By Pamela White 

Their Back Together tour came to Bournemouth last night and was greeted by rapturous audience applause and obvious love and affection of the many and varied fans who attended.

Right from the opening bars it was obvious this was going to be a superb show when Michael Ball and Alfie Boe stepped out onto the stage to The Greatest Show from The Greatest Showman.

Accompanied by a full orchestra and backing singers, they moved through the song with all the enthusiasm expected of them. The packed audience were with them from the start, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

Ball and Boe have created a genius twosome with complimentary voices. They had a great banter as the evening went on with Michael talking movingly about his life experiences, offset by Alfie’s dry wit.

There were jokes between them as they shared their bromance with the audience, it was clear to see they hold each other in great esteem.

Following the magical opening they went on to sing more classic titles including I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) by Aretha Franklin and George Michael and You’ll be Back from the hit musical, Hamilton.

After this they sang Gene Pitney and Marc Almond’s 1989 hit Somethings Gotten Hold of my Heart followed by the incredibly intense performance of Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof.

The audience were greatly moved by the duo singing Ben Early’s Army to a screen montage of poppy fields.

Phone torches lit up the theatre as Snow Patrol’s “Run” was sung, followed by Bette Midler’s The Rose and Labi Siffre’s So Strong.

It would not have been a complete show without Ball and Boe’s solo performances from Les Miserables.

Stars was beautifully delivered by Michael Ball and a pin drop could be heard during Alfie Boe’s rendition of Bring him Home.

They came together with a rousing rendition of One Day More.

Shaun Escoffier, the support act, joined the duo for a beautiful version of Circle of Life from The Lion King.

Shaun will be starring in the West End hit show The Lion King as Mustafa at the Mayflower, Southampton from September 3.

A medley of Queen songs were followed by the Frank Sinatra classic My Way and just as you thought it was all over the duo bounced back onto the stage with an encore Grease mega mix which left the audience dancing their way out of the theatre.