Michael Ball Releases 'Leaning on a Rainbow' From BLITHE SPIRIT Film

Last year, Michael Ball recorded 'Leaning on a Rainbow' for the soundtrack to the new film 'Blithe Spirit'. The full track is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and more.

Check it out at https://blithespirit.lnk.to/MichaelBallSo

Blithe Spirit, directed by Edward Hall, and starring Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Judi Dench and Leslie Mann is set to open in theaters and VOD February 19.

Best-selling crime novelist Charles (Dan Stevens) suffers from terrible writer's block and is struggling to finish his first screenplay. His picture-perfect new wife Ruth (Isla Fisher) is doing her best to keep him focused so they can fulfill her dream of leaving London for Hollywood. Charles' quest for inspiration leads him to invite the eccentric mystic Madame Acarti (Judi Dench) to perform a séance in his home. He gets more than he bargained for when Madame Acarti inadvertently summons the spirit of his first wife: the brilliant and fiery Elvira (Leslie Mann). Ready to pick up her life right where she left off, Elvira is shocked to discover the prim and proper Ruth is now married to her husband and running her household. Charles finds himself stuck between his two wives and their increasingly over-the-top attempts to outdo one another in this lethally hilarious comedy.

The play was first seen in the West End in 1941, creating a new long-run record for non-musical British plays of 1,997 performances. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. Playwright Noel Coward adapted the play for film in 1945, starring Rex Harrison, and directed a musical adaptation, High Spirits, on Broadway in 1964. It was also adapted for television in the 1950s and 1960s and for radio. The play enjoyed several West End and Broadway revivals in the 1970s and 1980s and was revived again in London in 2004, 2011, 2014 and 2020. It returned to Broadway in February 2009.

Michael made his West End debut when Cameron Mackintosh cast him as Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of Les Misérables 35 years ago. Last year Ball led an all-star company for the special concert engagement of Les Mis, playing Javert.

In 2021 Michael will lead the spectacular new production of Hairspray at the London Coliseum, reprising his Olivier award winning performance as Edna Turnblad. His previous theatre credits include Chess at the London Coliseum, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Adelphi Theatre, Mack and Mabel at Chichester Festival Theatre and on tour, Passion at the Queen's Theatre, Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre and on tour, The Woman in White at the Palace Theatre and then on Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre, Aspects of Love at the Prince of Wales Theatre and on Broadway, Patience at New York City Opera, Kismet at the London Coliseum (with Alfie Boe), Alone Together at the Donmar and Theatre Royal, Haymarket and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, where he played Carrie Hope Fletcher's stage father, Caractacus Potts. Alongside his musical theatre career, for which he has received two Olivier Awards and an OBE, Ball is a platinum-selling recording/concert artist, and was the first musical theatre star to have been given a solo concert at BBC Proms. In 2020 Michael topped the singles charts with Captain Tom Moore and the Voices of Care Choir with You'll Never Walk Alone in aid of NHS Charities Together. He currently presents The Michael Ball Show on BBC Radio 2 and has also presented multiple television series.

Alongside his solo career, Michael has had a number of triumphs with Alfie Boe - number 1 albums in 2016 & 2017, followed by a third album release in 2019 which debuted at number 2. With combined sales of over 1.5 million, it led to them winning a pair of Classical Brit awards and being asked to front their own ITV specials, as well as touring international arenas. In 2019, Ball completed a 23 date tour of the UK to coincide with the release of his number 1 album, Coming Home To You. Their fourth studio album, titled Together at Christmas, has just been released and they will embark on another arena tour at the end of 2021.