After starring as Raoul in the tour of Phantom, Ben Jacoby makes his Broadway debut as the Grammy-winning music icon Barry Mann in the hit musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
. Barry & his writing partner and wife, Cynthia Weil, take an awesome style journey during the course of the show—from the safety of the 1960s to embracing the new trends of the 1970s. Scroll on as Ben captures his whole Barry Man evolution (and 10 costume changes!).
I'm told that, in reality, Barry wore all black, all the time. But here's our version: slacks, button-up shirt, and tie...sleeves rolled up, of course. Cuz he's a hard-working, rolled-up sleeves kinda guy. I like this first look best because it's a striped shirt over plaid pants...brave.
Shirt and tie look #2. Cynthia (Kara Lindsay) and Carole (Chilina Kennedy) are into it. In these first several scenes, Barry's costumes are all pretty similar. The back-and-forth, friendly competition between Goffin-King and Mann-Weil is set in motion here, all taking place at 1650 Broadway in the early '60s.
Shirt and tie look #3. Getting kinda boring. So check out Carole's iconic Carnegie Hall dress!
Tie off. Frustrated we don't have a number 1 hit yet...but it's about to happen with "You've Lost That Loving Feeling!"
We're going on vacation to Vermont with Carole and Gerry! Those two are smiley, because all our careers are going swimmingly. I'm surprised how cold it is.
Time to go win back my girlfriend with "Walking in the Rain."
Heading out to the 'burbs to visit Carole and Gerry. Starting to see a little shift in style, somewhat in my outfit, but mostly in Cyn's wig. Check that thing out! We are rapidly approaching the '70s...
Night out at the Bitter End. Again, starting to see a shift into louder and busier costumes as we head to the '70s. More importantly, look at Kara's orchid.
I have no choice but to embrace those bell-bottoms. I'd like to have a choice. But I have no choice.
Up-scale '70s. Shaking up Carole's Champagne before we see her at Carnegie Hall! So there ya go—a trip from the '60s to the early '70s. Geez, I have a lot of costume changes.
Don't miss Ben Jacoby as Barry Mann in 'Beautiful: The Carole King Musical' at Broadway's Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
