Prom 58: Michael Ball at Royal Albert Hall.

The streaming audio of the concert is available until 3rd September. Load as you read.

Crossing through Hyde Park from Queensway, I was in the line for the Arena section at 4:35pm for the 8pm concert (I blame the person at the box office who told me to come at 4:30pm). Number 141 in the queue--but the numbering started at 96. The queue never became as long as I expected. In fact, the Arena section was half-empty, but the seats were filled up, sold out weeks before.

Theory 1: the usual Proms people would turn up their noses at Michael Ball. And those who want to see him are willing to pay upwards of £20 for a seat.
Theory 2: It's Notting Hill carnival and such a beautiful day, so Londoners would rather go elsewhere.

Walking into Royal Albert Hall for the first time was magical. I couldn't stop grinning. The place looks much bigger on TV, but it still has the aura of a sacred space. Clearly, Michael Ball was "desecrating" Proms tradition, and he emphasised that in his spiel. He gave it the comic treatment, which we lapped up. Of course, the people who came were supporters, especially the 40-something female fans.

Random notes:
1. Trust a woman in a Michael Ball shirt to know his age (45) and birthday (June 27, 1962-corrected, thanks to bluelondonben2).
2. Flipflops at RAH? Possible.
3. What did the ticketing staff have a wager on? See #1.
4. Celebrity sighting: Andrew Lloyd Webber, who hid behind the curtain during the interval, then gave an interview in one of the boxes (below). He's the one on the left, in blue.


At a certain point, I realized parallels between Michael Ball and Martin Nievera which I will not list anymore. The songs in the program (mainly from musicals) were ones that I knew, in arrangements that were used in his albums, so I knew exactly how he was going to sing them. In one song (was it Gethsemane from JCS?), the BBC Concert Orchestra (below, photo by Ray) drowned him out in parts. While they were playing the intro to Sunset Boulevard suite, I thought of where I had heard an orchestra play the same overture better, but I couldn't remember where.


Ball performed handpicked songs from Bizet to Bernstein, Gilbert & Sullivan, Andersson & Ulvaeus, Boublil & Schonberg, Foster and Schwartz He opened, appropriately, with This Is The Moment. I had a lump in my throat when he was singing Anthem from Chess:

Let man's petty nations tear themselves apart
My land's only borders lie around my heart

I guess he does love songs best, such as from Kismet (Stranger In Paradise and And This Is My Beloved) and the back-to-back Sondheim/Lloyd Webber (All I Ask Of You and Loving You). But even after more than 20 years, he still sings Empty Chairs and Empty Tables completely in character.

The encore was, predictably, his signature song (you can hear all of us singing along), Love Changes Everything.

From a The Guardian interview:

Is there anything about your career you regret?
Not learning to play the piano as a child - I can't read music - and not giving up smoking until five months ago. Had I stopped earlier, I would have had a better voice.

A better voice? But you've always sounded great, Michael. But yeah, maybe if he never smoked at all, he can keep the voice forever.

Was it worth lining queueing up for? I'd still say yes. At £5, the ticket was a steal. Thoroughly enjoyable, everyone had a good time.

Michael Ball will be play a "28 stone mother of one from Baltimore" in the West End Hairspray opening in October. "What happened to the sweet, callow youth...?" No more juvenile leads for him, obviously. If it's any consolation, he's prettier than John Travolta's Edna Turnblad...

p.s. Thanks to Melissa for letting me put up a Proms-related post on Europe String!