REVIEW: The Neil Diamond Musical—A BEAUTIFUL NOISE
- TheShowReport
- Jul 30
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 2
For decades, Neil Diamond was on top of the world. He toured arenas packed with shrieking fans who couldn’t get enough of his music. I was one of them.
JULY 29, 2025—COSTA MESA
Neil wrote “Sweet Caroline,” an irresistible anthem that continues to trigger Pavlovian singalongs to this day. But he wasn’t through yet. He became a prolific megahit machine with one chart-topper after another. He had three solo number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Cracklin' Rosie" in 1970, "Song Sung Blue" in 1972, and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (a duet with Barbra Streisand) in 1978.
The press described Neil Diamond by 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 THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE, the rousing biographical show that opened at Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Tuesday night in Costa Mesa. We meet a superstar with, surprisingly, very little confidence when not on stage, despite being known to engage the beast mode while in concert, prowling stages in tight pants and wide-open satin shirts. He seems perpetually dissatisfied, as if on a fruitless quest — but why? What gnaws at him?
To answer those questions, the book writer, Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), put Diamond on the couch, or, to put it more accurately, in an armchair with his psychologist. A BEAUTIFUL NOISE, directed by Michael Mayer, is framed as an extensive therapy session between the aging singer, simply roled Neil - Now (Robert Westenberg; Broadway: “Into the Woods” – Tony Nominated), and his long-time therapist, Dr. Lu Katzman (played deftly by Lisa Renée Pitts; Broadway: “Sweat”).
Diamond is there because his wife Katie — spoiler alert: she’s the third one, and doesn’t appear in the musical — and kids forced his hand. Apparently, Diamond is “a little hard to live with these days” we’re told. Maybe his family is frustrated by his grouchiness and poor interpersonal communication skills, at least based on his laconic sullenness with the doctor. When she presses him for insights, he curtly says, “I put everything I have into my songs." ...”Fine, then let’s see what they have to tell us about the man who wrote them.”
The arc of Diamond’s onstage narrative may be familiar if you’ve seen other musicals of this genre. The main element that makes it stand out from the typical fare are those self-imposed therapy sessions that are interspersed within the story. But to us, his fans, there’s a certain amount of postulating sentimentality in seeing a cloistered, heartsore man like Diamond try to articulate how metaphorical storm clouds descend upon him whenever he’s not onstage, leading him to sabotage his personal life.
The chairs move strategically to stage left and right and suddenly we see Diamond making a second entrance, but now he is in his prime and portrayed by a swaggering Nick Fradiani (“American Idol Winner – 2015; Hit single 2016 – “Beautiful Life”) who immediately brings to the stage a powerful presence with all eyes drawn to him, and an uncanny vocal delivery, shapeshifting and mirroring every nuance and tonal quality of Neil Diamond, arousing a fast-swooning audience (“A Beautiful Noise”/”America”). And, when I say strong vocal delivery, I literally thought I was listening to the real Neil Diamond.
The story starts with his early days in the mid-60s at the Brill Building as a wispy, gentle emo boy with a bit of mystery and a faint accent that causes one to lean forward rather than rear back. One of the most influential early American hit factories (the site launched careers for scores of pop artists like The Chiffons, Bobby Vee, Elvis, The Shangri-Las, The Righteous Brothers, Dionne Warwick, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys and Ike & Tina Turner), the location also played a key role in "Jersey Boys" and “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” and it’s where the mighty Ellie Greenwich (an amusingly perky Kate A. Mulligan; Broadway: “Between Riverside and Crazy”) starts mentoring the shy young man from Brooklyn and urging him to start singing his own songs instead of simply writing them (at some point, all the bio-musicals where the heroes take meetings at the Brill Building should cross over in some Avengers-style event, perhaps where Neil Diamond meets up with Carole King, Frankie Valli and Ellie Greenwich by the water cooler).
As one scene leads into another, we see the doctor and the older singer continuing to add more depth to the story and revisit his catalog, presenting interesting banter on the action from their chairs, like a double vision of the narrator in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” We find out that after a childhood in Flatbush, which McCarten’s book first elides and then later loops back to, he gets his start as a songwriter, writing “I’m a Believer” for the Monkees, before going out on his own with performances at the Bitter End.
Eventually, upon recommendation from Ellie Greenwich, he signs a predatory contract with Bang! Records (a mob-associated label run by American songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, who is played by stage and screen veteran Michael Accardo, providing a slight flavor of comic relief. Berns' production credits include the megahits "Twist and Shout," "Hang on Sloopy," "Baby, Please Don't Go," "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Under the Boardwalk" to name a few).
Experiencing a temporary artist's block, Diamond's whole career is now centered around his newest song, “Shilo.” The song is rejected by Bang! which begins his defiant stance to challenge the mob and break ties with the company (the song, by the way, is performed with almost unbearable grace by ensemble member Spencer Donovan Jones).
Barely scraping out of it thanks to a deal from Berns for just one more hit, “Sweet Caroline” saves him, becomes an international superhit and he is reborn in the second act as a feather-haired-sequin-spangled rock god.
The superstar seems to always be probing his inner self, seeking love and somehow not finding it. Along the way, there are the familiar stumbling blocks of collapsing relationships — notably, cheating on his first wife and high school sweetheart, Jaye Posner (Tiffany Tatreau, unleashing an angelic glow for the back row and a rich, smoky soprano with "Love On The Rocks"), with his future truth-telling powerhouse second wife, Marcia Murphey (Hannah Jewel Kohn channeling Ann-Margret pumping sex and sweat) — and woes of a workaholic who won’t let himself spend much time away from the road. In a special indulgence, Ms. Kohn’s Marcia sings “Forever in Blue Jeans” in a scene depicting their breakdown after feeling constantly neglected by her always-touring husband, while slithering through one of choreographer Yasmine Lee’s (inspired by Steven Hoggett) more complex dance sequences.
As the younger Neil, the strapping Mr. Fradiani could easily pass as a high-school quarterback, but he gives a soul-stirring, never-to-be-forgotten rendering of Diamond’s vocal timbre (“gravel wrapped in velvet,” Ellie Greenwich calls it in the show), and, despite his easy-going demeanor, effectually brings a wrinkled brow to the scenes of Diamond’s angst.
“So” says the good doctor. “Wonderful wife. Great kids. Raining money. World tours. What did all that lead to?” “Well,” Neil responds thoughtfully, “more sequins!”
By the end of the ’60s, Diamond was a serial chart-topper; by the early ’70s, he had mutated into the Lord Byron of soft rock, all strutting gloom and troubled romanticism. That turning point is when Mr. Fradiani really takes ownership of the role. While he doesn’t entirely let go during the concert scenes, he gets close to Diamond’s cavalier sexuality and delivers hit after hit with a relaxed confidence, especially those Diamondesque classics like “Cherry Cherry,” “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show,” “Holly Holy,” and “I Am…I Said.”
Created in collaboration with Neil Diamond himself, A BEAUTIFUL NOISE is the uplifting untold true story of how a kid from Brooklyn became a chartbusting, show-stopping American rock icon. With 140 million albums sold, an induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and sold-out concerts around the world that made him bigger than Elvis, Neil Diamond’s story was made to shine on Broadway, where the biggest stars tell their story.
Because the thing is, the audience isn’t really here for the storm clouds, they’re here for the good times, which, you gotta admit… never seemed so good (so good! So good!).
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS, THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE; Music by NEIL DIAMOND; Book by ANTHONY MCCARTEN; Directed by MICHAEL MAYER; Choreographed by STEVEN HOGGETT; Scenic Design by DAVID ROCKWELL; Costumes by EMILIO SOSA; Lighting by KEVIN ADAMS; Sound Design by JESSICA PAZ; Hair & Wig Design LUC VERSCHUSEREN; Music Supervision and Arrangements by SONNY PALADINO; Incidental Music and Dance Music Arrangements by BRIAN USIFER; Vocal Design by ANNMARIE MILAZZO; Orchestrations by BOB GAUDIO, SONNY PALADINO & BRIAN USIFER. Tour Director is AUSTIN REGAN; Tour Choreographer YASMINE LEE; Illusion Design JAMIE HARRISON; Music Director JAMES OLMSTEAD; Production Stage Managers JOHN M. ATHERAY & RICHARD A. LEIGH.
CAST: ROBERT WESTENBERG; LISA RENEE PITTS; NICK FRADIANI; KATE A. MULLIGAN; TIFFANY TATREAU; DEIRDRE DUNKIN; ELLEN MCGIHON; THABITHA MORUTHANE; JEILANI RHONE-COLLINS; COOPER CLACK; RAMSEY PACK; CHRIS MARSH CLARK; GINGER HURLEY; SPENCER DONOVAN JONES; TUCK MILLIGAN; HANNAH JEWEL KOHN; MICHAEL ACCARDO; J’KOBE WALLACE; ALEC MICHAEL RYAN; ZOE MALONEY; JOE CASKEY; DALE DUKO; JER; DENVER DIZON; RENE MIRAI GUYON; DEANDRE SEVON; VANESSA AURORA SIERRA.
A BEAUTIFUL NOISE will be playing in Segerstrom Hall at SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS through August 10th. Running time: 2 Hrs, 15 min. including intermission. For Tickets, please see www.scfta.org
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
