CD Review: Musicals, Vol. 1 – Tom Solomon

MUSICALS, VOL. 1 – Tom Solomon (released on 10 December 2021).

Take eight of the greatest numbers in musical theatre history and, if the voice is good enough, you can’t really go wrong. Put experienced crossover performer Tom Solomon on their case, get it on the market for Christmas and you have a compilation that would make a welcome gift for a young music lover who is getting the MT bug.

Essex-born Solomon went straight from the Royal College of Music into Les Misérables, then on to Chicago. He was BBC’s Voice of Musical Theatre, has performed in two Royal Opera House productions (including The Enchanted Pig, a children’s opera that went to Broadway) and, dropping a name, he has also sung at Windsor Castle.

Putting this collection together for his second album, following the 28-track Beautiful Day in 2016,  gave Solomon something to occupy his mind during lockdown.

You cannot fault the choice of songs in the new compilation of covers and releasing it on 10 December, the same day that Spielberg’s West Side Story movie revamp opens nationally, won’t do any harm to an album with ‘Maria’ as one of its components.

The others are ‘Anthem’ from Chess, ‘The Music of the Night’ from Phantom, ‘Love Changes Everything’ from Aspects of Love, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ from South Pacific, two from Les Misérables, ‘Bring Him Home’ and ‘Empty Chairs and Empty Tables’, and ‘I Am What I Am’ from La Cage Aux Folles.

When I was young and innocent, I asked my dad what ‘The Salmon Song’ meant. Never heard of that one, came the reply. “Oh dad, you must know it,” I said. “It starts ‘Salmon Chanted Evening’.”

So the great Rodgers and Hammerstein title number resides forever in my mind as ‘The Salmon Song’, and thanks, Tom, for reminding me of that long-ago conversation and of dad choking on his cornflakes!

But I digress. When someone picks iconic songs such as we have here, he or she always risks comparison with the artists who originated them. It is hard to top or even match giants who have gone before and made songs such as these their trademark.

Solomon makes a fair stab at it, his diction is perfect – no salmon there! – but I would have liked more emotion on Jerry Herman’s ‘I Am What I Am’ show-stopper. For me it works best when passion overrules style.

For the rest, Phantom’s own show-stopper ‘The Music of the Night’ shows Solomon in a good light, the two Les Mis numbers go down well, and ‘Love Changes Everything’, not the easiest Lloyd Webber to sing, ticks most of the boxes.

It’s half an hour of easy listening – Solomon lets those glorious words speak for themselves and doesn’t try anything fancy with them. He is accompanied by James Treweek on keyboards and Musicals, No. 1 can be downloaded on iTunes and Amazon Music, with streaming via Spotify (preorders already available). No doubt Solomon is already working on No. 2.

Jeremy Chapman