Michael Ball on His London Triumph (and Broadway Dreams) in Sweeney Todd

Michael Ball turns 50 on June 27, but the hugely popular British star has been the one gifting playgoers of late by giving the performance of his career in the West End revival of Sweeney Todd. The dimpled actor might seem unlikely casting for the murderous barber, but Ball and co-star Imelda Staunton have had Adelphi Theatre audiences jumping to their feet eight times a week, with composer Stephen Sondheim among this production’s biggest fans. Broadway.com caught up with the affable Ball one recent afternoon to talk about defying his image, birthday milestones, and what he can possibly do for an encore.

You transformed yourself to play Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and you’re doing so again, in a totally different way, to play Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s vengeful barber. Do I sense a pattern here?
I think with all the roles I’ve done, I kind of want to throw myself into and disappear into the character, and in the case of Edna, you don’t get a bigger change than gender [laughs]. But Sweeney is an entirely different beast: With Edna, especially in “Timeless To Me,” there were moments when you could have a wink and a nudge at the audience. There’s none of that in this show!

Edna required a fat suit and a frock. What do you do to make yourself over as Sweeney?
This one happens surprisingly quickly. The main thing with me is the curly hair and the dimples, so I’ve got a hair piece that’s straight and lank, and a goatee that angularizes my face. There’s a five-minute makeup job which I do myself just to make my eyebrows and eyes a bit darker since even when Sweeney smiles— which he does a lot—he never smiles with his eyes. There’s a way of making your eyes very cold, which is just about inhabiting the character.

Has it been a big challenge to leave your charm to one side?
That was easy. I say “easy” because that was what drew me to the part: a role where I wouldn’t use any of the things people maybe expected from me. That’s what this production of Sweeney Todd has been about—doing something that I don’t think a lot of people thought I could pull off.

You and Imelda certainly have an ardent admirer in Sondheim, who has seen the show multiple times and even said to me earlier this year, “Who knew [Michael Ball] had facial hair?”
I remember when Steve came to see us last autumn in Chichester [where the production began]. I thought he would have things to say about the staging and embrace us because he’s so non-judgmental and collaborative, but I didn’t know that he would be as excited by it as he has been, which was an added bonus. It’s been great to see the effect on the kids in the show of having [Sondheim] in the audience!

Do you like knowing when Sondheim is in the house?
Imelda doesn’t, but I do! It’s always got a frisson when he’s in; there’s a real atmosphere in the place.

What was your prior exposure to the piece?
I’d seen the George Hearn/Angela Lansbury video, but I had never seen Sweeney on stage at all until we were in New York doing The Woman in White and I went to the dress rehearsal of the production with Patti [LuPone] and Michael [Cerveris]. I just thought it was amazing, which is where the idea started; I thought, “I would love to see this done in the West End but on a big scale and with a big cast and in a big theater.”

How does performing this part eight times a week affect your offstage life?
You live for this. I’ll have a drink on a Saturday night and go out for dinner, but otherwise life pretty well stops. It’s about resting and keeping fit and staying positive and happy, but I’m loving it so much. I thought I would be drained, whereas in fact I feel exhilarated afterwards. I start the show feeling knackered [tired] but it’s structured in such a way that it’s do-able. Having said that, the end of the first half is probably the hardest thing anyone in a musical has ever had to do, to go from killing Pirelli to “Pretty Women” to the “Epiphany” and into “A Little Priest.”

You’ve now done Sweeney and Passion, as well as several musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, The Women in White). Do the two composers feel like polar opposites?
I see them as writers, and each thing that they create has to be taken on merit. Both are brilliant writers in different ways, and both have a mutual admiration for each other. It’s funny that they are seen as arch-rivals and different talents when, in fact, I was at a party on Sunday at [the producer] Cameron [Mackintosh’s] house and they were both there and it was brilliant.

After Sweeney, where do you go next in career terms? What do you do for an encore?
The rest of my career doesn’t stop [laughs]. I’m making a record at the end of the year and by autumn 2013 I want to be back on stage in a show I’ve always had my eye on and am very excited by—but you’ll forgive me if I don’t tell you what it is just now. The lovely thing with the success in Sweeney is that I’m in some sort of position to make things happen, which is great.

What about taking Sweeney to New York, which I know Sondheim is keen to see happen?
That has been mentioned, and we’re looking at the practicalities of it. I feel very much that I’d like the ensemble to come, so the question is, are producers in America going to want that? It would be a limited run, unless people wanted to come in after Imelda and me, so there are a lot of constraints behind it. On the other hand, someone might say, “Let’s go, let’s do it,” and it would be nice to be back on Broadway with something that worked. [Laughs.]

Are there any other obvious Sondheim roles awaiting you? Ben or Buddy, say, in Follies?
I think [Follies] would be fun later on in life. Sweeney was the part that always called out to me and that I always wanted to do, and I don’t know that Ben or Buddy have the same gravitas—the same demands even. I can’t think of a more complex or challenging role vocally, physically or mentally than this one.

And you’ll be performing it twice on your 50th birthday!
Can you believe it? I spent my 40th birthday on the stage of the Palladium in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s lovely that those milestones are celebrated with family and friends but also doing something that you’re really proud of and doing well.