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Neil Diamond's 'Beautiful Noise' at the Colonial — We saw his show, now we're a believer

Will Swenson as Neil Diamond and the cast of "A Beautiful Noise." (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)
Will Swenson as Neil Diamond and the cast of "A Beautiful Noise." (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)

What happens if you feed a wolf? Will it come closer and closer and eventually devour you? In "The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise," a character recounts a story about two wolves (an old Cherokee tale) inside all of us, warring with each other. One is good and happy, and the other is angry and sad. Which wolf wins, the character Marcia Murphey (Robyn Hurder) posits to Diamond. The answer: the wolf you feed.

In the vibrant “A Beautiful Noise” (through Aug. 7), both the musical numbers and Anthony McCarten’s book show Diamond — plagued by ennui — doing his best to feed the happy wolf with music. The Brooklyn-born artist spent years in New York City’s Tin Pan Alley writing songs for other artists before finally scoring a massive hit with the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.”  However, instead of celebrating that win, the indefatigable Diamond worried about his next hit and preferred to burrow away to write it. Throughout his career chronicled in the production, Diamond battled the blues. Loneliness and sadness were fended off when touring, baptized in bright lights, saturated in sequins, and framed in fringe. But crooning his heart out before adoring audiences was only a temporary fix.

Will Swenson and the cast of "A Beautiful Noise." (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)
Will Swenson and the cast of "A Beautiful Noise." (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)

Soon, the clouds returned. And understandably so. During his more than 50-year career, Diamond put out dozens of albums, 21 of which went platinum, and 38 top 40 singles with over 130 million sold, according to Universal Music Entertainment group. That’s a lot of material. But “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life,” the late celebrated author Ernest Hemingway shared in his acceptance speech for the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. To spur his career forward, Diamond most likely spent just as much time writing as he did touring, missing much of his family’s life in the process.

“A Beautiful Noise,” which the Ambassador Theatre Group has brought into the Emerson Colonial Theatre before its Broadway run, has been plagued by the pandemic, like many other productions. The initial 19 preview shows were slashed to nine while multiple company members recovered from illness. “You’d never know there were any problems, though, considering the dynamic performances top to bottom.

The swagger-filled Will Swenson as Diamond, along with a terrific ensemble comprised of more than a dozen talented actors and singers, performed robust renditions of the singer’s greatest hits from “I’m a Believer” to “Kentucky Woman” and “Sweet Caroline,” accompanied by an energetic band, all under the inspired direction of Michael Mayer. (The audience singing along to "Sweet Caroline" was one of the highlights of the evening, even for non-Red Sox fans.) The cast’s upbeat choreography and excellent singing chops help the show feel like a real concert.

Mark Jacoby, seated left, as an older Neil Diamond, and LInda Powell, seated right, as a doctor, frame the cast of "A Beautiful Noise" at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)
Mark Jacoby, seated left, as an older Neil Diamond, and LInda Powell, seated right, as a doctor, frame the cast of "A Beautiful Noise" at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. (Courtesy Matthew Murphy)

The production begins unexpectedly. It’s quiet, with an older Diamond (Mark Jacoby) at the doctor’s office. The doctor (Linda Powell) quotes Diamond’s lyrics to push him to dig deeper into his past to uncover the root of his woes. As the two go down memory lane, the audience is ushered through Diamond’s catalog and life, with some of the members doubling as his wives and music industry folks.

The show is a whirlingly swift, two-hour-plus sweep into Diamond’s (Will Swenson) life. The audience learns about his first wife, Jaye who was his high school sweetheart. Jesse Fisher’s Jaye doesn’t get a ton of time to shine, but it’s clear from their quick interaction that there’s a difference in life philosophy. She wants to focus on life’s wins now, to be proud of her husband and for him to be proud of himself. Instead, Diamond is consumed with what’s next. Once Diamond, rooted in humility, sadness and creativity, starts on the path to real stardom and meets Robyn Hurder’s Marcia Murphey, he and Jaye’s marriage becomes troubled. Fisher performs Diamond’s “Love on the Rocks” to signal the relationship’s end, but struggles to soar in the moving ballad.

Like Swenson, Hurder is an absolute force. At first his friend, then lover and later his wife, Hurder’s Murphey stays married to Diamond for 25 years. Hurder is a triple threat who is remarkably skilled in acting, singing and choreography and brings down the house when she performs “Forever in Blue Jeans.” Jordon Dobson and Bri Sudia’s gorgeous voices, Tatiana Lofton’s energetic dancing and Steven Hoggett's choreography are also quite memorable.

But all the lights, music, velvet, and bell-bottom pants couldn’t wholly blot out Diamond’s seemingly life-long battle with loneliness. Diamond fed the good wolf for decades, touring relentlessly, performing three-hour long shows until his crew on tour felt more like family and home than his actual home.

As I left the theater, even with the infectious music and dazzling production values playing in my head, I couldn’t help wondering about the end of his touring career due to Parkinson’s Disease. How will he feed the wolf now?”


"The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise" runs through Aug. 7 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre.

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Jacquinn Sinclair Performing Arts Writer
Jacquinn Sinclair is a freelance arts and entertainment writer whose work has appeared in Performer Magazine, The Philadelphia Tribune and Exhale Magazine.

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