Alfie Boe Biography

Alfie Boe is an English tenor and actor, notably performing in musical theatre. Boe was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity.

He is best known for his performances as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre in London, the Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary Concert on October 2010, and in the Broadway revival.

He played the lead role in Finding Neverland on Broadway beginning 29 March 2016.  As well, Boe shared a Tony Award with the other members of the ensemble cast of Baz Luhrmann’s 2002 revival of La bohème in 2003. He has sold more than one million albums in the United Kingdom.

Alfie Boe

Performances

Alfie starred as the romantic lead Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in a limited run at the English National Opera directed by Lonny Price, opposite vocalist Katherine Jenkins.

In January 2011, Boe performed for English National Opera in La Bohème and The Mikado. In March 2011, Boe performed three concerts in Idaho: two in Rexburg and one in Sun Valley. Later in April, Boe appeared in The Great British Musical – The Famous and the Future at the Criterion Theatre. He also appeared in the St George’s Day celebration concert in Trafalgar Square.

In May, Boe performed at the Classical BRIT Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, in the Isle of Man, and headlined the Hampton Court Palace Festival finale on 18 June 2011.

Boe appeared in the BBC Last Night of the Proms concert at the Caird Hall on 10 September 2011. Additionally, he appeared in the Llanelli Choral Society’s Grand Performance Concert at Tabernacle Chapel, Llanelli on 24 September 2011. Boe commenced the “Alfie Boe ‘Bring Him Home’ UK Concert Tour” in Bristol on 6 December 2011, finishing in Gateshead Sage on 4 February 2012.

In October 2011, Boe announced that he would appear in the Lytham Proms Festival Weekend on 4 August 2012. The festival is hosted in the town of Lytham St Annes, close to his hometown of Fleetwood. The local newspaper Blackpool Gazette described his concert as a homecoming, using the title ‘Bring HIM Home’.

On 6 May 2012, Boe performed at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, Missouri. On 4 June 2012, Boe performed at the Diamond Jubilee Concert for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. He sang “’ O sole Mio” leading into Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never”.

Boe also performed “Somewhere” from West Side Story with American soprano Renee Fleming on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. He appeared on The One Show on 30 August 2012. On 2 October 2012, Boe embarked on a major U.S./Canada concert tour starting in Dallas, Texas and ending in Toronto on 29 October.

In December 2012, Boe was featured as a guest artist for the holiday concert series of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra. The concert was held at Temple Square and Bells on Temple Square. It also featured legendary broadcaster Tom Brokaw, who narrated the story of Gail Halvorsen and the candy bombers of the Second World War. Boe performed several Christmas favorites as well as ‘Bring Him Home’. The live performances were recorded and released as Home for the Holidays feat. Alfie Boe.

Boe returned to the U.S. in late January 2013 for an eight-city tour, starting in Albany, New York 27 January and ending in Pittsburgh 9 February. In February 2013, Boe, colloquially known as the Lancashire Michael Bublé, was awarded two platinum albums by the BPI for Alfie (2011) and Bring Him Home (2010).

Boe performed a three-week, 14-city tour, which started in Birmingham and ended in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On 15 April 2013, Boe was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music from his Alma Mater. On 26 May 2013, Boe sang “Bring Him Home” at the U.S. National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Boe performed at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London on 9 May 2015.

On 4 and 5 June 2015, Boe performed two concerts at Symphony Hall with the Phoenix Symphony, filling in for Colm Wilkinson, who was forced to drop out due to illness.

Alfie Boe Age

He was born as Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe on 29 September 1973.  Boe was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He is 46 years of age as of 2019.

Alfie Boe Family

Boe was the youngest in a family of nine children was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, and brought up in nearby Fleetwood. He is of Irish and Norwegian descent. His mother and father named him after the Italian name of Pope John XXIII.

Alfie Boe Education

He attended St Wulstan’s and St Edmund’s School and Cardinal Allen Catholic High School in Fleetwood.

Alfie Boe Early Life

His earliest musical memories were of listening to his father’s Richard Tauber records and at the age of 11, he discovered Puccini’s La Bohème for the first time.

Boe’s first public performance, aged 14, was at Fleetwood’s Marine Hall in a “Songs from the Shows” presentation organized by inspirational local singing teacher Lottie Dawson. He said that although he sang only a couple of lines he was extremely nervous.

At the age of 17, Boe became an apprentice mechanic at the TVR factory in Bispham, Blackpool. He enjoyed entertaining his colleagues by singing opera arias while he polished the cars. One day, he was overheard by a client with connections in the music industry.

The client was so impressed that he suggested Boe should go to London and audition for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. His audition was a success and he gave up polishing cars to embark on a singing career. Boe has not been able to trace the customer who suggested he go for the audition, having lost the man’s business card.

Alfie Boe Wife

Alfie is married to Sarah Boe, who he met while rehearsing La bohème in San Francisco, and the pair tied the knot back in 2004.

They have two children together; a daughter called Grace and a son called Alfred Robert.

Alfie said of his kids: “But when my little girl, Grace was born, it hit me that this job wasn’t about me anymore. It’s about making sure she and my son, Alfie have a good life.

“They are also showing signs of becoming good performers. They entertain themselves and everyone else around them.”

Alfie Boe and her Wife Photo

Alfie Boe singing and acting career

Boe moved to London and studied singing at the Royal College of Music, the National Opera Studio and the Royal Opera House’s Vilar Young Artists Programme. In 1999 and 2000, he featured as the “opera dude” on albums by the Clint Boon Experience.

Opera Dude was led by the former organist of the Inspiral Carpets. In 1999 he sang Ernesto for Scottish Opera in their Opera-Go-Round production of Don Pasquale, touring widely throughout Scotland.

Alfie Boe Broadway and West End

Baz Luhrmann, who had spent two years looking for the lead for his Broadway production of La Bohème, approached Boe for the role. Boe subsequently appeared (credited as Alfred Boe) on the 2002 Broadway Cast Recording released by Bazmark Live Pty Ltd.

Boe and the other principal leads received a Tony Honors Award in 2003. He has also sung the role at Glyndebourne and the English National Opera.

In 2006, Boe was signed to the Classic FM Presents label as their first signing in a new venture for the radio station, and his album Classic FM Presents Alfie Boe reached number three in the UK classical chart.

At the 2006 Canterbury Festival, on 27 October, Boe performed with soprano Hayley Westenra at a concert in Canterbury Cathedral. In November 2006 he was signed to the EMI Classics label and his first album on that label, Onward, was released on March 2007.

Boe toured the United Kingdom with the Fron Male Voice Choir in February 2007 and took part in the first Classic FM webcast concert with soprano Natasha Marsh in March.

In April, Boe starred opposite Lesley Garrett and Willard White in the ITV Music of Morse concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He was also nominated for a Classical BRIT for Best Album, missing out to Paul McCartney at the ceremony on 3 May 2007.

Boe performed with Michael Ball in the English National Opera production of Kismet. His live performance of the song “Stranger in Paradise” from Kismet on the Michael Parkinson show was released as a download single on 25 June 2007.

In August, Boe realized an ambition to record an album of Neapolitan songs which was released in November under the title La Passione. On 24 August 2007, he performed at the Arundel Festival alongside Natasha Marsh.

On 19 October 2007, he performed at Canterbury Cathedral during the Canterbury Festival. Boe performed at the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 November 2007.

On 31 January 2008, Boe performed at the Pleasure Beach Arena, Blackpool to more than 1,600 local children in a special Music Quest concert to introduce the classics to a new generation.

The concert celebrated the end of the Music Quest three-year project, which was sponsored by the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation and Classic FM MusicMakers.

Alfie Boe Les Misérables

On 3 October 2010, Boe took the role of Jean Valjean in a concert performance of the musical Les Misérables. The performance was held at the O2 Arena in London to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

The concert encore performance of “Bring Him Home”, credited as the “Valjean Quartet”. Boe with Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones and Simon Bowman were re-recorded at the Abbey Road Studios and released as a charity CD single and download on 13 December 2010.

On 16 December 2010, Boe once again performed as Valjean in the Royal Variety Performance in front of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwallsinging “What Have I Done?”, and “Bring Him Home” again alongside Wilkinson, Owen-Jones and Bowman.

Boe appeared as Valjean in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, London, from 23 June to 26 November 2011. His friend Matt Lucas also joined the cast as Thenardier. During his run as Valjean, Boe appeared in the “Les Misérables v Lend Me a Tenor Battle of the Tenors” at Soho’s Winnett Street, London on 13 July 2011. In August, Boe performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at Beau Sejour and Gloucester Hall.

In 2015, he reprised the role of Valjean in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables at the Imperial Theatre in New York. He succeeded Ramin Karimloo, who played Enjolras in the 25th Anniversary concert, on 1 September 2015.

In February 2019, Boe announced he would reprise the role of Valjean at the Gielgud Theatre in a staged concert production of Les Misérables. Boe starred opposite Michael Ball (Inspector Javert) and Matt Lucas (Thénardier), with whom he has performed on numerous occasions. The production opens on 10 August 2019, at the Gielgud Theatre.

Alfie Boe Television

Boe appeared as music-hall singer Richard Chapman in an episode of Mr.Selfridge. In 2016 and 2017, Ball and Boe appeared in two ITV Specials, Ball & Boe: One Night Only and Ball & Boe Back Together. Boe replaced Aled Jones as presenter of Christmas Carols on ITV in December 2017. On 3 March, Boe performed in ‘The End of the Show Show’ on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway alongside Michael Ball.

Alfie Boe and  Michael Ball

Michael, who was appointed an OBE in 2015 for his services to musical theatre. The two met when they were co-stars in a production of the musical Kismet in London.

Since then, they have forged somewhat of a musical “bromance” and last year featured in a second TV special singing hits from musicals called Ball And Boe Back Together.

Alfie Boe and Michael Ball Photo

Alfie Boe Charity

He was appointed as an ambassador of the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation, a British educational charity working to inspire and educate children by introducing them to the arts. Boe’s role is to bring music and opera in particular for those children involved.

Alfie Boe’s Net Worth

His net worth has grown significantly in 2019. According to many Online sources, Alfie Boe’s estimated net worth $5 Million.

Alfie Boe Twitter