“SKY NEWS WITH SELINA SCOTT”
THE ‘MUSICALS … AND MORE’ VIDEO (1997)

Selina:  You've just been watching Michael Ball perform Empty Chairs At Empty Tables from the musical Les Miserables.  Michael of course has been captivating audiences for over a decade and he joins me in the studio now.  That was a live video!  The first live video you've ever done?

Michael:  Yes.  Well, the reason I did it, I've always fought shy of filming a live concert because I thought you can never actually get the atmosphere.  And the shows I do are not like the musicals I do.  And then I did the Les Miserables 10th anniversary concert at the Albert Hall a year and a half ago.  And the evening was extraordinary.  The audience's reaction, the feeling on the stage was breathtaking. And I thought: "they'll never capture this on film".  And they did.  And I thought that if they CAN do that, then maybe I should take the punt and try it myself.

Selina:  That was in Glasgow, was it?  Where was it in Glasgow?

Michael:  Royal Concert Hall.

Selina:  And how many people?

Michael:  Um, in that venue it's about 2,500.  And we finished at the Albert Hall, the first time I played the Albert Hall on my own, so it was a really nice concert tour.

Selina:  So that leads me into my perfect next question: what is it like to be a star?  Because you ARE a star, with all those people …

Michael: Well you should know Selina! (laughs)

Selina:  … with all these people, and holding a stage and doing it on your own and everything else.  Inside, do you feel different?  Do you feel more lively, do you feel more optimistic, do you feel as though things are working for you?

Michael:  When you're on stage?

Selina:  Well, now that you're a STAR Michael!

Michael:  NO, I think you feel far more insecure, because none of us knows quite why we're there, there are plenty of people that we know, that we've either trained with or worked with or seen, who are infinitely better than we are at our job.  And for some reason we've had the breaks and achieved a certain amount of success.  They always say it's really hard to achieve your goals - it's even harder to stay there.  And to keep going and keep challenging yourself.

Selina:  You know, listening to you … putting you on the spot like that, which is not a clever thing to do, to put a guy like you on the spot like that, to ask about being a star.  But if you were in America and I asked you that question and you were an American star … you would somehow go: "yeah, sure!".  You know, there's a different attitude there, don't you think?  You've played on Broadway. Here, we are much more self-depricating it seems.

Michael:   I think we have to be because there are plenty of people out there prepared to knock us, we might as well knock ourselves before someone else does it!

Selina: That's very British though, isn't it?

Michael:  Yeah, it is very British.  I actually think the American 'bravado', the American attitude toward it is rather unattractive and unappealing.  Um, we are there but by the grace of God.  You know, no-one is that special, if you know what I mean.  So … 'pride cometh before a fall', I think.

Selina:  Yes, I suppose the only one in New York who could exert that kind of push and power is Frank Rich ofcourse.  Were you ever there … you were there when he was the critic?

Michael:  Oh I was butchered!  The butcher of Broadway butchered me, yeah.

Selina:  What were you doing?

Michael:  Aspects Of Love. He'd come over, I remember …

Selina:  Because Andrew Lloyd Webber hates him, doesn't he?

Michael:  Yeah, the first horse that he and Madeline bought, they called Frank Rich … because they knew it would never win, I think!  Yeah, it was on the back of the real anti-British Broadway phenomenon.  Because we'd had the successes with Les Mis, The Phantom Of The Opera, Miss Saigon, all of that.  They were gunning for the British Musical.  Because it's their mode of entertainment, they invented the thing, they think.  They can't remember Gilbert & Sullivan obviously!  And they were really gunning for Andrew Lloyd Webber.  So Frank Rich first of all came over and reviewed us when we were here, for the New York Times, before we'd gone over to America.  And he was VILE!  About all of us, I mean no-one escaped.  But when we then opened on Broadway.  We deliberately opened on a Sunday night, so that on the Monday they'd supposedly get less copyspace, so he couldn't have too hard a time.  Well, they changed the parameters for that one.  And it was a page and a half.  There was not one aspect of the show that he didn't actually …. you know: lighting, costumes, individual performances, name it.

Selina:  What did he say about you?

Michael:  What did he say?  I think he said that I would be more suited to be one of the Von Trapp Family Singers I think, or something like that! (laughs)

Selina:  Dreadful, isn't it?  How could you pick yourself up after that …

Michael:  I'd have felt terrible if I would've been isolated, but he was considerably worse about a lot of other people.

Selina:  I remember being at a party that Andrew Lloyd Webber gave in New York, the night of a premiere.  I can't remember which one it was now, it seems to slip my mind, but everything was going great until they got the review from Frank Rich and the party just died.  Were you at a party like that, where it just died and everyone went home again?  Because of one man.

Michael:  No, I was dancing with Liza Minelli at the time when they came out and I thought: "oh bugger this, I'm much happier doing what I'm doing!" And the thing is - we were lucky.  Because it was Andrew's show we had a huge advance, so we were sold out for the 9 months that I was there.  But for shows that open and they just HAVE to have the support of the critics … and I've been at parties … not one I've been involved with, but I've been at parties for …  I don't like doing first nights and premieres and all that because, first of all you don't see a real performance on stage.  And then there's all the hype afterwards and, you know, it's not real.  I like my theatre to be real.  But I was at this one -I won't mention the name of the show … and it actually deserved to, I've gotta say.  It was slated.  And just as you say: everyone is having the best time, in come the papers - great! - and suddenly you look up and everybody is gone … and the poor producer is just thinking, "How do I get …"

Selina:  It's awful.  At least it's not like that in Britain quite yet.  They don't close shows yet, in Britain …

Michael:  No, although, theatre is not having a great time I don't think, at the moment. The trouble is, that I don't think the critics either have the power to keep shows on.  Whereas you have the one guy in America, whoever's the current New York Times critic.  He can get behind a show, like they did with Rent, the new musical over there.  They got behind this show and an off Broadway show suddenly became the hottest ticket because they were told. Now here, you can have the most glowing reviews for something, right across the board, and people will stay away in their thousands.  So it's a double-edged sword.

Selina:  How did you get your break, first of all?  Remind me.

Michael:  Which one?  Leg or neck?  Um, everyone kinda says …. it must be, as far as stage goes and the Theatre world, doing Les Mis, joining the RSC and creating Marius.  And that led on to Phantom Of The Opera and so on.  But that's a very small world, because only 4 percent of the country go to the Theatre.  And even though you're in a big, high profile musical, people don't really make a name from that.  So the thing that made my name, I guess, in the country would've been Aspects because I had the hit with Love Changes Everything.  And so you then get on the radio and …. it takes you one step further.

Selina: Do you have that pull then, between being kind of a rock'n'roller, that area of music and Theatre music?

Michael:  Absolutely. And I like combining, that's why I like doing my concert tours.  I haven't been on stage … Aspects on Broadway was the last stage show I did until Passion last year, so that's seven years away.  And I love Musical Theatre music, I love performing it.  I hate doing eight shows a week.  I mean, it's really hard work.

Selina:  It keeps you in trim though, doesn't it?  Doing all that jogging up and down and getting there on time.

Michael:  It certainly does.  Yeah, it does make you very disciplined.  But if you have that discipline … but I like other kinds of music, so what I can do with my shows is to basically do the best of the Musicals, you know, dispense with all the talking about it.  You can set up a scene, you can set up the atmosphere for the song you're going to do, deliver the song and turn it into it's own kind of musical, with it's peaks and troughs and emotional highs and laughs and so on.  But then I also get to do my rock'n'roll, wiggling about and screamed at, as I DO like! (laughs)

Selina:  Talking about discipline and things like this, because you have to be disciplined.  Do you have a routine everyday?  I was thinking earlier on, when you were a little thing, you had a problem with your weigth, didn't you?  You found it difficult to keep your weight down.  That's gone away, has it?

Michael:  When I was in Passion …

Selina:  Passion?

Michael:  Passion, the Stephen Sondheim Musical.  And the opening scene is an orgasm.  It's me making love, with no clothes on, on the bed.  And um … I've realised, you know, it's a Musical, and if things 'wobble out of rhythm' it's not very attractive (laughs) so I made the conscious decision, right let's work at this.  And I religiously now go to the gym every day.  I've just been before I came in here.

Selina:  How long?

Michael:  I run for about 40 minutes and then work out and stretch for about another 40 minutes.  And I LOVE it!

Selina:  Has it worked?

Michael:  Oh, in every sense.  Not only physically, you know, the t-t-things sort of stay in place and you fit into smaller clothes …

Selina:  You're stammering! (laughs) the t-t-things sort of stay in place.

Michael:  I know, I am terribly ‘anally retentive' when it comes to these things.  But you feel better, and also your stamina is better, my voice is better.

Selina: How can it affect your voice?

Michael:  Because, you're breathing.  If you go on stage and you're doing a concert tour, you have to be fit.  Now if you're running around doing a rock'n'roll number and getting the audience going and really getting excited, and then you have to bring it down and sing a slow, sad song, you have to have great control. You have to be able to centre it and hold these notes for a long time and not sound like you're outof  breath.

Selina:  So you're never going to give it up?  Come back on this show and tell us whether it's still going on.

Michael:  When I don't have to I will!  (laughs)  It goes with the job.  When I'm not in the public eye, if I'm away or not working, then I don't take it so seriously. If I'm doing my job I take my appearance seriously, because it's part of it.

Selina:  You're looking great.  We're going to finish with a song, one of your rock'n'roll songs you want us to remember you by.  Thank you VERY much for coming, it's been a huge pleasure, as always!

Michael: As always.

(They play The Wonder Of You)