NOT only is Sydney a beautiful city, it will host the Australian production of the same name – Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
Cairns-born, WAAPA music theatre graduate Mat Verevis is making his professional music theatre debut in the production as songwriter Barry Mann.
He has been a Sydneysider since leaving Perth in 2012.
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READ NOW“Sydney is a pretty good-looking city,” Verevis said.
“The arts culture here is great and there’s a fantastic live music scene which I’ve immersed myself in since leaving WAAPA.
“You can’t go past the harbour and Circular Quay and there are some fantastic places to eat in the inner suburbs like Surry Hills and Paddington. There’s so much going on in these inner city suburbs that are fantastic to explore by just walking the streets.”
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will contribute to Sydney’s arts culture when it opens at Lyric Theatre on September 17, with the season extended to December 24.
It is already playing on Broadway, London’s West End and touring the US.
Verevis, who was in season three of The Voice Australia, said audiences would know all the music (You’ve Got A Friend, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, It’s Too Late, Locomotion, I Feel The Earth Move, On Broadway) but surely be surprised by the story of singer Carole King.
“It covers her age from about 16 up until 29 leading to when she wrote Tapestry, which is just one of the greatest albums ever written,” he said.
“It shows how she started out as a song writer in 1650 Broadway and how that all came about; the breadth of songs she wrote for other artists will astound people.”
Esther Hannaford, last in Perth for Little Shop of Horrors, plays the title role while Amy Lehpamer (The Sound of Music) is Verevis’s onstage wife Cynthia Weil.
“It’s pretty cool,” Verevis said.
“I think everything I ever do after this will be a hard slog.”
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