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re: A Three Star Review

Posted by:
Ali 02:57 am UTC 03/18/17
In reply to: re: A Three Star Review - nowhere_fast 01:50 am UTC 03/18/17

Yeah, I was confused by that as well! I agreed with his comments about Zahara, she is without doubt the standout vocalist and the Paradise sequence is indeed something incredibly special but other than that I think he's not entirely got the point of the whole thing.

He seems to have been expecting a standard, vanilla flavoured rock musical with short, pop song length numbers. Bat out of Hell is far more of a rock opera. Ironically 'Bat out of Hell' the song is far more suited to being an Act one finale in a musical than it ever was to being a single. This is where it belongs.

Ali

> For every opinion and they can have them i would love to
> know how the reviewer can suggest that BAT,DR and TTW have
> been "stretched widely" in the show.If anything all the
> songs in the show are parent album/demo length and under
> with a slight break in Bat for the crash
>
> > Theatre Review: Bat out of Hell, Manchester Opera House
> > Kevin Bourke March 17, 2017 Arts, Editor's Picks,
> > Featured, Theatre 0 Comments
> > Bat-Out-of-Hell-premiere
> > Part of the strange charm of the original Bat Out Of Hell
> > recording has always been that it was unashamedly
> > grandiose and knowingly absurd, and that, lyrically and
> > presentation-wise, it was also pretty funny. That was
> > absolutely its saving grace and surely the factor that,
> > eventually, brought record-buyers around to it in their
> > millions.
> >
> > At about the same time, of course, that love of rock ’n’
> > roll mythology (while recognising its fundamental
> > foolishness) was being taken in the opposite, minimalist
> > direction by The Ramones and some of their
> > co-conspirators. Music history has probably been kinder to
> > The Ramones but that’s at least partly because there’d
> > never been anything quite like Jim Steinman’s concept, a
> > delirious mixture of a larger-than-life,
> > ridiculously-named performer with a Wall Of Sound
> > re-imagining of every rock trope out there. And there
> > certainly hasn’t been anything since, notwithstanding
> > various misguided further ‘Volumes’.
> >
> > It’s both ironic and unfortunate for Jim Steinman’s Bat
> > Out Of Hell – The Musical, to give the show its full,
> > legally approved title, that although it’s well known the
> > songs and concept came from a musical theatre piece
> > Steinman had begun working on and employed Meat Loaf to
> > perform, that was five decades ago. Now, BOOH finally
> > appears in the middle of a theatrical landscape fairly
> > littered with rock musicals, most of them
> > chuckle-inducingly grandiose and almost all of them simply
> > stupid – We Will Rock You anyone”?
> >
> > So the only way for the show to go, to employ a well-worn
> > rock cliché, is to turn everything up to “eleven” – and I
> > don’t mean just the live band but also Jon Bausor’s
> > jaw-dropping set, for which the stage, and a fair bit of
> > the auditorium seems to have been gutted, as well as the
> > performances and the pyrotechnics. This might be one of
> > those rare shows worth showing up for just for the sheer
> > visceral experience of seeing it.
> >
> > Bat out of HellInevitably, it’s all set in a near future
> > dystopia where The Lost (that ‘lost children’ allusion and
> > a character called ‘Tink’ a reminder of its origins as a
> > rock ’n’ roll re-imagining of Peter Pan) live underground
> > and, because of a genetic mutation, never get older than
> > 18. Strat (Andrew Polec) is their charismatic leader,
> > although his charisma doesn’t seem to extend much beyond a
> > few half-baked Jim Morrison impressions. Above ground,
> > where they and their goons seem to be the only
> > inhabitants, is the domain of evil(ish) overlord Falco
> > (Rob Fowler) and his frustrated rock-chick of a wife
> > (Sloane), who live with their over-protected and typically
> > teenage daughter Raven (Christina Bennington) in a
> > towering skyscraper named for the despot. Hmmm.
> >
> > Mid-riot – at least I think that’s what was going on –
> > Strat falls for the never-knowingly over-clothed Raven,
> > Daddy gets a bit upset, and, erm, that’s it really,
> > plot-wise.
> >
> > There’s some terrific singing and at least one truly
> > tremendous set-piece, with Falco and Sloane trying to
> > patch up their failing marriage with a duet, Paradise By
> > The Dashboard Light, that finishes explosively with a
> > presumably horrendously expensive gag involving an onstage
> > car being pushed into the orchestra pit. But the show just
> > never knows when to stop. Already portentous songs like
> > Bat Out Of Hell, Dead Ringer For Love and You Took The
> > Words Right Out Of My Mouth are often stretched out
> > wildly, apparently just so each cast member can have a go
> > at singing them, while some of the dance routines are as
> > clunkily unattractive as Strat’s woeful ‘poetry’.
> > Crucially, with the glaring exception of that Paradise By
> > The Dashboard Light sequence, it just isn’t funny or
> > thrilling enough to let that stuff slide.
> >
> > Still, Danielle Steers as Zahara fully deserved the
> > audience cheers for her vocal power and stage presence
> > (although her role in the script was inexplicable – last
> > minute cuts even in a show this length?) and Rob Fowler
> > and Sharon Sexton really do look like they’re having fun
> > up there. If only the show itself could be a bit more like
> > that and a bit less like an old bloke’s indulgent – and
> > sometimes sexually ambiguous – rock ’n’ roll fantasy.
> > Unless that’s the point of the whole thing, of course.
> >
> > By Kevin Bourke, Theatre Editor
> >
> > golden-star golden-star golden-star


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