Review: Bat Out of Hell the Musical at the Liverpool Empire ***1/2
Bat Out of Hell has a convoluted origin story. Back in the 1960s the late Jim Steinman conceived a musical set among a tribe of wild counterculture teens in California titled The Dream Machine.
A few years later, many of the musical elements of that would inform a new stage show, Neverland, paying a (very) loose homage to JM Barrie’s Peter Pan. Several songs from THAT show were then amalgamated into the seminal Bat Out of Hell album written with, and recorded by, the late Meat Loaf.
And lo, a decade ago, that multi-million-selling album became the foundation for this bombastic stage extravaganza (a kissing cousin of We Will Rock You, American Idiot and their ilk) which was given a first run along the M62 in Manchester in 2017.
Basically, think Peter Pan meets Romeo and Juliet meets Jesus Christ Superstar and you've got the idea.
This latest incarnation arrives at the Empire with a roar as part of a UK tour, and with opening night coinciding with the third anniversary of Meat Loaf’s death. Steinman preceded him by a year.
It’s a big, splashy spectacle delivered with raw energy and not a little chutzpah, albeit a spectacle that’s built on sand – the sand being a distinctly incoherent plot, in this current touring production at any rate which follows a sort-of rock concert format complete with (distracting) hand held mics.
For the uninitiated - and confused, it’s not easy to follow, especially in the first half where the script appears to have been hollowed out, Steinman's stygian fairytale concerns an end of days New York (named Obsidian) where the haves sit in their skyscraper apartments and the have-nots (‘the Lost’) inhabit the former subway tunnels where they've been frozen in time, forever 18.
Who knows how long they’ve been 18? It's not really explained here. They could be 300 years old, like vampires.
Anyway, love crosses this great divide in the form of wealthy teen Raven (a sweet-voiced Katie Tonkinson) who falls for the Lost’s charismatic leader Strat (Glenn Adamson), causing the wrath of her father, Obsidian's tyrannical boss Falco (Rob Fowler) to rain down on the teenage tribe.
Meanwhile Raven’s disenchanted mum Sloane (Sharon Sexton) longs to shake off, or shake up, what has become a loveless marriage and sees her younger self in her rebellious, questioning daughter who dares to defy convention in her search for happiness.
Will the young lovers triumph? What is it exactly they WON'T do for love? And can the two worlds ever unite in harmony and understanding?
Above: The Bat Out of Hell ensemble. Top: Glenn Adamson (Strat) and Katie Tonkinson (Raven). Photos by Chris Davis Studio.
The production’s young ensemble burns brightly, delivering the show's big standout numbers with real swagger and energy. Vocally they sound great, buoyed by a terrific on-stage band under MD Iestyn Griffiths, giving Steinman’s baroque, anthemic soundtrack suitably pounding, grandiose treatment.
LIPA graduate Adamson was last in Liverpool in 2019 in American Idiot at the Playhouse, although I also recall seeing him in Departure Lounge at the Unity way back in 2012.
He’s made the role of Strat his own on stages from the West End to Australia and brings a feral physicality and almost messianic gleam to the character, albeit also imbuing him with a sort of naivety at the same time, certainly compared to Tonkinson's clear-eyed Raven who while sheltered seems more worldly wise.
Meanwhile Georgia Bradshaw and Ryan Carter are very watchable as couple Zahara and Jag - and both have a powerful set of pipes, a bickering Fowler and Sexton writhe gamely over a car chassis in tacky skimpies (in Paradise by the Dashboard Light) and Carla Bertran is a spiky but vulnerable ‘Tink’ whose crush on Strat leads her to make some bad decisions.
Jon Bausor’s grungy staging has a distinct Blade Runner quality to it, and it’s atmospherically lit by Patrick Woodroffe. There are some great visual moments framed by lighting and liberal use of confetti (a giant broom and a valiant little Henry the Hoover are deployed on stage during the interval).
If you're after spectacle you certainly won't be disappointed. But if you want to see Steinman's original vision faithfully served, then you may feel this Bat Out of Hell is frustratingly full of sound and fury and not much else.
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