Bat out of Hell

[Dave13]

I see this show coming to my hometown. I can't find much on it. Is this a tour or a local production? I believe this is a tour since it is at the Theater that is current hosting Hamilton. Is it worth seeing?

 

[Lot666]

I think it depends on how you feel about Jim Steinman's music. Based on the reviews of the London show, it sounds like a jukebox musical that employs the catalog of songs which Mr. Steinman has written over the years for Meat Loaf, et al., to tell a story that some might view as silly and overwrought. The visual production apparently mirrors the bombast of the music.

The preceding might sound like a negative assessment, but it's not; I happen to be a fan of Mr. Steinman's work and I have a passion for the overwrought and bombastic. One of my personal mottoes is "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing" (and I say that only half-jokingly). If presented with an opportunity, I will see Bat out of Hell.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

It is a tour. It's worth seeing for the songs, if nothing else, since Meat Loaf himself isn't exactly in working order anymore.

[Dave13]

Thanks guys. The Trailer looks interesting. Hopefully, it is not a cheap production.At a minimum, it should be worth a nights entertainment. I don't mind Meat Loaf's music, so it is probably worth a look. 

[BentleyB]

I    saw it in Toronto in December.  I     loved the music as I    always have and the set and singing is amazing.  The show and the awful choreography  left me bored and I  personally have no desire to ever see it again.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Fair warning if you're someone who likes a strong plot line: all the way back to its out-of-town run in Manchester, one could summarize every review, hit or miss, as "Great cast, terrific songs, you'll have a wonderful time, muttermutterstorywhatstorymutter." They still can. As a fan of Jim Steinman, who wrote the score, that bugs me a little bit. 

Every Steinman fan I've ever known has talked for years about how all of Jim's music is, in some way, part of Neverland, this sci-fi rock take on Peter Pan he's been developing basically for almost 50 years that morphed into Bat. Especially considering how many songs on the Bat albums were legit originally written for this storyline, I guess I thought that it would all... I dunno... finally make sense or something, that it'd lock into place and we'd all see the brilliance of his intention. I thought the story was meant to matter; this was supposed to be the show where people saw it and finally understood the part each song played, and the whole thing made more sense than it did as a collection of albums and singles down the years.

Evidently I was wrong. After 50 years and countless interviews where Jim told a much more interesting story, I can't help but feel let down. At best, the barest bones of that are on display in this show. It's like seeing one of Leonardo's underpaintings before he added color and detail.

But don't take my word for it. As Ethel Merman purportedly once said, "I thought it was a piece of ****, but the audience laughed and cried, so what the **** do I know?"

[AngusN]

I agree, the choreography is awful and some of the numbers are irrelevant and dull e.g. the song where his parents making out on the sofa. However, the technical staging and singing was incredible.

[Tag]

I can't imagine that the physical production in it's West End or Toronto incarnation will tour.  The show is massive and technically complicated.

[Lot666]

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "Every Steinman fan I've ever known has talked for years about how all of Jim's music is, in some way, part of Neverland, this sci-fi rock take on Peter Pan he's been developing basically for almost 50 years that morphed into Bat...."

I saw the Classic Albums episode devoted to "Bat Out of Hell" and they talked at length about how Steinman, Meat, and several other key players behind the album started out on Broadway. Steinman spoke about his love for this sort of thing, so I would've expected him to make a go of it here. Is he listed as the book writer for the show, or just the composer?

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Book, music, and lyrics. Stuart Beattie is credited in the programme for "additional book material," but the script I've seen has only Steinman's name on it, and it reads very like the type of stuff he normally writes. (It also, rather unfortunately, suggests maybe he was more responsible for DOTV than he has ever let on, if one compares the style of Bat with that disaster.)

[TorontoBroadwayFan]

Tag said: "I can't imagine that the physical production in it's West End or Toronto incarnation will tour. The show is massive and technically complicated."

Hey it was a tour that was in Toronto last fall. It only had a 2 month run and although the staging was nice, I believe it could easily be moved and tour in the US if the demand was there.

[Lot666]

If Mr. Steinman is credited with the book as well, then I guess it's pretty much all on him. 

[Tag]

Tag said: "I can't imagine that the physical production in it's West End or Toronto incarnation will tour. The show is massive and technically complicated."

Hey it was a tour that was in Toronto last fall. It only had a 2 month run and although the staging was nice, I believe it could easily be moved and tour in the US if the demand was there.

The Toronto run was not a tour, it was a direct transfer of the West End production.  I'm not sure what show you think you saw, or what your technical theatre knowledge is, but it's a hugely complex show, the likes of which are rarely seen in Toronto nowadays.

From what I remember the show had:
-an onstage pool
-fully automated deck
-at least some automated flys
-a two level set
-complicated flying (walls flying on diagonals, the exploding motorcycle, etc.)
-a trapped stage for the pool and the car/pit effect
-significant pyrotechnics
-a huge front of house ceiling set installation

This show isn't easily tourable.  The show in Toronto had over a two week load-in and tech.  That isn't sustainable on tour.

[Famebroadway2]

Dave13 said: "I see this show coming to my hometown. I can't find much on it. Is this a tour or a local production? I believe this is a tour since it is at the Theater that is current hosting Hamilton."

Where is your hometown?  I had no idea they were even planning to tour this.  

 

[dramagoer]

Does it include non-Meatloaf songs written by Steinem? Like "Total Eclipse of the Heart"?

[Tag]

No "Total Eclipse", but "It's All Coming Back To Me" (Celine song) is in it.

[Lot666]

Tag said: "No "Total Eclipse", but "It's All Coming Back To Me" (Celine song) is in it."

Is that because "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was previously used in Dance of the Vampires?

[darquegk]

It's All Coming Back was eventually covered by Meat Loaf (in a cool duet arrangement with Marion Raven). I believe this show is exclusively songs that he has sung.

[Tag]

Ah interesting.  I also thought I read that there are a few new songs in the show.  But I don't know enough of Steinem's work to know for sure.

[Regem10]

I saw it last winter in Toronto. It was one of the most entertaining things that I’ve seen. Everything (except the plot was great) but it never came together as a cohesive whole.  Plus what was the last jukebox musical where we got the full versions of the songs? I was giddy from the 10 minute Steinman songs with endless refrains.  Also if it means anything I saw it on a stool from the last row of the balcony

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Steinman, not Steinem.

There are two new songs in the show, by which I mean they are new to anyone not familiar with Steinman's work since the early-to-mid-2000s. "Not Allowed to Love," previously a duet in the aborted Batman musical, is now a solo for the character of Tink, and "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most," previously a Rob Evan solo in the short-lived Over the Top / The Dream Engine revue, is now a duet for the characters of Falco and Sloane. Both occur in Act Two; I believe the former follows the latter, if memory serves.

As for "Total Eclipse" not being in the show, thank God. A couple of songs in Bat bear more than passing resemblance to material from Vampires (both the European and American versions) as it is.

[yankeefan7]

As much as "Bat Out Of Hell" is a guilty pleasure of mine, I cringe at the thought of this being a musical.

[Lot666]

I just recently received a Broadway Across America survey to gauge interest in potential shows for next season and the first entry on the "New Musicals" list was "Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell - featuring the music of Meat Loaf".

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Oh yeah, Riedel said in his column a while back, around the time the Bat flew to Toronto, that Michael Cohl had in mind a national tour this fall and then maybe Broadway. My guess is, if it undergoes a national tour, they'll see exactly what kind of interest Meat and Jim actually hold with the general public in America, which is to say (as yankeefan7 put it) mainly a guilty pleasure, if that, and not something one would pay Broadway prices to see.

[Dave13]

Famebroadway2 said: "Dave13 said: "I see this show coming to my hometown. I can't find much on it. Is this a tour or a local production? I believe this is a tour since it is at the Theater that is current hosting Hamilton."

Where is your hometown? I had no idea they were even planning to tour this.

"

Salt Lake City.