Tess Benger of Beautiful: the Carole King Musical shares values and voice with her character
By Darragh Mondoux
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts is hosting a warmly welcome joyful musical this fall, a co-production with The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Beautiful: the Carole King Musical brings together the delightful recognition of popular songs of a jukebox musical with the heartfelt powerful story that rings from true events. “It’s a musical about the creative process, not a dark musical”, explains the show’s star, Tess Benger.
Tess Benger as Carole King. Promotional art from the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Benger brings her talents in music and her passion for eco-conscious artistic creation in the Canadian dramatic arts with her The Canadian Green Alliance, which has guidelines, essays and resources on creating greener theatre in Canada; a challenge which the Segal Centre is rising to meet with its new composting programs among other green measures.
A copy of “A Natural Woman” by Carole King
Tess let us into the process of stepping into the legendary songwriter’s artistic journey, heart, and gardening gloves. With one run in Montreal and the next in the new year in Winnipeg, Benger begins her process listening to the album Tapestry and reading King’s autobiography A Natural Woman. The book was a gift from Benger’s father and has formed a connection between the artist she is and the artist-as-subject that is King;
“I got very emotional during the chapters where she runs off and lives in the woods,” Benger explains. “I’m so smitten with her.” The autobiography and the musical each reveal a kind of strength in vulnerability, a feminine energy. “She gets her heart broken a lot and her triumph is finding her own self-worth,” Benger says of the story on stage and the page, “[Carole] calls herself an aspirational person,” and isn’t that something anyone working in Canadian theatre can easily relate to? Benger speaks rhapsodically of King as an optimistic and resilient spirit, and embodies that energy herself. When asked what her favourite, touchstone lyric of the show is, there’s no hesitation;
“You’ve gotta get up every morning with a smile on your face, and show the world all the love in your heart”
The journey of a woman who begins her career writing songs behind the scenes of groups like The Shirelles coming into her own as a singer-songwriter is made more compelling by King’s parallel interior journey towards self-love. When so much of the history of American music reveals white co-opters being credited for the artistic contributions of sidelined Black musicians, Benger feels this story is an important reminder of the mid-20th century being a time for the gradual advancement of women and more musicians of colour. “She celebrated amplifying Black artists, she was a huge fan of the Shirelles,” says Benger of King’s pop songwriting beginnings. Of King’s later anthem-triumphs, Benger returns to King’s memoir;
““In Stratford this summer, I was sitting on this bench outside of the Tom Patterson theatre, and that’s where I read the chapter where Aretha (Franklin)’s agent asks her to write Natural Woman, and I was so emotional. Imagine writing a song that powerful and then hearing Aretha Franklin give it her whole heart and soul!””
Tess Benger, photo by Kristina Ruddick
When asked about other figures from King’s story that Beautiful brings out of the shadows of history, Benger says audiences will appreciate the “special little moment, a quick little element that I really appreciated” with ‘Loco-Motion’ singer Little Eva, played by Alana Randall. The upcoming production benefits from an abundance of Canadian Black excellence, with powerhouse triple threat Dakota Jamal Wellman, Canadian Idol contender Lisa Bell, entrepreneuse and entertainer Louise Camilleri, soprana Ruth Acheampong, and McGill alumnus and hero of the musical theatre world Jeremy Carver-James, and more!
Benger takes the stage as Carole King surrounded by a huge cast of musical theatre talent on October 15th til the 5th of November. Masks are encouraged though not enforced at any performance.
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Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Segal Centre for Performing Arts