Michael Ball (singer) - Recent Career

Recent Career

Ball embarked on an extensive United Kingdom tour during March and April 2007. There were 23 dates on the tour covering England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The tour started with two nights in Belfast, before a number of shows in the north of England and Midlands. Ball then headed to Glasgow and Aberdeen before returning for shows in London, Birmingham and Northampton. Ball took a trip to his old home in Plymouth before embarking on the final leg of his tour. It saw Ball perform in Ipswich and Northampton before ending his tour in Cardiff. He made his debut with the English National Opera in the lead role of Hajj/Poet in a new production of Robert Wright and George Forrest's Kismet after this tour.

In August 2007 he 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. Ball appeared in the Royal Variety Performance at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on 3 December 2007 singing "You Can't Stop the Beat" with the rest of the cast from Hairspray, the musical he was appearing in at the time. He continued in the role of Edna Turnblad in the musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 29 April 2009. On 2 March 2008, Ball appeared as the guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, during which he talked about his early life and his career, including his struggle with stage fright in his early career, and a little about his personal life. He performed a number of summer concerts, including the Hampton Court Music Festival on 14 June 2008. From 6 April 2008, Ball took over Michael Parkinson's Sunday Supplement on BBC Radio 2 every Sunday from 11am to 1pm, a timeslot now shared with Weekend Wogan with the two shows alternating every 12 weeks. Ball won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also won the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, his first Olivier Award.

Ball's solo album Past and Present was released on 9 March 2009 by Universal Music. The album includes a compilation of previously released material celebrating Ball's 25 year anniversary in the music industry, as well as six new tracks, including "You Can't Stop the Beat", from Hairspray. Ball appeared on a number of television and radio programmes to promote the album. He toured the United Kingdom with an orchestra and five West End stars, (Louise Clare Marshall, Louise Dearman, Emma Williams, Adrian Hansel and Ben James-Ellis), in the Autumn, celebrating 25 years in the music industry. His concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 September 2009 was filmed for DVD release. Ball performed in a 'One-off' Christmas Concert on 12 December 2009 in aid of The Shooting Star Children's Hospice which he supports. All profits made went to this charity. The Shooting Star Children's Hospice and CHASE Hospice Care for Children joined together to become Shooting Star CHASE in 2011 and Ball is a patron for this charity.

On 14 February 2010, Ball stepped in as a Guest Judge for Robin Cousins on ITV1's Dancing on Ice. while Cousins was in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics. On 10 February 2010, Ball recorded a TV pilot for ITV1 which was commissioned as a full Series in the Summer entitled The Michael Ball Show.

The 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables was held at The O2 Arena in North Greenwich on 3 October 2010 at 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm. It featured Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean, Norm Lewis as Javert, Lea Salonga as Fantine, Ramin Karimloo as Enjolras, Hadley Fraser as Grantaire, Katie Hall as Cosette, Matt Lucas as Thénardier, Jenny Galloway as Madame Thénardier, Samantha Barks as Éponine, Nick Jonas as Marius, the role Ball delivered in the original London production. Casts of the current London, international tour and original 1985 London productions took part, comprising an ensemble of 300 performers and musicians. Ball and Colm Wilkinson anchored the encore, with four Jean Valjeans singing "Bring Him Home": Wilkinson from the original London cast, John Owen-Jones from the 25th Anniversary touring production, Simon Bowman from the current London cast and Alfie Boe, who sang the role in the concert. The original 1985 cast then led the ensemble in a performance of "One Day More". After speeches from Cameron Mackintosh, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the performance concluded with students from school productions of Les Misérables entering the arena.

The evening concert telecast live to cinemas across the UK, Ireland and globally. A Blu-ray and DVD version of the O2 broadcast was released 29 November 2010 in the UK (PAL DVD (Region 2) and Blu-ray). It was released in North America on DVD and Blu-ray 22 February 2011.

Ball co-hosted the Olivier Awards with Imelda Staunton on 13 March 2011 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. His latest album Heroes was released on 14 March 2011. It entered the UK charts at number 10.