ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) - She is known for many of her top hits like "It's Too Late" and "You've Got A Friend". But, long before that, she was just a young girl from Brooklyn, New York with a strong passion for music. Now, she is known as Carole King and her inspiring story is being told around the globe on and off stage.

"I play Carole from when she is 16 to 29 years old, so its the story of how she got her songwriting career started. She was in high school taking the train into Manhattan and selling her songs at the Brill Building which is still there in Manhattan," said Sarah Bockel, who plays the lead role as Carole King in the musical Beautiful.

Bockel, an actress from Chicago, says she was a fan of Carole King long before playing her role in Beautiful. She has appeared in other musicals, but has been in Beautiful for now nearly 3 years. She says maintaining the "perfect" Brooklyn accent is probably her biggest challenge along with, pretending to play the piano.

"Anybody who plays the piano, there's two cameras on our hands. So our pianist and our conductor Nick Williams, he actually puts his hands on when I put my hands on. He then takes his hands on when I take mine off and so you learn the rhythms of both the hands. Faking piano is actually harder than you think it would be," said Bockel.

Changing outfits during the play is also another challenge says Bockel and dance captain, Tracie Lee, who has also several roles in the musical.

"So we're in a different city just about every week, so we get different dressers, awesome dressers in every city. So they're learning the show as we do it. So, we're like, alright, this ones next, and they're so on top of it. They're like great, we will get you in and out, its a lot of deadline," said Lee.

On Tuesday, Beautiful made its first premiere at the Clemens Center in downtown Elmira. They will premier now until Sunday, May 20th. For more information on how to purchase a ticket click here.