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Discography

Michael Ball | Alfie Boe

Michael Ball: 1980s – Pirates of Penzance (Manchester Opera House); Les Miserables (West End); Phantom of the Opera (West End); Aspects of Love (West End and Broadway).   

1990-4 – Debut album Michael Ball and first UK concert tour; second album Always enters chart at No. 3; 30 date UK tour.  One Careful Owner (1994) goes gold; debuts on BBC Radio 2 as presenter; The Best of Michael Ball earns Michael fourth gold disc in three years. 

1995-2000 – Concerts at European Youth Olympics in Bath and the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham; recreates role of Marius for the 10th Anniversary Gala Concert of Les Miserables at the Royal Albert Hall.  First Love enters chart at No. 4, goes gold; Steven Sondheim's Passion (West End); Michael Ball – The Musicals cd and national tour; launches Wednesday Lottery Show on BBC TV; performs at BBC Proms in the Park and at the Royal Variety Performance.  Records An Evening With Michael Ball for BBC TV; 7th album Movies goes platinum. Theatregoers Club of Great Britain vote Michael Most Popular Musical Actor over the last 21 years.   Michael plays in the Millennium with an outdoor concert in Kuala Lumpur.

2000-2 - UK tour; This Time…It's Personal cd includes; promotes video Live At The Albert Hall in the USA; Australian tour; two week season at Donmar Warehouse; Centre Stage goes gold; video release Alone Together; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang(West End) as Caractacus Potts.

2003-5 – new cd A Love Story and major UK concert tour; Australian concerts, American concert debut in Salt Lake City; plays opposite Petula Clark in BBC Radio 2's live concert production of Sunset Boulevard; Alone Together show at Theatre Royal Haymarket; double cd Love Changes Everything – The Essential Michael Ball goes gold; performs for members of the royal family in Les Miserables at Windsor Castle. 

2005 – Woman In White (Count Fosco, right, with Maria Friedman as Marian) (West End/Broadway); presents ITV's ‘This Morning'; five week sellout UK; Music sells 250,000+; debuts with the New York City Opera as Reginald Bunthorne in Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience.

2006-7 – new cd One Voice; open air concert tour; hosts BBC Radio 2 Special Michael Ball Celebrates Anthony Newleyat London's Hackney Empire.  BBC Radio 2 series, Ball Over Broadway; UK tour, debuts with the English National Opera in Kismet; debuts at the BBC Proms with An Evening With Michael Ball; cd Michael Ball – Back To Bacharach; opens to 5 star rave reviews in Hairspray.

2008 – Hairspray breaks box office records and becomes the most successful show at the Shaftesbury Theatre in forty years; open air summer tour dates include Hampton Court and Kenwood House;  Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch on BBC Radio 2.  Wins whatsonstage and Olivier Awards for Best Actor In A Musical.

2009 – March release of Past & Present – The Very Best Of Michael Ball which goes top ten in first week; performs in West End production of Hairspray till July; UK tour September/October 2009.

2010 – Tours the UK as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray; continues to front his own BBC Radio 2 show; debuts as TV chat show host on August 16th on ITV1 with The Michael Ball Show; records tracks for his new album, Heroes, for release March 2011; Hairspray tour continues in Dublin and Edinburgh; Love Story opens at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End on December 6th with Michael as producer. 

2011 – January to March Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch on BBC Radio 2; March new cd Heroes released through Universal Music TV.  On March 21st Michael and Imelda Staunton co-present the 2010 Olivier Awards which are held at the Grosvenor House Hotel.  On May 1st, after an incredible 57 weeks on the road, Hairspray comes to a magnificent end in Bristol.  Michael's UK and Ireland concert tour Heroes Live follows; dates include two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. 

November 14th Universal Film UK release live concert dvd Michael Ball – Heroes Live.

2012 – February 26th at the Savoy Theatre, Michael performs at an evening of music, comedy, poetry in aid of Mane Chance Sanctuary and Shooting Star CHASE, hospice care for children and teenagers of which Michael is a patron.

Sweeney Todd opens at the Adelphi Theatre on March 20th to outstanding reviews:

 

"Michael Ball has redefined his career with the performance of his life."

Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail

 

"The performance of a lifetime from Michael Ball as the Demon Barber."

Libby Purves,The Times

 

"If you think you know Michael Ball, think again. The popular lyric baritone is almost unrecognizable as the demon barber of Fleet Street. It's a chilling performance, sinister and saturnine. He is a revelation."

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard

 

"Jonathan Kent's production leaves me grasping for superlatives.  This is a superb achievement that proves that Sondheim's musical thriller has genuine social resonance." 

Michael Billington, The Guardian

 

"A dark, glinting treat.  Michael Ball is a revelation." 

Sarah Hemmings, Financial Times

 

"Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are unmissable."

Mark Shenton, Sunday Express

 

"It's horrifically enjoyable – not to be missed under any circumstances!"

Kate Kellaway, The Observer

 

"Two of Britain's finest stage talents at the peak of their game."

Daily Express

 

"Michael Ball dazzles as Sweeney Todd."

The Week

 

April 15th 2012 Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton host the 2011 Olivier Awards at the Royal Opera House, their second year as co-presenters...Sweeney Todd continues through to September 22nd and wins the Evening Standard Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical.

2013:

January 20th Michael's new weekly radio show, ‘SUNDAY NIGHT WITH MICHAEL BALL' premiered on BBC Radio 2.

February 25th – Michael's new album ‘BOTH SIDES NOW' is released on Union Square Records and goes straight into the Top Ten.

April 15th to May 10th – Michael's ‘Both Sides Now' concert tour of the UK.

April 28th – Michael wins the OLIVIER for Best Actor in a Musical for ‘Sweeney Todd'.

May 13th – release of new single ‘Fight the Fight' written by Tim Rice.

 

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).

Michael is 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.

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.

Michael will be as busy as ever in 2013…

As a young boy, Lancashire-born Alfie Boe (from the fishing port of Fleetwood) dreamed of a career as a singer. Having conquered the world's most prestigious opera stages, led the cast of Les Miserables for nearly a year, and stolen the show at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, he has certainly succeeded. Always striving to bring good music to different audiences, after three sold-out UK Tours (including the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall), Boe has hundreds of thousands of fans, having achieved Platinum album sales in the UK, and four top ten album placings.

Alfie continues to impress, even outside the concert hall and recording studio. Earlier this year he appeared on our small screens, starring in ITV's biggest programme of the winter, Mr Selfridge, as music-hall singer Richard Chapman, and last year saw the release of his best-selling autobiography, My Story. Yet amid his ever increasing celebrity status, Alfie will always be part of the classical world – he was recently awarded with a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music. Music is Alfie's first love, and this album reminds us why he is loved in return.

Britain's favourite tenor brings us the magjc and romance of the Italian Riviera with the release of his eagerly-awaited new album Serenata, on 17th November. Serenata, which means ‘to sing in your honour', is a beautiful collection of romantic Italian songs, perfectly suited to Alfie's distinctive voice. With the glowing nostalgia of these hugely popular tunes, Alfie Boe not only reminds us of the extraordinary impact made in the ‘50s of these Italian numbers, songs or this music, but also why Alfie he has become the biggest-selling British tenor of today.