Broadway Rose Theatre Company is betting big on “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” The company usually mounts two summer shows in the 600-seat auditorium at Tigard High School. This season, for the first time, it’s gambling on a 5-week run of a single production: the hit-packed, musical memoir recounting singer/songwriter King’s rollercoaster rise from starry-eyed teen tune-smith to rock ‘n’ roll icon.
So if this show tanks, and Broadway Rose suddenly wants to add another, it’s too late baby, now it’s too late. Portlander Merideth Kaye Clark plays King. The versatile performer comes into the show with a colorful tapestry of influences.
She’s tackled gravity-defying Broadway ballads, (150 performances as ); Americana/folk (in the duo Siren Songs, with Jenn Grinels); bluegrass (the musical “Bright Star”); and the musical canons of Joni Mitchell, Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. She sang the King track “Home Again” in “Winter Song,” a holiday show that ran for two seasons at Portland Center Stage. Is Clark feeling the pressure? Nope.
“I feel like I’m a channel for the material,” she said in an interview before last Friday’s opening night. While she hopes folks who know her work will scoop up tickets, she said, “I don’t think that’s the reason that people come to Broadway Rose or come to see the musical ‘Beautiful.’ I think they do because these songs are part of their history and their lives.
” She added: “I want to make (B.