
Age: 64
male
Ball is an Olivier Award winning actor and singer. He made his West End debut originating the role of Marius in Les Miserables. He also created the role of Alex Dillingham in Aspects of Love both in the West End and on Broadway. In 1995, he reprised the role of Marius in Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert. His other West End roles include Raoul de Chagny in The Phantom of the Opera (1987), Giorgio Bachetti in Passion (1996), and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002). In 2004, he played Jean Valjean in a concert performance of Les Misérables for the Queen at Windsor Castle. He has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He won in 2008 for his role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and then in 2013 for the title role in the revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2018, he played Anatoly Sergievsky in the West End revival of Chess, and he returned to Les Misérables in 2019 and 2020 as Inspector Javert. He reprised his role of Edna Turnblad in the 2021 revival of Hairspray and in 2023 played the other leading male role of Sir George Dillingham in a revival of Aspects of Love. In 2024, Ball will reprise the role of Javert in Les Misérables: The Arena Spectacular World Tour.

Michael Ball

Georges Pontmercy
for Georges Pontmercy in Les Misérables
Suggested by sepanta_kazemi

In nineteenth-century France, a man named Jean Valjean walks out of prison after serving years for stealing a loaf of bread. Hardened by punishment yet desperate for dignity, he tries to rebuild his life under a new name. But one person refuses to let him escape his past: Inspector Javert, a man devoted to the law with absolute conviction. As Valjean tries to live with honesty, he crosses paths with Fantine, a factory worker pushed into misery while fighting to provide for her daughter, Cosette. Valjean’s promise to protect the child becomes the turning point of his life, pulling him into a struggle far larger than himself. Years later, France trembles with political unrest. Young revolutionaries prepare to rise against the government, and among them is Marius, who falls in love with the now-grown Cosette. Javert closes in. The streets of Paris tighten with tension. Every character is swept into a clash between survival, justice, love, and the longing for a better world. Through soaring moments of hope and harsh moments of sacrifice, Les Misérables traces the journey of people who refuse to give up on compassion, even when the world tries to crush it.