Michael Ball Quotes (11 Quotes)

Although Ball is considered a pop singer, he's not a total stranger to Gilbert and Sullivan, having played Frederick in the West End mounting of Joe Papp's memorable production of The Pirates of Penzance . But Patience is a different kind of work--much of its humor is highly topical, poking fun at the short-lived Aesthetic movement that flourished among British dilettantes 125 years ago. Will that humor translate to a New York audience in the year 2005 I think there's absolutely no difference to how we regarded things then and how we regard things now, ... There are still those performers and artists who strike on a new art form or mode that attracts their fans, while the majority of us may be saying, 'I'm sorry, but isn't that The Emperor's New Clothes' There will always be charlatans who do things just to get acclaim and adulation. So I think it'll speak to an audience as clearly today as it did then.

What39s happened to me ... I used to be this lovely juvenile leading man who gets all the girls and now I39m a fat evil bastard who39s only loved by his rat. It39s all gone horribly wrong

Ball is one of the few musical comedy artists to have distinguished himself equally as an interpreter of both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim, who would seem to be polar opposites as songwriters. I'm very lucky that I've gotten to work with both of them, ... I was in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th party concert at the Albert Hall. That same year I was in a special show called Hey, Mr. Producer , a celebration of Cameron Mackintosh's work. There was a Sondheim section, and Cameron asked if I'd be part of it. I'd already recorded 'Losing My Mind' from Follies , which is one of my favorite songs of Steve's. But I hadn't yet done a particularly traditional treatment of it. Steve said he wanted me to do it absolutely straight, the way it was heard in the original show, which I was delighted about. And he worked with me on it--just him, and me, and a pianist in a tiny room, for an hour-and-a-half master class on this song. I came away knowing every nuance why he wrote everything that he did why every note was in its place why the phrasing was like this--can you imagine how thrilling that was And he is so articulate in explaining his work you can be under no illusion why something is there. When you have that understanding, that is when his work opens up to you. Of course, they put me between Judi Dench singing 'Send in the Clowns' and Bernadette Peters doing 'Being Alive.' You try holding your own in that company.

I like to listen to talk programs and sports.

I thought I was on my way to Birmingham but then the late call came from PSV,

They get a job, they're fact-checking and doing grunt work. They are like, 'Wait a minute. I thought I was going to be doing this. About 57 percent are likely to leave within the first year for that reason.

They are a club of Champions League stature and, when someone like Guus Hiddink calls, you listen to what is said.

Bunthorne's a high baritone, which is what I am. And I already come with the British accent, so that won't be a problem. You know, the designers came over and showed me the costumes. And they're wonderful--outrageous, campy, over-the-top. So maybe that's the new market I'm going to be cornering campy, over-the-top characters who have a nasty side. Hmmm. What are they trying to tell me

I was just proud to be onstage with her. It's just proper old-school theatrical heart.

Music. I do songs that have appeared on the pop charts, but they're music for grownups.

Smaller jets. The number of flights is increasing mainly because airlines are replacing large planes with smaller ones. Flying regional jets saves money and lets airlines offer more frequency on routes, but you now have 10 planes doing what eight could do, ... That tends to exacerbate delays.