Meat Loaf managed to sell over 43 million copies of his music worldwide, earning him various titles and awards over the years. As a musician, he also contributed to musical theatre, writing the score for hit musicals such as ‘Dance of the Vampires’. In many ways, Bat Out of Hell is a perennially popular show that freely incorporates baffling, and sometimes downright ridiculous theatrical tropes to tell its story. Although the plot is deliberately incoherent in several parts of the play, it is effortlessly dissolved in the soulful piano melodies and upbeat rock anthems.

The show won the 2017 Best Musical Award and was nominated for a whopping eight times for the Whatsonstage Awards and also for the Best New Musical Award. If you are familiar with the book or Meat Loaf’s thundering compositions, you will feel right at home in New York City Center theatre this season. If not, you are in for a crazy and thoroughly entertaining experience like never before!

The Story

Bat Out of Hell does not proceed linearly from start to finish. Set in the imaginary world of Obsidian, a post-apocalyptic version of Manhattan, the musical is quite similar to Mad Max in many ways. In this cheesy fantasy, many of Manhattan’s inhabitants are stuck in their youth, filling the town with hair spray, fishnet stockings, and an endless supply of 80s style electric guitars. Falco is a tyrant who has taken over the city, and when he begins the process of demolishing the city’s age-old underground tunnel system, he finds himself at odds with ‘The Lost’, a tribe of rebels who are incapable of aging beyond 18. This is a direct parallel to the Lost Boys of Peter Pan’s Neverland. Falco’s imprisoned daughter Raven is smitten by the leader of The Lost and escapes from her cell with the help of her mother Sloane and nurse Zahara. Watching this electrifying and motley collection of events is akin to stepping through a time portal that will take you all the way back to the era of rock ‘n’ roll!

Good For

Fans of Meat Loaf | Lovers of Musicals | Rock ‘n’ Roll Buffs | Young Adults

Critic Reviews

“ ‘What the bloody hell is actually going on?’ Probably best not to ask, and by the final reprise, if you’re dwelling on that, you’re really missing the point here.”

• TimeOut

“Ridiculous, overblown, baffling – and a joy!”

• The Stage