Bat Out Of Hell’s going to be a soaring hit again
JIM STEINMAN doesn’t keep live bats. In fact, he has never actually seen one in the flesh. But he does have a mechanical bat, which he keeps in a cage. And he has a lot of bat paraphernalia, which he keeps in what he refers to as the Great Room at his Connecticut home — but which others call the Bat Cave.
Whatever name you favour, it’s a great room: high-ceilinged, with sofas scattered with spiderweb patterned cushions; all manner of vampire stuff; crystal sculptures; glittery skulls; a huge papier-mache throne; Wagner collectables from Bayreuth — and the Yamaha piano at which he composed some of his rock phenomenon, Bat Out Of Hell.
Steinman created the music and lyrics for the 1977 album, which made a star of Meat Loaf, and which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year with a stage version: telling the story of rebellious lovers Strat (named for the Fender Stratocaster guitar) and Raven. (The world premiere will be at the Manchester Opera House, with previews from February 17.)
Steinman was studying audition footage when I visited him — and later approved director Jay Scheib’s choice of leads. Pennsylvania native Andrew Polec will play Strat (Polec describes him as a boy who ‘chases what he wants: girls, motorbikes and rock’n’roll’). And Belfast-born Christina Bennington will play Raven, the teen willing to risk everything to be with Strat.
‘This is raw teenage love and lust,’ said Bennington, who was in the Sheffield Theatre version of Showboat, which closed recently at the New London Theatre.
After its run in Manchester, Bat Out Of Hell will wing its way down to the Coliseum in London for a limited run from June 5 until July 22. Steinman always intended that Bat Out Of Hell would wind up in theatres. ‘No one believed in it for the stage then,’ he sighed.
When the album came out, it was an instant hit; and it has since sold in excess of 40 million discs — and a few million downloads. It still shifts a staggering 200,000 units a year.
Bat Out Of Hell started as a sci-fi version of Peter Pan, with a dash of Romeo And Juliet. ‘It’s a story about kids who never grow up and fight authority,’ Jim said.
Theatre was a vital component in Steinman’s formative years. When he was nine, his parents took him to see Waiting For Godot, starring Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard Of Oz film. He was enthralled.
HE SAW the U.S. premiere of Long Day’s Journey Into Night (‘I cried my eyes out’); watched Glenda Jackson and Ian Richardson in Peter Brook’s production of Marat/ Sade; and caught some of Edward Albee’s early works. The dramas infused him with a sensibility about broken families and troubled offspring.
He loved classical music, too, particularly Wagner.
But when he mixed them all together, and came up with Bat, not everyone was impressed.
Super-producer Clive Davis dismissed the work, saying Steinman didn’t know the basic rules of songwriting. ‘He told me the songs didn’t have a chance of being published,’ he recalled.
Despite Davis’s criticism, that first album made millions — very little of which, Steinman insisted, came to him.
Noticing me eyeing up the art in the Bat Cave, he shook his head and said: ‘This is the house that Bat Out Of Hell II built!’
He and Meat Loaf didn’t speak for years because of rows over royalties and credits. But they worked together again in 1993, and collaborated on a Bat -related LP, which was released in September.
Steinman’s manager David Sonenberg and rock producer and promoter Michael Cohl have joined forces to help Steinman finally realise his stage dreams for Bat Out Of Hell, which, as this column first told you several months ago, will be officially launched in London next week.