In June, Ben Platt won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his devastatingly visceral performance in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. The month before, he became the youngest actor ever to win the prestigious Drama League Award for Distinguished Performances. Now, Platt is adding another accolade to that already impressive resume: he's signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records.
"I am beyond proud to be joining the Atlantic family, amongst a roster of legendary artists," Platt tells Billboard in a statement. "It has been a longtime dream to create original music; I am so excited to be working on this debut album and even more excited for the day I can share it with the world."
Atlantic's executive vice president and head of A&R Pete Ganbarg added: "As brilliant and captivating as Ben's performances have been on stage and on film, they represent just one aspect of his extraordinary musical gifts. He is one of the most compelling, authentic artists I've met, with a storyteller's intuition and an emotive, genre-crossing voice. All of us at Atlantic are thrilled to be expanding our relationship with Ben and are looking forward to what we know will be a fantastic body of work."
Prior to Dear Evan Hansen, Platt starred as Benji Applebaum in Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. Onstage, he portrayed Elder Cunningham in the Chicago and Broadway productions of The Book of Mormon, starred in touring productions including Caroline, or Change, and performed in the recent 25th anniversary New York production of The Secret Garden. This fall, he will guest star on NBC's Will and Grace and will be seen in the films Drunk Parents and The Female Brain. TIME magazine named Platt one of 2017's "100 Most Influential People." His last performance in Dear Evan Hansen will be Nov. 19.
Earlier this year, Ganbarg spoke to Billboard about Atlantic's increasingly successful forays into Broadway recordings, including Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, which debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in February and is one of only four cast albums to ever reach that chart's top ten. "Music is music," Ganbarg said. "Now, post-Glee, post-Pitch Perfect, in a streaming world, kids are discovering a lot more of these shows, of these recordings, and it makes us as A&R people more aware that there's a broader palate out there."
