The day I made Eartha Kitt snore: Michael Ball 流出／こぼすs secrets of off-行う／開催する／段階 演劇s in a glittering career

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MEMOIR

DIFFERENT ASPECTS

by Michael Ball, (Blink Publishing £25, 336 pp)

Jovial baritone Michael Ball, who with scant 誤った modesty calls himself '事実上 a 世帯 指名する,' has had his fair 株 of demons and 災害s.

When he was in Phantom Of The オペラ, the phantom got his cufflink caught and yanked Christine's wig off. The gondola stuck 急速な／放蕩な, 要求するing 広告-libbed singing into the wings.?

A co-星／主役にする during 面s Of Love 罠にかける her 脚 in the scenery and emitted 'a terrible, bloodcurdling 叫び声をあげる,' which stopped the show.? Eartha Kitt fell asleep in the 前線 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of the 立ち往生させるs and started snoring loudly, again stopping the show.

During his 40-year career, Ball has 耐えるd many a hitch with 回転するing 行う／開催する／段階s, mislaid 支え（る）s and 'actors not making it 支援する on 行う／開催する／段階 because of 衣装 changes'.

The earliest 業績／成果s at the Barbican of Les Mis?rables (which I saw ― and enjoyed) lasted nearly five hours. Matinees hadn't finished before the evening shows were 予定 to begin.?

Michael Ball 成し遂げるs live on 行う／開催する／段階 at Theatre 王室の, Drury 小道／航路 in London on Septemberv 27 2004

The earliest 業績／成果s at the Barbican of Les Mis?rables (pictured) (which I saw ― and enjoyed) lasted nearly f ive hours. Matinees hadn't finished before the evening shows were 予定 to begin

Ball's worst experience, however, was 支援する in 1985, when he was?beginning to be 賞賛するd for his 'cheeky sense of fun' and '命令（する）ing 行う／開催する／段階 presence'. 基本的に, he had a nervous 決裂／故障 and felt 'the 破滅的な 影響s of 不景気'.

Misdiagnosed as glandular fever, the symptoms of panic attacks, sleeplessness and a racing heartbeat 急落（する），激減（する）d Ball into 'a spiral of 疑問, self-憎悪 and despair'. He was 定める／命ずるd beta-blockers.

Ball says it was a 'very, very dark time and not one I ーするつもりである to go into here,' which is a shame as this is what I believe is called an autobiography. 'It 攻撃する，衝突する me extraordinarily hard,' he 追加するs. But then, Different 面s is rather circumspect. Nothing much is divulged about his 私的な life. にもかかわらず, にもかかわらず the reticence, there is much to enjoy about Different 面s, as Ball is such an 影響を受けない, enthusiastic 外交官／大使 for musical theatre. All his born days he has been drawn to '存在 in another world, 存在 someone else. That thing of taking on a character, or a song, and 住むing it'. If Stephen Fry could sing, he'd be Michael Ball.

He grew up in South Africa, where he saw 'Cilla 黒人／ボイコット in concert, supported by Lionel Blair'. (Mandela must've thankedhis lucky 星／主役にするs he was behind 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s.) Ball's father, who'd 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be an actor but instead was a car salesman, brought the family 支援する to Surrey, where he marketed Morris Minors.

Ball lapped up musicals on the telly. 'Oklahoma! on a Sunday afternoon? I was there. My Fair Lady? Carousel? Reserve me a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す on the sofa.'

Ball was a member of the Surrey 青年 Theatre, and his career began in repertory in Basingstoke. He was soon 新採用するd to the West End, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 600 other 希望に満ちたs for a 役割 in 著作権侵害者s Of Penzance.

Trevor Nunn and Cameron Mackintosh always （機の）カム through for him ('I was lucky to have someone fighting my corner'), and Ball has been in all the 粉砕する 攻撃する，衝突するs: Godspell, Hairspray, Phantom, 著作権侵害者s Of Penzance, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sweeney Todd.

As Marius in Les Mis, he received £1,500 a week, which he says was 'not stratospheric', 示唆するing what he now makes is stratospheric. 'Everybody 手配中の，お尋ね者 a little of me,' he says.

He even had his own stalker. 結局 Ball would sell out Hammersmith Apollo. He was, he 収容する／認めるs, 'the musical 星／主役にする who was not Elaine Paige'.

Different 面s is first 率 on the pungent realities ― the backstage 汚職，収賄, rehearsal room exertions, 衝突／不一致s with other cast members, preview 混乱s for 作品-inprogress: 'That juggling 行為／法令／行動する of not knowing which was the old 見解／翻訳／版 and which was the new. Scenes would come out and then be put 支援する in.'

Younger performers today, says Ball, don't seem to match his かかわり合い ― they send understudies on if they feel a little tired. They 欠如（する） backbone.

There's a hilarious tale of a drunken Diana Rigg berating Joan Collins in the dressing room after 私的な Lives ― 'You were screeching, darling, 絶対 screeching' ― and a few scary accounts of Andrew Lloyd Webber in shrill tantrum 方式, 嵐／襲撃するing off in a '明言する／公表する of authorial 不満'. As Ball has it, 'there were toys 投げつけるd out of prams'.

Best of all are the recollections of Roger Moore, who though 'the epitome of the attractive older man', walked out of 面s Of Love rehearsals realising he could neither sing nor dance. 'I'm James f****** 社債,' 推論する／理由d Roger, shocked he'd be 推定する／予想するd to turn up and give eight 業績／成果s a week.?

Best of all are the recollections of Roger Moore, who though 'the epitome of the attractive older man', walked out of 面s Of Love (pictured) rehearsals realising he could neither sing nor dance

手渡すd 詳細（に述べる）d directio ns by Trevor Nunn, Moore said: 'I think you'll be 要求するing both eyebrows.' Earlier this year, Ball was in a 復活 of 面s Of Love, which flopped. There were painful reviews, thinnish houses and the show の近くにd 早期に. This was a crying shame.

It is Lloyd Webber's best 得点する／非難する／２０, with nothing brassy or bombastic ― no chandeliers 衝突，墜落ing to the ground; no Argentine 独裁者s, crucifixions or prancing cats. 面s Of Love is about erotic games in 地方の フラン;'the fickleness and frailty of love'; 絡まるd bedsheets and destructive emotional betrayal. 'I was now returning to the show that had made my 指名する,' when, personifying the 'devilishly handsome and charming' juvenile lead, Alex, Ball had had a chart 攻撃する，衝突する with the song Love Changes Everything. This time Ball was to be George, the ex-Roger Moore 役割.

によれば Ball, the new 生産／産物 fell foul of today's sensitivity 認識／意識性 police, because the 陰謀（を企てる） 関心s girls in their teens or 早期に twenties having 鎮圧するs on chaps in their 30s and beyond ― 'discarding their water-wings and playing in the 深い end of the pool', as Ball hilariously puts it.

'The conversation around 同意 and 性の 力／強力にする dynamics has become louder, more コンビナート／複合体.' The problem was not 面s Of Love's 姿勢 on 関係s. It's the prohibitive price of tickets. I can no longer afford theatre trips. Trains to London, seats in the Upper Circle, dinner ― this runs to hundreds of 続けざまに猛撃するs I don't have, who does?