Bat Out of Hell Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 6th January 2025 Review
Bat out of Hell is at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh this week (Mon 06 – Sat 11 January) and if you are a fan of the music of Jim Steinman (b 1947 – d 2021) and Meat Loaf (b 1947 – d 2022), then you probably have your tickets booked already.
If you are coming to this show for the first time, then the one thing that will be immediately recognisable (apart from the songs) is how close some elements of this story line are to J M Barrie’s timeless Peter Pan story. The connection between Peter Pan’s “Lost Boys” and Bat out of Hell’s “The Lost” is no coincidence and Jim Steinman had been fascinated by the original concept of timeless youths for a long time, even quoting the idea as being inspirational for some of his songs.
There is a background story to this show, but it is loosely touched upon as there are simply so many songs to get into this show, and even if you do not consider yourself a Steinman/Meat Loaf fan then the chances that you will know many of them are high.
Jim Steinman wrote some of the greatest songs of his time and this show is a reminder of that fact. No matter what age you are, who can forget hearing “Dead Ringer For Love”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad”, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, and of course “Bat out of Hell” for the first time?. Many of these songs are not only anthems to youth, but large scale rock-opera productions that make them all perfect for a show like this, and that is the way that Jim Steinman it seems always envisaged them. Having Meat Loaf, a performer with his early performance days rooted in stage shows, sing these songs made the perfect dream team.
We are used to these songs being larger than life on stage and they need someone who can do that over the top performance on them to do them justice, and Glenn Adamson as Strat, leader of The Lost, is pretty much perfect in his lead role here. Yes he struts and pouts across the stage in all the right places, gives us his version of this eternally bored and rebellious 18 year old, but it all works and is what these songs need. There is though little emotional depth to Strat as a character, and this is more I think to do with how he is written than Glenn Adamson’s performance. I find this odd as many of these songs have some wonderful lines in them that just capture that feeling of being young and free. The second half of this show does, however, give a bit more depth to all the main characters in this show.
This show is also a love story, a Romeo and Juliet for a rock'n'roll fantasy and Katie Tonkinson as Raven has to make us all believe that she would “Do anything” for Strat. In this show Katie is almost the mirror to Strat both in their very different backgrounds, but also in the musical response that her songs have to those of Strat. For the most part Strat and Raven (Glenn and Katie) work well together in this show, but for some reason I never get that feeling of a great love story between the two of them; great songs yes, and maybe that is more important in this show.
Oddly enough, the real emotional depth in this show for me comes from Raven’s parents, Falco (Rob Fowler) and Sloane (Sharon Sexton) and their story of a once great teenage romance now gone cold has background layers to it that the main storyline does not have. Both Rob and Sharon steal many scenes in this production either together or individually and their ““Paradise by the Dashboard Light” scene is one of the show's highlights.
For a big show like this, there are surprisingly few strong supporting characters in it, but one of them is Zahara, and Georgia Bradshaw has with Ryan Carter (Jagwire) the chance to stamp her own identity on “Dead Ringer For Love” and this audience obviously liked this performance.
Bat out of Hell is a big production stage show that does justice to the big production formats of these songs and, rarely for a stage show like this that uses pre-existing songs, these songs actually feel like they belong in the story line and belong to the characters singing them, and that is a very difficult thing to do. The show is also at one level just pure entertainment with classic songs and a very good team of musicians performing the music live. From the smiles on the faces of many people leaving at the end, they got exactly the show they came out to see tonight.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If you are coming to this show for the first time, then the one thing that will be immediately recognisable (apart from the songs) is how close some elements of this story line are to J M Barrie’s timeless Peter Pan story. The connection between Peter Pan’s “Lost Boys” and Bat out of Hell’s “The Lost” is no coincidence and Jim Steinman had been fascinated by the original concept of timeless youths for a long time, even quoting the idea as being inspirational for some of his songs.
There is a background story to this show, but it is loosely touched upon as there are simply so many songs to get into this show, and even if you do not consider yourself a Steinman/Meat Loaf fan then the chances that you will know many of them are high.
Jim Steinman wrote some of the greatest songs of his time and this show is a reminder of that fact. No matter what age you are, who can forget hearing “Dead Ringer For Love”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad”, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, and of course “Bat out of Hell” for the first time?. Many of these songs are not only anthems to youth, but large scale rock-opera productions that make them all perfect for a show like this, and that is the way that Jim Steinman it seems always envisaged them. Having Meat Loaf, a performer with his early performance days rooted in stage shows, sing these songs made the perfect dream team.
We are used to these songs being larger than life on stage and they need someone who can do that over the top performance on them to do them justice, and Glenn Adamson as Strat, leader of The Lost, is pretty much perfect in his lead role here. Yes he struts and pouts across the stage in all the right places, gives us his version of this eternally bored and rebellious 18 year old, but it all works and is what these songs need. There is though little emotional depth to Strat as a character, and this is more I think to do with how he is written than Glenn Adamson’s performance. I find this odd as many of these songs have some wonderful lines in them that just capture that feeling of being young and free. The second half of this show does, however, give a bit more depth to all the main characters in this show.
This show is also a love story, a Romeo and Juliet for a rock'n'roll fantasy and Katie Tonkinson as Raven has to make us all believe that she would “Do anything” for Strat. In this show Katie is almost the mirror to Strat both in their very different backgrounds, but also in the musical response that her songs have to those of Strat. For the most part Strat and Raven (Glenn and Katie) work well together in this show, but for some reason I never get that feeling of a great love story between the two of them; great songs yes, and maybe that is more important in this show.
Oddly enough, the real emotional depth in this show for me comes from Raven’s parents, Falco (Rob Fowler) and Sloane (Sharon Sexton) and their story of a once great teenage romance now gone cold has background layers to it that the main storyline does not have. Both Rob and Sharon steal many scenes in this production either together or individually and their ““Paradise by the Dashboard Light” scene is one of the show's highlights.
For a big show like this, there are surprisingly few strong supporting characters in it, but one of them is Zahara, and Georgia Bradshaw has with Ryan Carter (Jagwire) the chance to stamp her own identity on “Dead Ringer For Love” and this audience obviously liked this performance.
Bat out of Hell is a big production stage show that does justice to the big production formats of these songs and, rarely for a stage show like this that uses pre-existing songs, these songs actually feel like they belong in the story line and belong to the characters singing them, and that is a very difficult thing to do. The show is also at one level just pure entertainment with classic songs and a very good team of musicians performing the music live. From the smiles on the faces of many people leaving at the end, they got exactly the show they came out to see tonight.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com