Michael Ball (singer) artist in a controversial 'Musical Theatre' Prom on 27 August 2007 for the BBC at London's Royal Albert Hall. Ball performed a wide range of musical theatre numbers, including several by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show was broadcast live on BBC Four, as well as on BBC Radio 3. From October 2007 – July 2009, Ball made his West End return starring as Edna Turnblad in the hit musical "Hairspray" at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. In March 2008, he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal. He also won the Whatsonstage.com
The Ball (play) simply a mistake, a point of confusion by the publishers: "The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France," a Chapman play that had been revised by Shirley, was printed in the same year by the same house. Traditional critics sometimes complained about the frothy amorality of "The Ball" — judging it to display a "coarseness...unflattering" to the social set depicted. Yet Herbert's adverse reaction to the accuracy of the play suggests that even the revised version may have a certain journalistic quality, showing what the Court of Charles I was actually like. "The Ball" portrays people of fashionable society preparing for