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A Review from 5D Music & Theatre writer, Maria Robertson.
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Composer Jim Steinman wanted to write a musical based on Peter Pan, with a darker rock side. He wrote enough songs that they became Meatloaf’s famous album Bat Out Of Hell. So good that a sequel album followed it, but it was not until several years later that it was finally turned into an actual musical as originally intended, and it seems bittersweet to be watching it now – when both of these musical giants have passed on within the last year.
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Few people are unaware of the music of Meatloaf whether as a fan or just having heard it in passing. There were a few singing along with some of them during the performance as well. I’m not sure how many realise that those songs we know and love were written for a Peter Pan story. In Bat Out of Hell the musical a character is called Tink, and tries to gain the love of the lead male, and all the youngsters are called The Lost, and have suffered an illness that means they do not grow up, same as the Lost Boys in the JM Barrie fairy tale. There’s also a human child from a well to do family who forms a relationship with the main Lost boy.
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The similarities are there, but then there is the rock music, the gothic clothes and motorbikes. There’s also darker themes like the marital struggles of the “human” family and the effect this has on their daughter who wants to escape, even if it is to the outcast lands of the Deep End.
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This production is very well put together with the set planned to to work as a variety of locations. The family’s scenes were mostly set in Raven’s bedroom at the back with a video link to a screen to the other side of the stage showing the audience around the theatre the details of the action. The video camera was also used to give a music video effect to some of the numbers – especially when the parents were in the car.
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As for the cast…WOW. They are all so well chosen for their roles, had such amazing voices, and worked together so well. Glenn Adamson as Strat, the Peter Pan character, and Martha Kirby as Raven who falls in love with him are just stunning. Her parents are perfect together, Falco is played by Rob Fowler and Sloane by Sharon Sexton. Sharon was fantastic, playing the drunken bored wife who toys with the freedom of the youngsters alongside her daughter.
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Aberdeen Performing Arts had added a lovely touch to the city’s premiere of the musical, as we arrived at HMT it was to find a line up of Harley Davidson motorbikes sat outside in all their shiny glory. Their owners fussed over them, polishing and occasionally adding to the atmosphere with a revved engine.
My school bag at secondary was a Harley Davidson rucksack, and I had a model of one on a birthday cake one year, so this felt just like a special treat just for me – as if I was not already excited enough to get an evening with the wonderful songs of the amazing collaboration that was Steinman and Meatloaf.
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This tour has been dedicated to them both, and it is a fittingly wonderous tribute. Its always sad when a great musician dies, and its happened a bit too much recently, but the music will always live on. Just as the memory of this night will always be with me, musical memories are the most magical, do not deny yourself.
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Further information and UK tour dates: https://www.batoutofhellmusical.com/
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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.
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