Rocking ‘Bat’ takes wing
New musical packed with Meat Loaf songs is set in NYC hellscape
LAST week I wrote about three shows that are trying to slip onto Broadway stages before the Tony cutoff date in April: “The Honeymooners,” “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” and “Hadestown.”
Producer Michael Cohl, my old sparring partner on “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark,” e-mailed to remind me of another musical, one that may well end up on Broadway one of these days, after bouncing around the globe: Jim Steinman’s “Bat Out of Hell,” now going gangbusters in Toronto.
“It’s a box-office wonder, and [the] audience loves it,” he wrote, then added, “nobody fired or hurt,” a cheeky reference to the dramatic saga of “Spider-Man.”
I’m planning a trip to Toronto because several sources told me that “Bat Out of Hell” is an overthe-top hoot.
Director Jason Scheib’s highoctane production matches the Wagnerian verve of the classic Meat Loaf songs: “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” — all of which were written by Steinman for the 1977 album, from which the musical gets its name.
The musical also features anthems penned by Steinman from 1993’s comeback album “Bat Out of Hell II,” including “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” and “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through.”
“Bat Out of Hell” opened earlier this year in Manchester, England, and played a limited engagement at London’s mammoth Coliseum before heading to Canada.
Steinman wasn’t able to get to England, but he kept tabs on the show and e-mailed me some of the reviews.
“Electrifying and giddy and guaranteed to tap into every playgoer’s inner rock god,” wrote Matt Wolf for the NY Times. He’s a cool, cerebral critic who, I bet, had no idea he had an inner rock god.
“The show begins at full throttle and keeps throttling,” said the Times of London.
A powerful British theater producer who saw the show says it’s “completely insane” and “huge fun.”
The setting is a post-apocalyptic New York City in 2030. Manhattan has floated off into the sea, and the good guys are battling an unseen tyrant called “the Man” in the shadows of sinister black skyscrapers. Imagine “Blade Runner” and “Escape From New York,” with a little “Romeo and Juliet” and “West Side Story” thrown into the mix.
Critics have praised the cast, especially Andrew Polec, who plays the hero Strat, doomed to be 18 forever. (There’s a little “Peter Pan” here as well.)
Whenever the story allows — and apparently, it’s often — Polec rips off his shirt, provoking screams of ecstasy from the audience.
A stage version of “Bat Out of Hell” has been knocking around for years. Just about every major producer you can think of has taken a stab at it, but without success.
Cohl, a rock promoter who’s known Steinman and Meat Loaf for 30 years, decided he’d take a shot. He plans to launch an American tour of the show in the fall of 2018.
“Some shows need to come to Broadway to establish a brand,” Cohl says. “Not to take anything away from Broadway, but this is a brand people are familiar with. Maybe we’ll become known as the best show that never played Broadway — and then we’ll get rid of that moniker.”