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"Can you feel the lo-o-o-o-ve tonight?" Michael Ball asks in the song of the same name. One thing's for sure: We can definitely feel the full impact of his vibrato. And maybe that's what makes him one of Britain's most popular musical-theater singers. Packed with ballads, Centre Stage features songs pulled mostly from contemporary blockbusters such as Aida, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers, and Riverdance. Ball isn't the best Sondheim interpreter, but his relatively low-key take on ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All" is surprisingly effective. Like Linda Eder and Sarah Brightman, he's a crossover artist, equ
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"Can you feel the lo-o-o-o-ve tonight?" Michael Ball asks in the song of the same name. One thing's for sure: We can definitely feel the full impact of his vibrato. And maybe that's what makes him one of Britain's most popular musical-theater singers. Packed with ballads, Centre Stage features songs pulled mostly from contemporary blockbusters such as Aida, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers, and Riverdance. Ball isn't the best Sondheim interpreter, but his relatively low-key take on ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All" is surprisingly effective. Like Linda Eder and Sarah Brightman, he's a crossover artist, equally at ease on the West End and Broadway and in Las Vegas. Rent's "Seasons of Love" is the best example of this strategy. The synth-heavy arrangements get close to the cheese zone at times, but Ball's power pipes mostly overcome them. The album's centerpiece is the delirious title song from Phantom of the Opera, a duet with Lesley Garrett. It comes across like old-school Queen trying its damnedest to write a Broadway hit. It's so over the top, so flamboyantly bombastic, that only a terminal snob wouldn't love it. Or at least crack a smile. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
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Manufacturer: Hip-O Records
Release date: 5 February 2002
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0044001607127 UPC: 044001607127
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