Michael Ball OBE
Leading Musical Theatre Star
Michael remarkable voice, style and wit have made him one of the UK’s leading musical theatre stars. He is a double Olivier Award Winner, multi-platinum recording artist and a hugely popular radio and TV presenter. Michael has performed in West End productions of Les Miserables, Aspects of Love, Woman in White, Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to name but a few!
His role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray won Michael the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. With regular appearances on television and radio Michael is ever popular, with shows such as Evening With Michael Ball filling in on BBC1’s The One Show, and his BBC Radio 2 shows: Ball Over Broadway; Michael Ball’s Sunday Brunch and Songwriting Partnerships.
BIOGRAPHY
Michael, Britain’s leading musical star, has starred on Broadway and dominated the marquees on many of the leading West End shows for more than two decades. A proven and varied talent, Michael won acclaim and the hearts of the public with his numerous performances on stage, film and television.
All Michael’s solo albums have held commanding positions in the UK charts, all rapidly going gold within weeks of their release.
Michael Ball has won critical and public acclaim over the last 25 years with his dynamic, award-winning lead roles in the West End and on Broadway. And, with his concurrent career as a multi-platinum recording artist, top selling live concert performer and radio and television broadcaster, the Olivier-Award winning Ball has been, for many years, in the enviable position of combining these individual aspects of showbusiness with continuing success.
Michael’s many West End credits include originating the role of Marius (Les Miserables); Giorgio (Stephen Sondheim’s Passion); Raoul (Phantom of the Opera),Alex (Aspects of Love, West End and Broadway), Caractacus Potts (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Count Fosco (Woman In White, West End and Broadway), Edna Turnblad (Hairspray, West End and on tour) for which he won the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor In A Musical, and Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Chichester and West End). 2015 saw Michael perform as Mack Sennett in musical comedy Mack & Mabel.
Michael is also a hugely successful concert artist; he has performed many times in theatres and venues across the UK as well as Australia, the US and the Far East. His many television shows have included Michael Ball, An Evening With Michael Ball, The Michael Ball Show and, for BBC Radio 2, Ball Over Broadway, Michael Ball’s Sunday Brunch and the 2012 six part series, Songwriting Partnerships. Michael also co-hosted the Olivier Awards in 2011 & 12 and hosted them again in 2016.
In August 2007 Michael made his BBC Proms debut with An Evening With Michael Ball at the Royal Albert Hall which marked the first time a musical theatre star had been given a solo concert at the classical music festival. Michael also performed at the 10th anniversary concert of Les Miserables at the Royal Albert Hall and the show’s 25th anniversary concert at the 02 Arena.
In 2016 Michael and the nation’s favourite tenor, Alfie Boe recorded a brand new album, Together, which reached Number 1 in the official album charts in December 2016. The album is a collection of the pair’s favourite songs from film and Broadway shows, recorded in New York and Prague (with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra) and they will follow this with a unique Headline Tour later in 2017.
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