Reviews roundup – The WestEnders vs. Katy Treharne vs. Ramin Karimloo

Reviews roundup – The WestEnders vs. Katy Treharne vs. Ramin Karimloo

It’s all jazzhands round here today as we catch up with an assortment of releases from the world of musical theatre.

THE WESTENDERS
Hear The People Sing
WestEnders

They’ve been touring the country for aeons now, but this is only the second time that the musical theatre veterans that are The WestEnders have went into the studio to record.

The six featured singers have, between them, appeared in over twenty of the most popular West End shows of recent years, including Beauty & the Beast, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Aspects Of Love, Jesus Christ Superstar, Oliver!, Crazy For You and many more. So you can’t fault their pedigree.

And they’re not messing about, as this is a double CD chock full of the showstopping vocal arrangements, under the musical direction of Jae Alexander, that make their live show so special (and one you should definitely catch).

Granted, it helps if you can picture them performing the songs, but even shorn of visuals it’s easy to be impressed with their performance.

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KATY TREHARNE
Think Of Me
Dischromedia

And on one of the recent WestEnders tours, who should have stepped in to fill a gap but Katy Traharne, who has her debut albumn out and about, right now.

A Welsh soprano, she has appeared in the premiere of the musical Love Beyond and was the alternate Christine in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, as well as having toured with the hugely successful Swedish singer, Peter Jöback, also appearing on “I Love Musicals – The Album” release last year.

And this is an excellent introduction, featuring songs you would expect from the musicals like ‘Think Of Me’ from Phantom, as well as faith material and classics such as ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’. There’s even a dip into my beloved SMASH for a take on ‘Second Hand White Baby Grand’.

A real treat, and a name to look out for.

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RAMIN KARIMLOO
The Road to Find Out: East
Big Hand Recordings

We’ve already featured this, but it seems to fit into this section, so another mention for West End star, Ramin Karimloo, with his new solo EP, and it kicks off with a bluegrass version of ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ from “Oklahoma”. Oh, yes.

This EP is the first in a series of four, with North, South and West to follow. The originals are cowritten with Hadley Fraser, another Les Mis veteran, so it’s no surprise to hear ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ here, albeit it in a countrified form. It’s hard for the original material in such distinguished company, but ‘Losing’ and ‘Broken’ to their best, with the latter a song that will stand the test of time.

Mr Karimloo calls it “Broadgrass”. I just call it splendid.

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