Beautiful: Jessie Mueller to play Carole King

Producers Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have announced that Tony Award-nominee Jessie Mueller (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) will star as 'Carole King' in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, about the life and career of Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Carole King.

Jessie Mueller made her Broadway debut as 'Melinda Wells,' opposite Harry Connick, Jr., in the musical comedy 'On a Clear Day You Can See Forever' for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Her other Broadway credits include 'Nice Work If You Can Get It' and 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.'

Originally announced for spring 2014, the show will now begin previews on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on 21 Nov 2013, with an official opening night set for Sunday, January 12, 2014, following its World Premiere this fall at San Francisco's SHN Curran Theatre from 24 Sep - 20 Oct 2013.

With a book by playwright and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical features an array of songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil.

Further casting and other news from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will be announced shortly.

Long before she was Carole King: chart-topping music artist, she was Carol Klein: a Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock 'n' roll. But it wasn't until her fairytale life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King's rise to stardom, alongside husband and co-writer Gerry Goffin and fellow song writers Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil, set to the music that made her one of the recording industry's most enduring icons. Which of Kings songs will be included in the score for the musical has not been announced.

Along wioth her former husband, Carole King wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards: Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion," Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," The Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," The Drifters' "Some Kind of Wonderful," and many more.

King's 1972 album 'Tapestry' held the record for most weeks at #1 by a female artist for more than 20 years until broken by Whitney Houston for the 1992 soundtrack album "The Bodyguard."

She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting .

In Apr 2012 King published her biography called "A Natural Woman: A Memoir."

Jessie Mueller