Let’s start the season of goodwill right now
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for Michael Ball as he tells MARION McMULLEN why we deserve some early festive cheer
Are you ready for the festive countdown?
(LAUGHS) Yeah, I am feeling Christmassy. This is far too early for me, but I think we need it.
We need to make the most of it.... so let’s start the season of good will right now.
The decorations are going up way too early, but I don’t care, I’m putting them up, and I’m already planning menus. The cake’s been made and it’s just being fed now.
I’m there. I’ll cook a big Christmas dinner on the day. I’ll eat too much, I’ll drink too much and then I’ll fall asleep on the sofa.
Is Christmas normally a busy time for you?
QUITE often if you’re in the theatre Christmas is peak time and this year is no exception. We’ll be doing Les Misérables in the West End so we’ll be working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, so it’s only Christmas Day off.
Previous years it has been lovely because you’re there either in the heart of the West End or the heart of Broadway and there is such a wonderful atmosphere and the colour and the lights and the people, so you don’t mind it and then you can go home and have a lovely time.
Did you and Alfie Boe enjoy recording the tracks for new album Together At Christmas.
THAT’S the thing about Christmas songs, the ones that work, the ones that survive are the ones that we hear and, because of circumstances, they hit us. We take them for granted and then we hear them now and think ‘that’s so relevant’.
(Songs like) I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which I always think is the saddest song... but then there are the joyous and uplifting songs and that is what Christmas music is all about. We didn’t want to muck about with the album or do anything too left field and have people going ‘urgh’.
We just wanted to do a musical Christmas hug.
I think ‘What do I want to listen to at Christmas? What are the songs I want to hear? What is the atmosphere I want to create?’
That is what I hope we’ve got on the album.
And the new song, My Christmas Will Be Better Than Yours...
I MEAN it’s really weird to be writing a Christmas song in August, in the middle of that heatwave, writing it, but it was really easy. I sat on it for a little while and then I thought ‘I’m going to play it to Alfie’ and he said ‘Oh, come on, let’s do it’. I like it.
It sums up that banter between us and is all done tongue in cheek.
■ Together At Christmas is out now. Les Misérables: The Staged Concert opens at the Sondheim Theatre in London for a limited run from December 5.
■ Go to michaelball.co.uk for forthcoming live dates and performances.