Michael Ball
It started modestly enough; busking in an underpass at weekends while studying at Guildford School of Acting. From this little acorn, however, grew the oak of a mighty, 35-year career spanning studio, stage and screen.
And when the chance came to audition for a part in Godspell – at the impressive Aberystwyth Arts Centre, out on the Ceredigion coast – Michael Ball was safely on his way. “I got it! And it was the greatest feeling, singing in character on stage, in front of a paying audience,” he recalls fondly over a coffee in his beloved Barnes. “I knew then, once and for all, that this was going to be my job.”
He wasn’t wrong. In 1985, aged 23, Michael went along to an open audition and, out of 600 hopefuls, landed the lead role in The Pirates of Penzance at Manchester Opera House. And it was there that he was spotted by legendary theatre producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
“There was a buzz within the company about this new musical based on the novel Les Misérables, but my agent said ‘There’s nothing in it for you,’” laughs Michael, who is about to reprise his Olivier Award-winning role of Edna Turnblad in smash hit musical Hairspray at the London Coliseum.
“Anyway, Cameron came to see Pirates, and that was it. I had no idea how big Les Mis was going to be, but on the opening night we knew it was something special.”
Once again, his instinct was sound. Les Misérables is now the longest-running musical in the West End and, at almost 35 years, is only seven years from setting the world record. Michael triumphed as the original Marius Pontmercy, one of the lead roles, but his flourishing success was cut short when he was struck down with glandular fever.
“I’d always been full of energy and confidence, and then suddenly I couldn’t deliver, at the most important time in my career. I started getting panic attacks on stage, which were just mind-blowing,” he recalls. “I was getting them on the Tube, and I’d just turn around, go home and call in sick, so I was missing shows. I took some time off and then hit a point where I thought: ‘I can never do this job again.’ I resigned from the show and disappeared.”
For months he lay low. Then, suddenly, a lifeline: he was invited to sing the cabaret slot on the live TV broadcast of Miss England.
“I thought: ‘I will either die live on television or I will get through it, and it will never be worse than this. So I did the slot...and I got through it! “But if I am stressed or run down, the feelings can come back. I work hard, so I am permanently tired. It’s all about staying healthy and getting enough sleep. I seem to spend my life snoozing!”
Since those dark days, Michael’s career has gone from strength to strength. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK singles chart with Love Changes Everything, a song from the Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love, in which he played Alex in London and on Broadway. Then, in 1992, he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing second with One Step Out of Time. Other West End roles have included Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera (1987), Giorgio in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion (1996) and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002). And in 2012, Michael won the second of his two Olivier Awards for his lead performance in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
More recently he starred in a staged concert production of Les Mis – this time playing Inspector Javert – which became the most successful live stream concert in UK cinema history. All this in addition to more than 20 albums as a solo artist, three further albums and stadium tours with opera singer Alfie Boe, regular TV appearances and his own show on BBC Radio 2. He was awarded the OBE in 2015.
Versatility and accomplishment, however, are not his only calling cards: Michael Ball is also widely considered one of the nicest men in the business.
“I hope that people would want to work with me again,” he says modestly. “It’s not just about what you do on stage – it’s offstage too.”
Hairspray, which will be dousing audiences with its feel-good vibe again this month, follows the story of Edna Turnblad’s daughter Tracy, an aspiring dancer who wins a part on a local TV show and becomes a sensation. Social change ensues, as Tracy campaigns for racial integration in the casting.
“I first saw Hairspray when it had just opened on Broadway, and I had the best night at the theatre ever,” exclaims Michael.
“It’s a perfect musical – intelligent, funny, subversive, packed full of the best tunes, and it has the happiest ending ever! At the time I said: ‘I would give anything to play Edna.’” Five years later the show came to the UK and Michael asked to be seen for the role.
“I was so determined,” he recalls. “I went into that audition and gave it my all!”
The rest is musical history. To play Edna, Michael is transformed via a process involving a fat suit, prosthetic breasts, a wig, make-up and more.
“The most important thing is a spray of Madame Rochas perfume just before I go on, so that I smell like my mum when I was little, when she used to go out at night. Every character I play has to have their own smell. I always knew, when I last hung up the bra, that it wouldn’t be the final time. I knew that [Edna] would come back. It’s going to be like putting on a pair of her comfortable slippers! Nothing brings me more joy.”
Edna aside, however, Michael has another pressing matter on his mind. “Can we please talk about Hammersmith Bridge?!” he pleads.
“Cathy [McGowan, Michael’s partner of over 30 years] and I moved to Barnes in 1992, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I love it. But the bridge being closed is breaking my heart, as it’s having such an effect on the community. Shops are closing because of it,” he laments.
Nor, to his dismay, does it appear that the bridge will reopen any time soon – and Michael Ball is a man who needs to get around. After Hairspray, he plans to record a new solo album, before returning to the Coliseum in December as Scrooge in a musical version of A Christmas Carol.
“I’ve never done panto or a Christmas show before,” he beams. “Meanwhile, Alfie [Boe] and I just sold out the O2! I had a number one solo album last year, 27 years after my first, and I am thinking: ‘What? What?! How is all this happening?’ “I’ve seen what it would be like to lose it all, because I very nearly did, and I’m old enough now really to appreciate these times. I know that they are golden days for me.”
And long may they last.
Published in the April 2020 issues of The Barnes Magazine, The Richmond Magazine, The Chiswick Magazine and The Wandsworth Magazine, and online at Essential Surrey and SW London
