Review Roundup: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE, THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL Pre-Broadway World Premiere

The world premiere engagement of A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical will opened on Sunday, July 10, after a postponement due to COVID cases in the company.

The Boston cast is led by Tony Award® nominee Will Swenson as Neil Diamond - Then, Tony Award nominee Mark Jacoby as Neil Diamond - Now, Tony Award nominee Robyn Hurder as Marcia, and Linda Powell as Doctor.

They are joined by Jessie Fisher as Jaye Posner; Michael McCormick as Fred Colby, Tommy O'Rourke; Tom Alan Robbins as Bert Berns, Kieve Diamond; and Bri Sudia as Ellie Greenwich, Rose Diamond.

The ensemble, swings, and standbys includes Jessie Austrian (standby for Ellie Greenwich, Jaye Posner, Marcia, and Rose Diamond), Neal Benari (standby Neil Diamond - Now), Jordan Dobson (ensemble), Ninako Donville (swing), Paige Faure (ensemble), Nick Fradiani (standby Neil Diamond - Then), Kalonjee Gallimore (ensemble), Samantha Gershman (swing), Alex Hairston (ensemble), Makai Hernandez (swing), Jess LeProtto (ensemble), Tatiana Lofton (ensemble), Aaron James McKenzie (ensemble), Mary Page Nance (ensemble), Robert Pendilla (swing), Max Sangerman (ensemble), and MiMi Scardulla (ensemble).

Following the Boston engagement, A Beautiful Noise will open on Broadway this fall at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) with preview performances beginning Wednesday, November 2 ahead of an official opening night set for Sunday, December 4.

Including a score of Diamond's most beloved songs, A Beautiful Noise features a book by four-time Academy Award®-nominee Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything), direction by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot), and choreography by Olivier Award® winner and four-time Tony Award nominee Steven Hoggett (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Once, Black Watch).

With his first break into songwriting in the 1960s and his meteoric rise in the 1970s, and plenty of crushing disappointments and heart-stopping triumphs along the way, Neil Diamond has maintained an almost unthinkable level of superstardom for five straight decades. How did a poor Jewish kid from Brooklyn become one of the most universally adored showmen of all time? There's only one way to tell it: a musical set to his era-defining smash hits that entranced the world.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Don Aucoin, Boston Globe: Though he's a pop craftsman as skilled as he is driven, Diamond has written a fair number of clunkers to go along with his many good songs. Both categories are amply represented onstage. Points for comprehensiveness, I guess, but the less-than-beautiful noise creates some weaknesses in the show. [...] None of the show's flaws are enough to diminish, much less eclipse, Swenson's achievement. To see a respected veteran performer like him rise to the occasion the way he does in "A Beautiful Noise" affords a particular kind of gratification to a theatergoer. You might say it feels ... well, you know.

Jacquinn Sinclair, WBUR: 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.