Like many Baby Boomers, I grew up on the music of Neil Diamond, appreciating his distinctive whiskey baritone voice, earworm melodies and familiar, sing-along lyrics. But when I saw “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical” for the first time on Wednesday night at the San Diego Civic Theatre, I realized I’d never really been listening.
Like all jukebox musicals, “A Beautiful Noise” tells the Brooklyn-born singer’s life and musical journey through 30 or so songs from his vast catalog. But it’s not the story I was expecting. Based on his 2019 memoir of the same name, it’s a stunningly frank story of Diamond’s lifelong struggles with loneliness, depression, imposter syndrome and self-inflicted marital problems. And unbeknownst to me, these struggles were in his song lyrics all along.
“Shilo” is about the imaginary friend he created as a child to deal with anxiety; “Song Sung Blue” about depression; “Solitary Man” and “Hello Again” about loneliness and relationship troubles; and “I Am … I Said” is a testimonial cry about self-identity.
The musical’s theatrical framing device is a therapy session between the present-day, unhappily-retired and highly irritable Diamond and his very patient psychiatrist, who uses a book of Diamond’s songs to gradually tease out flashback stories from his past. Diamond has praised the healing importance of psychoanalysis in his life
As a result, in “Beautiful Noise” the present-day Parkinson’s disease-suffering Neil, played with a fragile grace and grit by Robert Westenberg, and his psychiatrist, played gently but firmly by Lisa Renée Pitts, virtually never leave the stage during the 2-1/2-hour musical.
Re-creating the role of the younger Neil Diamond, which he played on Broadway for nine months, is the very talented Nick Fradiani, who perfectly renders Diamond’s “velvet wrapped in gravel” voice, physical mannerisms and dark-clouds personality. Hannah Jewel Kohn is a charismatic singer and dancer as Diamond’s second (of three) wives, Marcia Murphey. And Kate A. Mulligan offers comic relief as Ellie Greenwich, the Brill Building record producer who discovered Diamond in the mid-1960s.
The musical’s first act is more a chronicle of Diamond’s career and relationships, culminating with his biggest-ever hit, “Sweet Caroline,” which was written in 30 minutes in a rundown Nashville motel room at a low point in his life (Caroline was a name plucked from a magazine cover). The show’s second act is designed more as a live concert/spiritual, where the sequins-clad, long-haired Diamond of the ’70s-’90s encourages the audience to sing and clap along, with the Civic Theatre house lights often turned on.
Despite the show’s somewhat dark subject matter, it’s a fascinating and unique story. The show is high energy, well-produced and glitzy, and it’s an enjoyable ride because the music is so memorable.
‘A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical’
When: 7:30 p.m. May 29; 8 p.m. May 30; 2 and 8 p.m. May 31; 1 and 6:30 p.m. June 1
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown
Tickets: $51 – $231
Online: broadwaysd.com/-events/a-beautiful-noise
