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Dateline: 24th April, 2005
The Voice of Musical Theatre 2005 Tom Solomon has been named the Voice of Musical Theatre for 2005. After a worldwide search by BBC Radio 2, Tom, currently appearing in the West End as first cover Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, won the prestigious award in a contest in which he had to sing against talented young singers from as far afield as New York, Denmark, Estonia and New Zealand. The first winner of the title - which comes with a £5,000 cash prize and broadcast engagements with the BBC - was Laura Michelle Kelly, who was later plucked by Cameron Mackintosh from the chorus of Beauty and the Beast to star in the title role in Mary Poppins. Tom, 27, who lives in Stratford, London, pleased the judges, including West End star and Stephen Sondheim expert Julia McKenzie; Mary Hammond, who runs the Royal Academy of Music's musical theatre course; and West End Musical Director Gareth Valentine, with his renditions of "Why God Why?" from Miss Saigon, "Big News" from Parade and "Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You?" from I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. The competition, staged at the New Theatre, Cardiff, was the highlight of the Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre. Tom is a relative newcomer to stage musicals: he went straight from graduating at the Royal Academy of Music to the ensemble of Les Miserables, moving up the company to play Marius. He then went into the cast of The Phantom of the Opera, where he is first cover Raoul - a role he has played many times now. Originally from Essex, Tom has already released a 14-track CD, More Than This, featuring such classic songs as the Beatles' "The Long And Winding Road", Bette Midler's "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "The First Time I Saw Your Face". Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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