40 years after the release of the record breaking album of Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell, sung by Meatloaf, the musical will come to London.
We caught up with the producers to ask them some questions and get an insight into the creative process and to see how rehearsals are going.
So Why Now?
Michael Cohl, Producer, said “it wasn’t more like a “why now” it was just the evolution of time and here we are 40 plus years later…”
David Sonnenberg, producer expanded: “You know Jim Steinman had originally written a sort of a futuristic vision of Peter Pan and when it became complicated, to have the ability to mount a theatrical production, Meat said, ‘Hey these songs are great, why don’t you let me sing them and make them famous and then you can do your show.’ “
Jim Steinman would have liked it to happen 40 years ago!
So making a musical takes time! Sonenberg went on to tell us that Steinman watches the rehearsals on skype! “we see him on skype and he sees us – it’s quite an interesting way to approach things – he’s the only genius I’ve ever met!”
What seperates this musical from other Juke Box musicals?
David Sonenberg explained “It is a book driven musical with themes – we didn’t have to invent a story.”
“The songs end up functioning as scenes. They take you on this massive journey that has a beginning, a middle, with a huge conflicts and then a resolution. So it feels like we are staging an opera sometimes because the lyrics continue the story forward.”
Michael Cohl wanted to put us right: “It is not [a juke box musical]! It just that the hits happened to come first!”
Bat Out Of Hell the musical opens in Manchester first and then comes to the London Coliseum for June… and for all you rock dads out there, that is just in time for Father’s Day!
