Bat out of Hell UK tour (photo by Chris Davis Studios)
Bat out of Hell. The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.
First premiered here in the UK (Manchester) in 2017 this is a jukebox musical based on the hits of Jim Steinman – and more famously Meat Loaf – as you’d probably guess from the title.
I had no idea how they’d be pieced together, and to be honest I struggled with the storyline. I found out afterwards that it was loosely based on Peter Pan (thanks WikiPedia). Maybe I should’ve googled this before (even the fact that one character is called Tink went over my head).
The story is set in the dystopian city of Obsidan (again, this went over my head, I wasn’t sure if it was dystopian or the 80s!). There is a character called Strat who inexplicably has a near death experience with a guitar during his first encounter with rock and roll and then his DNA freezes leaving him eternally eighteen. He is part of a gang (including Tink) called “The Lost” whose DNA are also frozen (I’m unsure as to whether they had the same encounter).
Obsidan is run by a tyrannical leader called Falco. During a protest outside his residence Strat’s shirt is torn off (leaving him typically rock-like bare chested). Falco’s daughter Raven (who is always kept inside by her parents) sneaks out, finds the shirt and takes in with her when her mother escorts her back inside. She is instantly drawn to Strat and he later comes to her room through the window to retrieve his shirt (shadow?) and the adventure begins.
There are some strange choices made in this production (aside from the storyline): the actors use hand held mics for all their speaking lines which does take you out of the drama somewhat, and also there is an onstage cameraman that is filming all of the scenes close up which are the projected onto huge screens. This made the whole thing feel like a music video. Maybe that was the idea but the cameraman’s presence was very distracting. It felt like we were watching it being filmed for promo purposes.
There is also quite a bizarre Rocky Horror – esque scene where during Raven’s 18th birthday party her parents reminisce about when the first got together which culminates in the writhing around on a Cadillac where she removes her knickers and he strips down to a luminous pink pair of briefs (and I’m not sure what was down the front of them but it looked like a mic pack!).
All of these qualms aside, this is a great show. The performers are fantastic. The voices are outstanding – some of the best rock vocals you’ll ever hear. And the songs – well they speak for themselves. Some of the best rock songs ever written. They are all very dramatic songs – almost could’ve been written for the stage. So really what we’re getting here is a rock opera. An outstanding rock opera. The songs are utilised perfectly.
The staging is very effective with tyres, motorbikes, and flames. All we needed was a giant bat!
The whole cast give it their absolute all and they really do the songs justice – as do the fantastic live band – and by the end the whole audience were on their feet.
Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman fans will not be disappointed.
4 stars. You’re gonna get rocked!
