The piece will, I think, be a box-office hit. Guys will agree to go when their partners buy a ticket and all will leave feeling like they went back for a while to a few nicer September morns than we usually get these days.
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
Opening Night: December 4, 2022
Theater: Broadhurst Theatre
Website: abeautifulnoisethemusical.com
The story of the legendary Neil Diamond comes to life on stage in an uplifting new Broadway musical, A Beautiful Noise featuring all his hit songs including “Sweet Caroline,” “America,” and “Cracklin’ Rosie.”
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December 4, 2022
And though the show successfully adheres to its formulaic logic, its paper-thin analysis of what makes Diamond gloomy―the supposed raison d'être for this affair―left me bored. Which begs the question, why not dispense with the drama and simply put on a tribute concert?
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
A 1986 profile in The New York Times described him in these words: “Olympian aspiration, raw aggression and agonizing self-doubt.”
As unlikely as this might sound, it is that last trait that forms the narrative engine of “A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical,” the ambitious, often rousing, occasionally heavy-handed biographical show that opened on Broadway on Sunday at the Broadhurst Theater.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
When done most successfully, the genre reveals something new about its subject, rather than simply regurgitating life events. Instead, this lackluster pseudo-memoir wagers on nostalgia and a charming frontman to keep the good times feeling good. Ultimately, it’s a losing bet.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
Even with the therapy framing device, though, the story beats will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever seen a documentary about a music act in the last 50 years — and Diamond’s life is decidedly lacking in debauchery and excess compared to his peers.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
One can see why “Sweet Caroline” is played during each game at Fenway Park. When it turns up as the show’s act one finale and during a post-curtain call encore, a temporary communal joy sweeps over the crowd. With that in mind, I would have preferred a karaoke bar where everyone gets drunk and sings along to Diamond’s greatest hits over “A Beautiful Noise.”
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
In the end, A Beautiful Noise can’t overcome the central challenge of being a Neil Diamond biomusical, which is that Diamond’s life has not been, in and of itself, especially dramatic.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
A Beautiful Noise – The Neil Diamond Musical is, alas, neither bold nor, in any meaningful way, new. A by-the-numbers jukebox bio-musical that lacks the necessary galvanizing, dramatically intriguing central force of a Tina Turner (or a forget-everything-else-and-just-watch-the-star performance of Tina‘s Adrienne Warren), Beautiful Noise is a lackluster affair despite its countless sequins.
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But what McCarten inadvertently ends up proving is that Diamond, for all his great songs, didn’t really lead an interesting life (and for a show that’s all about discovering the singer through his lyrics, McCarten and director Michael Mayer certainly don’t find any nuance in them).
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
The Neil Diamond catalog arrives on Broadway with guitars strumming, tresses flowing, and sequins blazing in A Beautiful Noise, a jukebox biomusical celebrating the renowned 81-year-old singer/songwriter.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
There’s a moment in the Neil Diamond bio-musical when the famed singer-songwriter says his career was “a beautiful monster.” That’s an apt description for A Beautiful Noise, the new musical on Broadway after a superb out-of-town tryout in Boston. It’s poised to be a box-office smash that doesn’t necessarily drive any artistic conversation forward but leaves audiences gobsmacked with joy.
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The message seems to be: Have no fear—if you tire of the plot, please know that the songs you recognize will be coming soon. It’s like riding a sepia-toned inner tube along a lazy river of ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s hits—expect the familiar, and little turbulence.
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December 4, 2022
However, depth and detail are absent from the musical; instead, clichés rule. Watching the show, one wondered if those so transported were watching what was in front of them, or simply worshipping their icon; were they appreciating Swenson, or reveling in hearing the Diamond-ness of it all? Perhaps no one is here for the book, or wants the show to dig deep. Diamond’s fans know what they want to know about him, and just want the songs—and this they get. The answer is in all those swaying hands: this is a tribute concert unconvincingly studded with some words—paradise for Diamond’s fans, but not great theater.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 4, 2022
There are certainly some infectious sing-along numbers, notably “Sweet Caroline.” And Mr. Diamond had an early knack for jaunty (if derivative) 1960s guitar-driven pop, evinced by the smash “I’m a Believer,” which the Monkees made famous. But this smoothly produced show’s presentation of his semi-symphonic rock and sentimental balladry failed to convert me. I’m still not a believer.
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