``Michael Ball: Live At The Royal Albert Hall'' Marks U.S. DVD Debut for Enormously Popular U.K. Star of Stage and Album.

Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2002

Michael Ball is one of the U.K.'s most popular singers and its leading musical theatre star -- and millions of Americans finally discovered why with the 2000 airing of his PBS concert special "Live At The Royal Albert Hall." Now his new fans on this side of the Atlantic can relive that spirited concert with Ball's first DVD issued in America, "Michael Ball: Live At The Royal Albert Hall" (Hip-O Records), released November 26, 2002.

On album, the concert, recorded amidst a 1999 sold-out U.K. tour for Ball -- who has starred in London in "Les Miserables," "The Phantom Of The Opera," "Aspects Of Love" and "Passion" -- entered the U.K. charts at #1. The homevideo entered the U.K. video charts at #1 and reached platinum just weeks after its release.

Featured are several songs he first recorded for his 1998 U.K. platinum album "The Movies" (all of his solo CDs have reached at least gold status there, with "The Movies" selling more than 500,000 copies). Included from the "Live At The Royal Albert Hall" concert are "Everybody's Talkin'" ("Midnight Cowboy"); a medley of "The Way We Were" and "The Rose"; "Love On The Rocks" ("The Jazz Singer"); "My Heart Will Go On" ("Titanic"); "Hot Stuff" ("The Full Monty") and a Blues Brothers medley of "Shake Your Tail Feather," "Think" and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love."

Along with his first co-written song, the ballad "Someone Else's Dream," and his own #1 U.K. hit of "Love Changes Everything" from "Aspects Of Love," are the medleys "Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord" and "Gethsemane," and Louis Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World" and Robbie Williams' "Millennium."

Ball's self-titled 1992 debut album hit #1 in the U.K. and included the studio version of "One Step Out Of Time," the song he had earlier performed representing Great Britain in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest, seen by 600 million people worldwide. "Live At The Royal Albert Hall" also spotlights his performances of "How Can I Be Sure," "(Something Inside) So Strong" and "Let The River Run" which he first recorded in the studio for 1996's "First Love." From "Les Miz," he reprises "Empty Chairs, Empty Tables" and from "Evita" there's "Oh! What A Circus." The remaining selections are "I'll Be There For You (Theme From "Friends")" and "Help Yourself."

Since 2000, Hip-O has released in the U.S. the albums "Michael Ball: The Musicals," "Michael Ball: The Movies," "Michael Ball: Christmas," "The Very Best Of Michael Ball -- Live At The Royal Albert Hall" and "Centre Stage."

Ball is currently receiving rave reviews in London starring as Caractacus Potts in the new musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which premiered in April.