FANS almost stormed the stage as Michael Ball brought the glitz and glamour of London’s West End to York.

At the age of 50, Ball, pictured, still has the power to give a pitch-perfect, professional performance, as well as making the hearts of his female fans race. This two-and-half hour show offered a dazzling array of songs from Ball’s new album, Both Sides Now, as well as a musical medley second half.

Ball said the reason he often chooses songs more commonly associated with female singers because they take on a whole new meaning when sung by a man.

The problem with cover versions, however, is they will always be compared to the original, but on the whole, Ball gave beautiful renditions, a particular highlight being a spine-tingling cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird and the Oscar-nominated When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2.

His cover of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now was somewhat less successful. While still good, it failed to give the raw emotion of Mitchell’s original.

As the show moved into songs from the musicals, Ball really pulled out all the stops, with the showstopper, Anthem, from Chess, getting a standing ovation.

There was also a never-before heard song, Fight The Fight, from Tim Rice’s new musical From Here to Eternity, as well as a specially written, if not a little self-indulgent, song by Andrew Lloyd Webber called The Perfect Song.

A surprising addition to the show was when Ball walked off to allow his backing singers to play centre stage in a Lloyd Webber medley. Adrian Hansel opened with Close Every Door from Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, followed by Sophia Foroughi’s stunning rendition of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from Evita, before Ball returned to perform All I Ask of You from Phantom Of The Opera, with Alice Fearn.

After he ended with his signature song, Love Changes Everything, a barrage of female fans raced to the edge of the stage for four encore songs.

- Oliver Clark