When is a musical not a musical? Broadway Records latest release will show you!

Following up his highly successful debut album Broadway Soul, Vol. 1 (hailed by Talkin’ Broadway as “a formidable and fascinating dissection and resurrection”), Kyle Taylor Parker returns with a new collection of Broadway classics reimagined. Created as a full musical, and featuring Jackie Cox (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Shoshana Bean (Waitress), Blaine Alden Krauss (Hamilton) and Natalie Joy Johnson (Kinky Boots), the album features an eclectic array of songs from musicals as diverse as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, South Pacific, A Chorus Line, The Wiz, Follies, The Music Man and more, all filtered through the sound of a "queer artist of colour”.

There have been a few albums over the years that have attempted to tell a story through their choice of songs (the best I have heard is A Broadway Love Story by the wonderful Christiane Noll) and this is up there with the best of them, and goes a step further by having characters and a plot. The story is in the excellent-as-always booklet and is really well thought out.

The re-working and orchestration of this album is excellent - masterly done by Sonny Paladino - and deserve much credit for taking numbers we all know, and giving them a different twist, without making them sound contrived. The sound is great, and shows a real dedication to quality. It’s so much more than a vocal album.

The album opens with a superb version of 'New Music' from Ragtime - totally a cappella - and continues through a wonderful, if a little safe, 'What Would I Do If I Could Feel' from The Wiz. Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Sondheim are up next, the later with Natalie Joy Johnson joining Parker. The guest vocalists really add to the album, and complement Parker very well. 'What About Love' and 'The Glory Of Love' are just sublime.

But ultimately it’s Parker who’s the star here. His first album was great - this is a step up again, and well worth a listen.

Another winner.

9

Ian Gude