Melbourne Reviews

Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish migrant parents in 1941. From his first single in 1966, he wrote an imposing pile of enduring radio-friendly songs, and toured extensively up until 2018. Such details feature in A Beautiful Noise; a jukebox musical that imagines present-day Diamond looking back on his history. The show was written by Andrew McCarthen with more input from its star subject than just his catalogue. This might be a strength or a weakness, depending on how curious you are about the man behind the mega hits.

In the present, 80-something Neil – Now (Terence Crawford) is an unwilling patient in the office of a therapist (Monica Sayers’ “Doctor”). Diamond is here at his wife’s request; he’s been an unpleasant presence about the house of late. Some weeks of sessions haven’t achieved much — Neil doesn’t like to talk about himself — but the doctor has a new tack. They will discuss pages from a book of Diamond’s songs — the work that he’s put so much of himself into. But as Neil declared some tunes off-limits, he was asked to pick one.

As Diamond leafed through the book, a succession of his old tunes surged into his head. Each of these songs was played for us, accompanied by the appearance of an ensemble member, springing into view with lithe confidence and self-expressiveness, enhanced by brightly coloured clothing recalling the 1960s. As the reservoir of famous tunes was fully uncorked, Neil remarked: “What a beautiful noise!” The scene gave us an affecting fusion of history, memory, feeling, and storytelling novelty that, somewhat regrettably, we would infrequently approach in the scenes to follow.

Neil – Then is played by Will Swenson, originator of the role on Broadway. He does most of the singing as a therapy scene recedes, with Neil – Now able to walk around in his memories. One early influential scene related to Diamond’s scrabbling (around 1965) to sell his songs from his rented space in New York’s famous Brill Building – a hotbed of producers, writers and so on. He meets Ellie Greenwich (Hannah Fredericksen), a smart music publisher. Seeing the talent, Greenwich encourages Diamond to stop giving away his potential hits and sing them himself. We would hardly have female characters given this level of independence or importance in much else of the show.

Savvy Greenwich also had the plan for how Diamond would gain performance experience. Despite the suitable hangdog look given to the club-rookie singer, through Swenson’s performance we quickly preview the star quality beneath Diamond’s introversion. We can also appreciate how the performer captures facets of the subject’s delivery. However, depending on your seats, there may be an ongoing challenge to understand what is being sung. Lower notes especially were lost under the orchestral backing with a distracting regularity. This probably won’t matter so much for fans who know every lyric. The more casual fan could feel that they’re regularly missing part of the story, or the reason why this song is happening at this time.

There were some surprising flourishes, such as when Neil – Now tried to intervene to prevent Neil – Then from making a bad contract decision. The limited use of these made it seem that the show was less interested in considering the meaning of the past, than taking a nostalgic view of it.

At some point the show’s frame deflates in a way that feels particularly awkward. In the time where Diamond was with his second wife, Marcia Murphey (Ashleigh Rubenach), he wanted to give her yet another expensive present she considered unnecessary. This was the cue for Forever in Blue Jeans, where Rubenach got to show her vocal chops whilst dancing in tight denim, as did the ensemble. On the one hand it seemed an unconvincing way to shoe-horn a song into the narrative. On the other, at least it gave a female character some time (but not so much depth) in the spotlight. Certainly Diamond’s first wife and mother of his two girls, high-school sweetheart Jaye Posner (Alana Tranter) wasn’t given so much to do. Still, Tranter made a good fist of her limited time by making us feel her investment in the marriage.

Perhaps if the sound was better, I might not have been drawn onto a tangent. We learned of Diamond’s two daughters with Posner, and two sons with Murphey. We get hardly any insight into how these women, as mothers and wives, provided the kind of stability and support that keeps a family going so that Diamond could pursue the life of a touring rockstar. The show is pretty unapologetic about this, as if there’s no issue with pursuing the rush of performing as your main interest, for decades. We might feel that this authorised highlights reel is perpetuating the idea of the lone male genius, and feel that a rock superstar can surely afford to share some credit around. It might even make the story a touch more involving in places.

But let’s say you’re not a fringe goblin at heart. Maybe you don’t need political comment and cultural insights like Keating!, or world building like Wicked. If you are partial to a jukebox musical, you’d probably find there’s a lot to enjoy in A Beautiful Noise. Having a selection of classic songs is a start for such a musical and here the story doesn’t get in the way of them. Many scenes offer high-energy spectacle, assisted by that committed, lively ensemble and eye-catching costuming by Emilio Sosa.

The show runs like a luxury sports car, especially once Diamond is out on the road, showing the experience of Tony Award® winning director Michael Mayer. Scene changes are always snappy in this highly technical outing, with many changes of costume and era-defining wigs (Luc Verschueren). As Neil Diamond doesn’t perform these days, if you were a fan and wanted a stirring rendition of Cracklin’ Rosie, a sing-along of Sweet Caroline, or to get a sense of the stage charisma Neil Diamond would have had at his peak, this is your best shot at a Hot August Night in Melbourne’s winter.