Bat Out of Hell - The Review

A real dead ringer for a musical.

Bat Out Of Hell - Manchester

Hello! I'm back.

Following some family illnesses I'm starting to re enter the 'normal' world and have been “All Revved Up With No Place To Go!” So I have started filling my diary again with trips to the theatre.

To keep the puns coming I was unsure if I could remember how to write a blog and do all the website things but “Its All Coming Back to Me Now!”

Trip to the theatre

First trip booked was to the premier of “Bat Out Of Hell” that is currently on a short run in Manchester before transferring in to London's West End later this year.

Bat Out Of Hell Poster

This trip ticked multiple boxes, finally a trip out, a chance to see a musical and as the wife loves Meatloaf it made the tickets a great birthday present.

Bat Out Of Hell - The Review

For those who don't know “Bat Out Of Hell” is a musical that features the songs of Meatloaf. It is the latest in a long line of shows that uses the back catalogue from one artist or group to move the story along. Past shows include Mamma Mia (Abba), We Will Rock You (Queen) and The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston).

Bat Out Of Hell follows in the same vein as Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You by being a made up story with the sole purpose of shoehorning in as many Meatloaf songs as possible in to the 2 1/2 hr show, 22 in fact.

Storyline 

Because of this the storyline did lose its way at times with lots of things taken for granted for example at the start the two leads spot each other across a crowded dance floor and then later on the lead man climbs through her bedroom window so either he was very lucky or you have to presume they did meet up in between and found out where each other lived!

To be fair by the end the hits were coming that thick and fast you did not really care about the story but I can see long term it may become a problem for people who don't like Meatloaf but want to see a show.

Apart from the story the staging and performances were incredible so as the great man says 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Bat Out Of Hell - Manchester

Sets & Props 

To be honest for the staging incredible does not come close, more like out of this world. I can't think of any other show apart from probably Phantom where visually the show has left the hairs on the back of my neck standing.

Again this could be another problem long term for the show as there was so much happening on stage and so much technology and props in use it only takes a few performances in a row for things not to work and it could get a bad reputation and no doubt a costly electricity bill.

But when it works, wow! You have to see it.

The sets filled the stage and were brightly colourful and the amount of bikes and people flying through the air left you not really knowing where to look next.

One slight issue was that they had the main stage area and then above it they had built another set of the bedroom of the characters and kept switching to this for various scenes but the only problem was you could only see this bedroom if you were sat in the stalls so to get round it there were several big screens dotted round the theatre and they relayed what was happening on those.

Unfortunately there was a slight lag between picture and voice and there were four screens to make one overall big screen so the pictures was a bit in your face and amusing as the colours were slightly off so when the character wearing a red top ran in to the bedroom they appeared on the screen in an orange top!

The props though were amazing though, at one point they were acting round a long table and then one of the characters whipped off the table cloth to produce a full sized car that they then drove round the stage which they then crashed off the end of the stage and it appeared in the orchestra pit vertical and then there was a funny touch as members of the orchestra came on stage with broken instruments waving their fists at the actors.

There was that much glitter and pyrotechnics set off that during the interval they had to get the vacuum cleaner out and give the stage a good old hoovering.

Bat Out Of Hell Programme Cover

Cast

There were no star names in the cast but they all performed brilliantly both acting and singing, all with strong voices and we saw the benefit of a big cast as the leading man was taken ill at the interval and his understudy seamlessly took over in the second half.

As with all singers and groups their songs are like Marmite, either you love them or you don’t but for Meatloaf fans you are in for a treat as all his songs are lovingly recreated with seemingly long endings in their full glory.

Depending on your point of view these type of shows can bring a different type of clientele to traditional Musicals and they tend to like to sing along which can sometimes be a bit irritating as one incident in the show highlighted.

I think it was during the song “For crying out loud” the actors put a long pause in between the lines “For crying out loud” and “I love you” but all the suspense was killed off because in the pause a couple of ladies in the audience carried on singing!

Opera House Manchester

The theatre

The show was on at the Manchester Opera House, a theatre I have never been to before. I was impressed. Everyone was quickly and politely showed to their seats, there were lots of places to buy food and drinks and lots of toilets and even though there were three floors and around 2,500 seats everyone had an excellent view regardless of where they sat.

But one word of warning. We were sitting up in the gods on the third floor and it was very, very high and there were no hand rails on any of the stairs! Surprisingly though there was quite a bit of leg room even at the top which was nice as there have been many theatres I have visited where I have sat like an oven ready chicken!

Summary

In summary I doubt it will win any awards for great storylines and acting and I’m not sure how long it will last in the West End with the cost and technology issues but if you want a night of feel-good music spoonfed to you via amazing sets then get yourself a ticket as “Heaven can wait”.

Next Time

True to the saying 'Just like buses, you wait ages and then two come along at once' guess where I'm going on Friday?

Yep you guessed it! to see a show.

The students at Doncaster College are performing Roxy The Musical so I am looking forward to that.