"Beautiful: the Carole King Musical" is making history at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. It marks the first daddy-daughter directing effort at the theater for co-owner Michael Brindisi and Cat Brindisi-Darrow, who grew up at the theater.
Their joint staging of the show about the Brooklyn songwriter of "Natural Woman," "You've Got a Friend" and "It's Too Late" was not pre-planned. "Beautiful" officially opens Friday.
When Brindisi-Darrow heard that her dad was directing "Beautiful," she suggested that he ask her friend, Shelley Butler, who assisted on the Tony- and Grammy-winning Broadway production, to stage it. Butler agreed and decided to take Brindisi-Darrow as her own assistant director.
But Butler's schedule changed, and she had to pull out. That's when Brindisi had a lightbulb moment.
"I called Cat and said, 'Why don't you do it?'" he recalled.
His daughter at first recoiled at the idea.
"I was like, [expletive], we've worked on our relationship these past few years, drawing healthy boundaries and getting to a good spot. I don't want to ruin that," said Brindisi-Darrow, who lives in New York with her performer husband David Darrow and their young son.
Father asked daughter to give it an initial shot with a few Zoom meetings. Pretty soon, her fears were allayed. She was talking to him as a peer, and they had similar ideas.
"It's been actually the best thing for our relationship and I think we've worked so well because we're similar artistically," Brindisi-Darrow said. "On a broader note, we really believe that this art can change the world. It's Pollyannish and may sound a little cliché but it's how I was raised — thanks, Dad!"
Whether or not the collaboration foreshadows a succession plan similar to the daddy-daughter leadership change that happened at St. Paul's Penumbra Theatre, the co-directors are enjoying themselves.
They have staged the musical with a cast of 27 led by Monet Sabel, who played Carole King on the national tour of the show as well as in other productions.
"I'm trying my best to honor Carole's vocal stylings — this gravelly, sandpapery quality and smoky, warm tone — while also using the technique and the placement that I know I need to sustain eight shows a week," Sabel said. "Thankfully, because I've been able to do the role on and off for a couple of years now, I have a pretty firm handle of what tools I need to have to sustain 2½ hours of singing and talking and yelling, laughing and crying and maintain some sanity."
This conversation between Brindisi and Brindisi-Darrow has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What's so special about "Beautiful"?
MB: We just finished "Jersey Boys," with all the Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio drama and background stories. This is kind of like "Jersey Boys" with great music and a lot of drama but is about a woman. It's a terrific story about real people with real problems.
CBD: Carole King has had a remarkable life. We're trying to do something where we raise the story of the people of color as well and highlight how the songs became famous by the Black people who sang them.
Q: You're bringing different eyes and experiences to it, generationally, gender- and otherwise.
MB: I was born in '48 — that's 1948 not 1848 — and I grew up with all these songs but didn't know Carole King wrote them. That's one of the fun discoveries about this play. People will come to this show and go, "I know 'Up on the Roof' but I didn't know Carole King wrote it. I know 'On Broadway.' I was in boy bands growing up, so I feel really close to this music.
CBD: Starting in August, I spent so much time listening to all her albums, especially "Tapestry." Everything about her songwriting is just so true. "It's Too Late" is like my favorite song. It's in her own voice and about her own freedom.
Q: What do you each bring to this collaboration?
MB: Cat has brought the focus on storytelling. Even though I have a lot of experience, I can fall into the trap of substituting razzle-dazzle for story. Sets, costumes, lights, sound. Her generation is used to, "Just give me a bench and let me tell the story." Even in scenic design and costume design, she's constantly paring back ideas.
CBD: One of the weird parts that I keep thinking about as we're doing it, Dad, is we didn't talk about what we were each going to do. I think we were both kind of surprised when we got to, "Oh, I'm looking at the acting and you're looking at the overall stage pictures." We didn't really plan that. It just organically happened.
Q: What has it been like getting to know each other as colleagues?
CBD: When Dad sat me down to teach me how to direct, he said, "When you enter any process, you have many goals. The first is to make the show you're working on the best production that's ever been made of that show. The best." I sort of doubted the idea until we started working. Now I totally get what he was saying.
MB: Cat's had a lot of experience in the not-for-profit world where you can get five or six weeks of rehearsal. My background is almost exclusively in commercial theater where you get two or three weeks tops and a couple of days of tech. She's on a different tempo. So, when she's like, "Let's talk about it," I'm tapping my toes looking at the clock. She said to me one night, "Hey, Dad, can you just slow down a little so we can catch up?" I said, "Can you speed up a little?"
Q: When I was coaching my daughter in softball, she would sometimes ask if I'm talking to her as a coach or as Dad. Do you relate like that?
CBD: Totally. Today I said something to the cast and it was like, "One second, I have to check with the boss." We come to the same things together and I do feel a level of respect. My main thing is that I want to make sure that I'm doing something that he likes. But there's not a lot of advice-giving at this stage.
MB: I definitely don't feel like a coach in rehearsal and don't feel like a dad. We are creative partners.
CBD: You're not worried about offending me.
MB: No. I think the goal is just to have the best production of "Beautiful" ever done. Whatever we say to each other is only in service of that.
'Beautiful: The Carole King Musical'
When: 8 p.m. Tue., 1 & 8 p.m. Wed., 8 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 1 & 8 p.m. Sat., 6:30 p.m. Sun. Through Sept. 28.
Where: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, 501 W. 78th St., Chanhassen.
Tickets: $75-$105, 952-934-1525 or chanhassendt.com.
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