By Scott Tady
PITTSBURGH — You know his hits, now learn the fascinating story behind Neil Diamond’s lustrous legacy outlined by “A Beautiful Noise,” the touring Broadway show running through Sunday at the Benedum Center.
You’ll laugh out loud, and get the chance to sing along a few times during the stirring, smart and expertly executed musical starring Nick Fradiani (2015’s “American Idol” champion) singing spot-on like the real Neil on “Solitary Man,” “Song Sung Blue” and other Diamond hits as dancers with a refreshing diversity of body types, add visual flair.
Tony Award nominated Robert Westenberg (“Into The Woods”) is sensational as the present-day Diamond, a senior citizen coming to terms with his career triumphs and personal setbacks.
Reluctantly sitting through a psychiatry session, where he’s shocked and a bit amused to learn his likeable shrink only recognizes one of his worldwide famous songs, the current Diamond soon finds himself in revelatory flashback mode.
Where it began, he can’t begin to know when until the psychiatrist starts asking him questions about his lyrics she’s found in a song book.
Audience members are instantly whisked to 1965 Manhattan, and the Brill Building, where Diamond — at that point a struggling songwriter with a wife and baby on the way — meets a dynamic, seasoned and jaded music industry pro Ellie Greenwich (a charming Kate A. Mulligan) who sees a creative spark and recognizes his hunger to succeed. Ellie starts selling Diamond songs to pop stars like Lulu and the Monkees (cue a fast-stepping musical number to “I’m a Believer”). Ellie soon realizes Diamond has potential to be a stage star, propping him up at a small but influential Greenwich Village club where career and personal fate take charge.
It’s here we meet Diamond’s second wife, Marcia, ( a vivacious Hannah Jewel Kohn reprising the Broadway role handled by Beaver County native Amber Ardolino), who joins a few other cast members in singing lead vocals on songs that steer the story in a thought-provoking and satisfying direction.
Cleverly, the show finds ways for the older and younger Diamond to appear simultaneously in some of the same scenes, as when the older Diamond reminisces regretfully as his younger self signs an iron-clad recording contract with a sketchy publishing company with gangster ties.
It takes a pretty huge hit song to get him out of the midst of those mobsters, as Act 1 ends, bringing a 20-minute intermission then a second act that at times rocks out like a straight-up Diamond concert, spotlighting Fradiani, using his “Idol” skills, performing like the music legend at the apex of Diamond’s arena-filling, multi-platinum prowess.
Still recollecting throughout with his psychiatrist, the storyline compellingly and convincingly details Diamond divorces and the demons he battles as he feels the pressure to stay a superstar. (“It meant a lot of sequins” the elder Diamond joked as his younger self sports a few stage costumes with enough sparkly lights to illuminate the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree.
The psychiatrist (a marvelous Lisa Renee Pitts, who played Dr. Dre’s mom in the film “Straight Outta Compton”) gradually guides Diamond toward a few major mental breakthroughs regarding his childhood and now future where a Parkinson’s diagnosis will prevent him from singing on stage — the root of his entire identity.
We won’t spoil anything, though rest assured before evening’s end, you’ll be joining 2,700 fellow audience members singing along with or at least swaying to a song about good times never seeming so good.
So good, so good, so good… don’t sleep on the chance to see “A Beautiful Noise,” continuing at the Benedum for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances, along with matinees at 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, plus a 6:30 p.m. Sunday finale.
Tickets are $49 to $183 at trustarts.org.
