicted that stories about rock stars would be the greatest proponents of mental health and therapy in 2025? Like the forthcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical—now playing at Proctors through Sunday, 9/28—hinges on our hero seeking professional help.
There’s no scenes of cars being driven into swimming pools or even any depiction of drinking or drugs. Ok, there might have been a champagne toast, but this is the most straitlaced depiction of rock stardom in the ‘70s possible. All the self indulgence went into rhinestones.
The musical opens up with Neil-Now (Robert Westenberg, Broadway star from Into the Woods’ original Broadway cast) in a comfortable chair facing his Doctor (Lisa Reneé Potts) at an impasse in his life as he now lives with Parkinson’s Disease about how to move forward before she pulls out his hefty songbook and proposes that he talk his way through his career. Pick a song and tell us about it. The singing cure.
Soon, the leather lunged Nick Fradiani (2014 America’s Got Talent finalist and 2015 American Idol winner) storms down center stage in black as Neil-Then, singing Diamond’s patriotic ode to ”America” which gets as much play as Diamond’s monster hit, the Fenway seventh inning stretch and bachelorette party staple, “Sweet Caroline.”
It’s a bad week to hitch your show to the rousing sentimentality of “America” after the most horrifying three days of presidential speeches in American history, but the Proctors crowd had no problem cheering along as if they were responding to “Sweet Caroline.” “So good, so good.”
Fradiani is exceptional at recreating a sense of Diamond’s great appeal. His singing is a special effect, more powerful than the harsh lights (lighting by Kevin Adams) goosing the audience at climactic moments. The set by David Rockwell quotes the Brooklyn Bridge effectively for this story about a kid from Flatbush.
Two of Diamond’s three wives are played by Tiffany Tatreau as first wife Jaye Posner, and Hannah Jewel Kohn as Marsha Murphy whom he starts hanging out with at the Bitter End and ends up married for 25 years. The wives are given short shrift in the script by Anthony McCarten (the third wife, Kate, only gets a mention) but they are given two big numbers. Tatreau gives an energized “Love on the Rocks” and Kohn lights up “Forever in Blue Jeans.”
Steven Hoggett puts his idiosyncratic stamp on the choreography and the diverse ensemble responds happily. When Neil-Now is faced with the prospect of never performing again and whether life is worth living without the stage, it is the ensemble that communicates the joy in the show.
Diamond (and consequently Fradiani) has always been a dour figure—a biblical prophet made explicit with a high church “Holly Holy” at the climax of this piece. He is frequently compared to Elvis in this show but it doesn’t appear that Diamond ever challenged audience expectations or courted controversy as Presley did. All of which makes him perfect for the middle class Broadway audience which has helped this nostalgic tour recoup after five months.
The audience had a great time, tentative to clap along but greatly appreciative of the 30 song Diamond hit parade. Unlike Tina and The Cher Show, no other recording artist nor their songs appear in this solipsistic show.
You could say, “The poor schnook, what a tragedy! Guy lives the life of a king all his life and needs to come to terms with his reduced circumstances…” but I was grateful and moved by the question of how do we go on when we lose our power to be who we are.
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical plays at Proctors through Sunday, 9/28. For tickets, visit www.atproctors.org
