Formulaic, though moving Neil Diamond memoir comes to Civic Theatre

Jukebox musicals about musicians have a specific formula. 

Whether Carole King or Michael Jackson, an artist narrates a softened version of their origin story through music.

Often, an outside party then demands more introspection, more honesty, more revealing information. Saying “it’s about the music” is not enough for them. That outside party can be a documentary interviewer, as in “MJ,” or a psychoanalyst, like in “A Beautiful Noise.” 

For memoir musicals where the artist is involved in the show’s development, this outside force can be key in convincing the audience this is a clear-eyed view of stars they know from tabloids and history books. So the beleaguered artist, or artists plural like in “Jersey Boys,” tells their story chronologically between top hits, while still demanding tough topics are brushed past, like during “Ain’t Too Proud,” when narrator and Temptations founder Otis Williams told the audience he no longer wanted to talk about his time in juvenile detention.

With already known and beloved musicians, the formula can be moving, as long as the biography is not surface level. 

“A Beautiful Noise,” the Neil Diamond memoir musical premiering in San Diego at the Civic Theatre through Sunday, follows this formula to a T. 

The aging, recalcitrant songwriter (Robert Westenberg) is in a therapy session with a doctor (Lisa Renee Pitts) as he comes to terms with Parkinson’s disease that prevents him from continuing to tour. When he will not open up, she turns to his own song lyrics for insight.

From two plush chairs, they go through his catalog and his life chronologically as a younger version of Diamond, played by “American Idol” winner Nick Fradiani, takes center stage first in Greenwich venue The Bitter End, then on world tours. 

Diamond is depicted as a lonely Jewish boy growing up in Flatbush with too much ambition who grew up to need validation and adoration from an audience to feel alive. That addictive feeling tore him from two wives and multiple children as he prioritized touring and music over relationships.

These are themes seen in other musician’s musicals — perhaps because the drive to have a songbook deep enough for an entire musical of hits requires career dedication over anything or anyone else. 

What elevates “A Beautiful Noise” into a musical worth seeing is Diamond’s catalog and Fradiani’s vocals, rounded out by moving performances from the rest of the cast. 

Fradiani’s deep, gravelly voice captures the uniqueness of Diamond’s own vocals which turned him from an unknown songwriter into a worldwide star in his own right. The complex folk songs full of unrelenting desire for human connection, interspersed with a few pop and gospel hits, do add more meat to the familiar songs. 

The reinterpretation of some of those songs was fascinating. 

Rather than a cozy love song about prioritizing romance over money and fame, second wife Marcia Murphey (Hannah Jewel Cohn) belted “Forever in Blue Jeans” as an angry accusation that Diamond left her behind when all she wanted was his time. 

The audience ate up the musical, embracing the world tour scenes by acting like a clapping, cheering and crazed crowd at a rock concert more than staid theatergoers. Many were moved by the soft, almost pitying look at Diamond’s personal life between longtime favorite songs. 

It was hard not to cry when near the end, the older Neil finally reconciles his disease with his identity, singing for the first time in the two-hour-plus show. 

For tickets to “A Beautiful Noise,” visit broadwaysd.com.