Bat Out of Hell review: ★★★★★

After a successful opening in June 2017, Bat Out Of Hell is returning to London in 2018. See our review below.

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It's like a warped and sadomasochistic cross between the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Mamma Mia: Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell: The Musical roars thunderously on to the stage with a vaguely ridiculous plot.

Enter a dystopian Manhattan watched over by the looming figure of Falco (Rob Fowler) in his tower. Picture him as a sexy Italianate Donald Trump but with more bravado and less of the idiocy. Locked up inside the tower is Falco's daughter Raven (Christina Bennington). She's 18 and, like all rebellious teenagers, wants to visit ‘Deep End’ and swarm around in the sewers with bad-boy Strat (Andrew Polec) and his gang who, for some reason, never age.

It was perhaps a mistake to let Meatloaf’s lyricist write the script for the show. The story plays out like something from a tween drama, a Twilight-esque script with oodles of wistful longing for whirlwind romance and freedom from the constraints of an oppressively protective family.

Despite the burgeoning romance between our star-crossed lovers, it’s the relationship between Falco (Rob Fowler) and his unsatisfied wife Sloane (Sharon Sexton) which drives much of the humour and brings an inescapable joie de vivre to the show. It’s the ailing couple's numbers which, tiny pink hot pants and blue cadillac careering into the audience aside, steal the show.

The young troupe deserves credit for standing out among the set alone. Fusing live-action with on-stage camera work plastered on to various surfaces of the set as the actors move around stage, the eye often finds it hard to sit still. A split-level stage allows for an over and underground view which works surprisingly well, whilst the destruction of a silver-black phantom bike provides a showstopping end to the first half. Obsidian might be inexplicable in theory, but it looks the part in practice.

If you aren’t a Meatloaf fan, chances are you will most likely not enjoy this musical. There’s no denying that this is a poorly written, oddly choreographed absurdist fantasy of a spectacle. But a spectacle it is, and what more could one expect from a stage show based on Meatloaf songs? For fans of the albums on the other hand, this is a musical that brings riotous joy and has you toe-tapping all the way through the 10-minute renditions of Steinman’s knockout tunes, all the way to the end. There’s a method to the madness, and Meatloaf: the Musical is as mad as they come.