THE SHERIDAN MORLEY SHOW
BBC RADIO 2
Friday, 31st August 2001
The show opened with a track from Michael's new CD, "Centre Stage" called "Seasons of Love" from Rent.
Sheridan
The voice of my star guest in this
hour of the Arts Programme is of course Michael Ball and that's one number
from Rent which turns up on a new CD called "Centre Stage", he also of
course is on other Friday nights doing the Radio 2 doing the History of
Broadway and he is about to open at the Donmar as one of the Divas, but
Michael always blames me on this programme some years ago for bullying
him into doing Stephen Sondheim's Passion. I'm very glad I did because
actually it worked out very well. But you in many ways have crossed
over Michael from the show singing to the enormous hits you have on the
roads with solo concerts. Do you think of yourself as first and foremost
a theatre singer?
Michael
I think so. I think I approach
every song I do from the same point of view as I would approach a song
from the Theatre. It's lyric based, it's story based, it's character
based. Someone asked me recently do I think of myself as an actor
or a singer ... that's a harder one to answer because I started off very
much thinking of myself as an actor but have done so much singing now and
have concentrated so much on that - I think maybe I have slipped over into
the other side.
Sheridan
But the new CD brings you back
Centre Stage as the title says - it's a lot of very familiar numbers, Phantom
of the Opera, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Send In The Clowns, Tell Me
It's Not True. A certain amount of Lloyd Webber, not surprisingly
because you have a long track of Lloyd Webber and Sondheim. How far
back does that go?
Michael
It goes to Phantom of the Opera
- to the first cast change of Phantom.
Sheridan
So 15 years.
Michael
15 years. I had just finished
Les Mis and they were re-casting and I got a call to go and see him to
try out for the part of Raoul and it was while I was doing that he was
writing Aspects of Love and the whole thing started.
Sheridan
We talk a lot on this programme
about Theatre Music and later tonight Matt Wolf is talking about the number
of movies that have become musicals but in fact it is always considered
to be an endangered species - we always hear that it is the end of the
musical, we do seem now to have hit a kind of change - the big shows are
beginning to close. We know that finally Cats has gone in America.
A lot of Andrew's shows are beginning to wind down
Michael
Starlight is off soon.
Sheridan
Starlight closes very soon and
it seems to be that this Big Band era, the big musicals, we are somehow
going back to a smaller world.
Michael
I don't know if we are going back
to a smaller world ... I have just done the series as you said for Radio
2 about Broadway and the current new hits on Broadway.
Sheridan
What struck you there?
Michael
The difference ... I was there
10 years ago doing Aspects and it was a dodgy place, New York itself.
And going to the theatre wasn't that pleasant an experience. It's
not unlike going to the theatre here now which is not the greatest of experiences.
Sheridan
Indeed, whereas Broadway is squeaky
clean.
Michael
Going there was fantastic,
it was alive, but the vibrancy of the productions, I don't know if you
have seen the Producers yet ... it's the best thing I have ever seen on
the stage. A hundred dollars and well worth it. From the second
they struck up the overture, "The Springtime for Hitler" I don't think
I stopped laughing for two and a half hours.
Sheridan
And that's the key because for
a long time, we are talking about the shows that come from here, Les Mis,
Phantom, they are not actually joke shows. There are no laughs.
Now suddenly in America, Kiss Me Kate is back. They've rediscovered
laughter in the musical.
Michael
What was interesting ... I went
and saw Aida ... I don't know if it's going to come over here ...
Sheridan
Which is Tim Rice and Elton
Michael
Which is Tim Rice and Elton ...
and that's going down the British route of musical, where there aren't
a lot of laughs, it's all very sincere and that sort of staring off into
theatre middle distance with an anxious look on your face singing a song,
a couple of funny numbers in there, but it struck me as one of the ones
that stuck out from the others as it didn't fit into the ... a lot of them
are pastiches ... they've reopened 42nd Street over there. They've
... The Full Monty ... send up a lot of musical genres in it ... it seems
that Broadway has reinvented itself by pastiching itself.
Sheridan
We'll come back to that with Matt
Wolf later in the show as I say and indeed we also need to explain that
your Broadway series continues next Friday on BBC 2 ...
Michael
I've been shoved out because of
Blackpool Illuminations (Laughing)
Sheridan
Only for this one night ... and
here you are on the other programme ... so you are still on Fridays and
next week we carry on with four more Broadway shows from you. Now
coming back to the CD, you also have Divas at the Donmar ... this used
to be a very female tradition with the great Barbara Cook, this year it's
in fact it's you, it's Clive Rowe and Sian Phillips the only woman.
Michael
I heard Sian on the show a couple
of weeks ago
Sheridan
She was on the show a couple of
weeks ago. These are really cabaret concert evenings. Are you going
to do the CD or what?
Michael
No, I've completely changed ...
I'm doing two weeks there ... Sam Mendes phoned and asked if I would be
interested in doing it.
Sheridan
A male diva
Michael
A male diva ... divam I think it
is or a diva ... I call it Dudes at the Donmar. He said this is an
opportunity for you to do something really different and that's exactly
what I've done. The pre-requisites of the show, before started piecing
it together were I wouldn't sing any song I've ever sung before or recorded,
I wouldn't use any instrument except the piano and I won't speak to the
audience ... it's all going to be a story told through songs, through differents
of songs.
Sheridan
What kind of story?
Michael
It's the story of a performer - it's what inspires you to go on a stage,
it's what it's like to be on a stage, how it's amazingly fullfilling at
the time but there's a great emptiness at the end of it so you look for
other things and I've got three weeks left ... I'm still working on it.
Sheridan
Do you mean new songs to you or
new songs period?
Michael
New songs to me, new songs period.
A couple of interesting things that Sondheim has reworked. There's
a wonderful old Peggy Lee song called "Is That All There Is?" Well
Lieber and Stoller has rewritten the verses. And if you're listening
Mr Lieber please give us permission.
Sheridan
I've always thought that was their
greatest number ... it's about the house burning down ...
Michael
... and when she's a kid and taken
to the circus and is that all there is ... Eve has rewritten it and she
has rewritten it for ... we explained the show and the character ... she
just writes likes its a conversation ... it's wonderful verses so we are
hoping that we are able to use that.
Sheridan
So it's more than just a concert
Michael
It's not a concert at all.
Sheridan
It's a one man show
Michael
Absolutely. I kind of knew
that everybody, be they fans, critics or ordinary theatregoers, will be
coming to the theatre expecting something from me and I want everybody
to leave going wow we really really didn't expect that. I hope they
go wow we really didn't expect that and it's brilliant.
Sheridan
And just to clarify it opens at
the Donmar on the 17th September and it runs for two weeks. Now if
it works there are you going to take it elsewhere?
Michael
If it's got legs ... absolutely.
We're sold out now which is great so I know we've got an audience so if
there is an interest and I can see a way of moving ... it's specifically
for the Donmar space ... if there's a way of finding a space where it could
work elsewhere ...
Sheridan
Do you have a director on?
Michael
Yes Jonathon Butterill - he's devising
and directing ... I worked with Jonathon on Passion initially and we formed
this great triumvir, myself and Jason and Jonathon.
Sheridan
Somethings that's very good about
you, and I've heard this quite often, is when you do a pop concert at the
Albert Hall, where clearly the audience are not entirely theatregoers you
very much evangalise, you say to them you've got to go to the theatre,
these songs come from shows, you ought to see the shows and it's a sense
in which you kind of advertise musical theatre, to a very different kind
of audience who might not normally ...
Michael
And indeed it has worked, so that
the fans who come to the shows say well we like those songs and quite often
I'll put together pieces of shows and they'll go along and see the show
and say thank you for recommending it.
Sheridan
Coming back to the Centre Stage
CD another number which we are going to hear now is the Boy From Nowhere,
from I have to say a not very triumphant show ... The Matador
Michael
Dreadful show (Laughing)
Sheridan
You've been very clever on the
CD in very often finding good songs from bad shows,
Michael
And isn't that a sad case ... I
remember when I first heard the Boy From Nowhere and I thought this a fantastic
song, the show is going to be a wow. I went along and it was dreary
but it's always stuck with me ... the song ... and to be honest I wasn't
that big a fan of Rent but Seasons of Love, I thought when it opened the
second half ... this is a terrific song.
Sheridan
I once put together with Andrew
for Sarah Brightman a CD called The Songs That Got Away and they were entirely
great songs from flop shows and we were amazed at what choice we had ...
Michael
... and they get lost.
Sheridan
Well this one hasn't - it's off
the new CD. Michael Ball thank you very much for joining us, good
luck for the Donmar, good luck for the CD and you're back here next week
on Broadway.
They play The Boy From Nowhere