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| MICHAEL BALL (Alex Dillingham) makes his
Broadway debut after creating the role of Alex in the original London production
of Aspects of Love. Born near Straftord-on-Avon, England, he
trained at the Guildford School of Acting. His first professional
appearance was as John the Baptist in Godspell in Wales. After
acting briefly in repertory, he starred in the smash hit production of The
Pirates of Penzance at the Opera House, Manchester. As a member
of The Royal Shakespeare Company, he made his West End debut when he created
the role of Marius in the award-winning original London Production of Les
Misérables. In addition to singing
on the original cast album, he has also recorded the international cast album
of Les Misérables. He then went
on to play Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera in the West End.
Michael's many cabaret and concert appearances with the BBC and the London
Concert Orchestra have included The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with
Sarah Brightman at the Barbican, followed by a highly-acclaimed U.K. tour.
His record releases include the singles 'Love Changes Everything' which became
a major hit in the U.K., earning him a Silver Disc; 'The First Man You Remember';
and the original cast album of Aspects of Love. In addition to numerous
radio broadcasts, Michael's extensive TV work in Britian includes "Coronation
Street," "Late Expectations," David Frost's "Guiness Hall of Fame," "Save the Children" Christmas Spectacular and "Top of the Pops" which fulfilled a lifetime personal ambition. He recently appeared in the Royal Variety Command Performance at the London Paladium and has just been honored with the prestigious award of Most Promising Artist 1989 by the Variety Club of Great Britian. |
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Taken from the "Complete Aspects of Love" book. |
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| "The first adult role cast was scarcely a surprise. Finding a strong, handsome young actor able to age convincingly from seventeen to his mid-thirties and also able to cope with the ringing tenor lines of 'Love Changes Everything' and 'Seeing is Believing' had been a tall order from the start. But both Nunn and Lloyd Webber had worked with Michael Ball before: Nunn had cast him in the juvenile lead of the original cast of Les Misérables with enormous success, and from there Ball had gone directly to The Phantom of the Opera to take over the role of Raoul, as well as appearing alongside Phantom star Sarah Brightman in a series of sell-out concerts of Lloyd Webber's music. The casting of Ball as Alex was so very obvious that, as in many such cases, it was almost natural to resist it. Besides, Ball had popped up out of the provinces for Les Misérables, and it was always possible that there was another like him waiting to be discovered. But the weeks of auditions had not thrown up a challenger when Michael Ball was offered a role in the forth coming musical, Metropolis. It was a case of grabbing him while he was still available, or losing all chance of having him in the show. Little discussion was needed, and Ball joined Miss Morrison and Miss Hart as the third member of the Sydmonton cast to be confirmed for London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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IF POSSIBLE: USE NETSCAPE WHEN VIEWING. GRAPHIC INTENSIVE AND AOL DOESN'T LIKE THE PHOTOS AND WILL NOT ALWAYS SO THE PHOTOS. |
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| David Garnett, who wrote the novel Aspects of Love,
was a passionate believer in E.M. Forster's benign humanism, or
as he put it in a "Confession of Faith": "The most important lesson is to understand life, not to make judgments about it." Garnett's nove, written in 1955, certainly refrains from loud judgments, but it does teach some quiet lessons. It is a sweet romance about youth and love, housed in an intricate and fragile honeycomb of plot. There are mulitple infidelities - most of the protagonists have at least two lovers - and multiple implications. "You can have two emotions at the same time. One makes the other even more acute, then cures it." Garnett's youth, like that of Alexis in Aspects of Love, was dreamy, impossible romance, on to which he would return again and again in later life...Rose knows her affair with Alexis at Sir George's villa is a glorious romance only because it must end -- what she calls "an idyll for a fortnight." Alexis, with his ripe idealism, fails to understand this, but soon learns. His relationship with Jenny is the very emblem of romance -- he desires her, but cannot possess her, a part of the attraction of that desire comes from his knowledge that consummation of his desire is impossible with a thirteen-year-old girl. And yet we are always trying to grasp romance and hold on to it -- that is why we fall in love. |
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