After months of her Broadway show, Beautiful, being on stage, Carole King finally showed up to a performance on April 3.
The show debuted on Broadway back in November and its official opening night was Jan. 12.King actually said that she refused to see the play at all due to personal reasons.
According to The New York Times, after the curtain call, as the cast was doing the annual speech for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, King walked out onto stage.
“They had no idea,” King said to the audience when she appeared.
King then gave a rendition of her most popular song “You’ve Got a Friend.” The show’s star that plays the role of King, Jessie Mueller, accompanied King and sang the song with her.
"It was an honor to see Beautiful for the first time last night," King said in a statement afterward. "Jessie Mueller and company are fantastic, and it was so joyous to be there. I couldn't be more proud."
As earlier reported by People, the reason that King stayed away from her show is because the stage biography brought back too many painful memories for her, despite the triumphs during the hit song “One Fine Day” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”
King's daughter and manager, Sherry Kondor, said her mother actually walked out halfway through the reading. "She said, 'I have to go. I can tell it's great, but I can't watch my life played out before me.' "