Michael Ball: 'People want to ring the death knell for musicals - but they've never been bigger'

Michael Ball says musicals are booming because hits such as Hamilton have attracted new audiences.

The singer was speaking before the first day of rehearsals for the West End revival of Chess, the Cold War musical created by Sir Tim Rice and Abba stars Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.

Ball, 55, will play Russian chess champion Anatoly. He said: “Since I started this business, 30-odd years ago, people have always wanted to ring the death knell for musicals. And yet they’ve never been bigger.

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“It’s a genre that defies labelling. It changes continually. It reinvents itself. It’s got a plethora of material to go back and re-examine. There’s incredible new material being written. It’s attracting a new audience — kids love it.

"The fact that the number one album recently has been [Hugh Jackman’s movie] The Greatest Showman — musical films are starting to come back. You have to sell a kidney in order to get a ticket to Hamilton.

“I think it’s that whole drive to want to see a live performance — that’s how we’re socialising now. We’re so stuck in our heads with social media that we don’t get to meet people and go out to have a joint experience unless we go to a live event, like the theatre.”

The revival, at the London Coliseum, will co-star Alexandra Burke, Murray Head and Cassidy Janson. The original production had a three-year run at Prince Edward Theatre from 1986.

Previews start from April 26