On Tuesday’s opening night of his 18-show residency at Broadway’s historic Palace Theatre, Ben Platt didn’t just conjure up the spirits of Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and other legends of the newly renovated venue.
The Tony-winning star of “Dear Evan Hansen” also channeled James Taylor on a beaming rendition of JT’s 1977 classic “Your Smiling Face.”
And it’s ’70s singer-songwriters such as Taylor, Cat Stevens and Paul Simon (with and without Art Garfunkel) who are the touchstone troubadours from the first notes of Platt crooning “like a canary” on his third studio album “Honeymind,” out on Friday.
But right after the airy acoustic guitar balladry of opener “Right Kind of Reckless,” you realize that we’re not in Kansas anymore. The LP’s second track, “All American Queen,” comes sashaying on out as the queer anthem we needed to kick off Pride Month in June.
“He was born in the sticks, right in the middle of fall/He wants to be a cheerleader, runs away from the ball/He’s got a song in his heart and a collection of dolls/And there’s a pale shade of pink on his bedroom wall,” Platt sings on this shimmering sunshine-pop bop.
So maybe it’s just a different kind of Kansas — one that hasn’t always lived out loud in the music world.
But with its easy openness about queer love — and the queer experience — “Honeymind” is a sweet reminder that it has always been here.
And by the next track, “Andrew” — a lilting, lovely reflection about the unrequited love that a “soft-hearted” Platt felt for a straight man — it’s clear that there will be no vagaries about the male objects of his affections.
“It’s just a cruel joke that chemicals play,” Platt sings wistfully as honey-coated harmonies swell and swirl around the dreamscape.
Then there’s “Before I Knew You,” a heartfelt dedication to Platt’s fiancé Noah Galvin that deserves to become a gay wedding song staple.
“But even when you hadn’t found me, you were right there all around me/And I’ve been on my way to you/I loved you long before I knew you,” he sings with the kind of romanticism that has been rare to hear about two men.
Pitt normalizes all of this in the most natural of surroundings, with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, who has worked with the likes of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile and alt-country artist Sturgill Simpson. The stripped-down settings lay bare the beauty and purity of his voice — a truly wondrous instrument.
Another Grammy-winning country artist, Brandy Clark, duets with Platt on “Treehouse,” which is one of the album’s tracks that branches into Kacey Musgraves’ territory. (And Musgraves just so happened to be Platt’s surprise guest on opening night of his Palace residency.)
But the closer “Monsters” is a big, Broadway-style ballad that brings all the drama.
You can take the boy out of the theater, but you can’t take the theater out of the boy.
