Michael Ball to Star in New York City Opera’s Patience

British musical star Michael Ball will make his New York City Opera debut this fall as Reginald Bunthorne in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience, which will have eight performances from September 10 through October 5.

This new production will also feature Tonna Miller as Patience, Myrna Paris as Lady Jane, Kevin Burdette as Archibald Grosvenor, Timothy Nolen as Colonel Calverley, Matthew Burns as Major Murgatroyd, and Christopher Jackson as The Duke of Dunstable. It will be directed by Tazewell Thompson, whose credits include M. Butterfly (Arena Stage), Yellowman (Arena Stage), and the NYCO’s Porgy and Bess.

Earlier this year, Ball took over the role of Count Fosca in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s current London hit The Woman in White from an ailing Michael Crawford. He was last seen in New York as Alex in the Broadway production of Webber’s Aspects of Love (1991). Ball’s other major London roles include Marius in Les Misérables, Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Giorgio in Passion, and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.