Bat Out Of Hell: Original Cast Recording (2017)

I am writing my thoughts on the "Bat out of Hell" musical cast album, having heard the news this morning that composer, songwriter and producer extraordinaire Mr. Jim "Lord of Excess" Steinman has left the building. Seller of nearly 200 million records, including the third largest selling rock album of all time "Bat out of Hell" and its sequel "Back into Hell", author and dreamer of "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "Holding out for a Hero", "It's All Coming Back to me Now" and so much more, composer of the ultimate showdown with Jim's music "Tanz der Vampire: Das Musical" and lyricist the year before on Lord Webber's "Whistle down the Wind". For fifty years, he had been labouring away on and off on a futuristic rock musical based on "Peter Pan", which was realized in some form in Manchester 2017 as "Bat out of Hell: The Musical".

Can you imagine the expectations for something like this? There were fans who wouldn't even have been born when "Bat out of Hell II" was released. I never saw the original "Bat" come out. It all began in 1969 at Amherst College, where a deranged Historian walked out onto the stage of the Kirby Memorial Theatre delivering an impassioned twenty minute monologue, before introducing us to the coast of Northern California, where dwell Baal an eighteen year old rebel and his tribe of rebellious youth. They meet an eighteen year old girl on the run from the nearby city, which contains a group of killer nuns who are all going to end up battling with them in the climax. Michael Coveney's biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber mentions that it was a three hour rock musical which contained a 55 minute nude scene and killer nuns. Off-Broadway impresario Joe Papp, pioneer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, attended the production and signed it at intermission. From there, it would have been performed at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, only this never happened because the city balked (I believe) at the content of the play, including the nude scene which would be performed in an open air space.

By 1974, after Jim composed the score for "More Than You Deserve" at the Public Theater, where he first met Meat Loaf during the auditions, Jim had written a new version of "Dream Engine" called "Neverland". The transcript and recording (regretfully incomplete) available at the Dream Pollution website presents the musical as performed in a 1977 workshop in Washington D.C., as part of the Theatre Lab project. Barry Keating again directs and reprises his role as the Historian, with Ellen Foley as Wendy opposite Richard Dunne as Baal. Among the score are songs like "All Revved Up With No Place to Go", "Bat out of Hell" and "Heaven Can Wait", which you may have heard of if you know a lot about musicals. Weren't they on a little album that Meat Loaf recorded in the 70s or something?

The workshop was not an overwhelming success, but the Meat Loaf album that was released that October containing half of the songs from this score was (see above). In the wake of its success, Jim was talking with companies like Universal Studios and CBS Pictures about writing a screenplay for a major film adaptation of "Neverland". In Sandy Robertson's 1981 book, "Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and the Phenomenology of Excess", Jim talks about a version which would include songs from both "Bat" and his album "Bad for Good", where Baal renamed Peter rescues Wendy from the city of Obsidian and takes her off to Neverland, Mr. and Mrs. Hook would ideally be played by Laurence Olivier or John Cleese alongside Bette Midler and Meat Loaf would be Tink. No, not Tinkerbell from the Disney version, but a warrior Lost Boy who doesn't talk. Jim had written the first draft of a screenplay, which would hopefully be filmed by 1984, and then that never happened. Jim's career as uber successful writer and producer for Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Sisters of Mercy etc., however did.

Suddenly in 1994, after "Bat out of Hell II" launched, the "Neverland" project arose once more. This time, Meat had gone from playing Tink to Captain Hook, and the title of the movie was going to be "Bat out of Hell 2100". The story took place in a future Manhattan which had been separated from the rest of the country in an apocalyptic event. Dr. Darling and his wife the Mother Superior, and Captain Hook the Chief Commissioner of Police, have captured the rebel gang of Lost Boys and punished them in a scientific experiment gone wrong. Instead of aging them by eighty years in the process of say ten minutes, their genes are frozen instead, and now Peter, Tink and the Lost Boys are always going to be like that forever. "And you think that I'll be bad for just a little while/But I know that I'll be bad for good", as Peter sings to Wendy as he rescues her from her nights of dreamless sleep in Paradise Lots where she lives under the control of her parents, Dr. Darling and Mother. Once away from Obsidian, in the southern half of the island, called Neverland because no plane can really land there, she starts to dream for the first time in her life, and eventually she and Peter are wedded to that timeless classic "I'd do Anything for Love (But I Won't do That)". The story has a sad ending, because Wendy has grown older, and the whole story is a flashback told by a narrator who is revealed to be Wendy's daughter, Rose. The full treatment and 1997 demos are available on "Dream Pollution".

"Bat out of Hell 2100" was going to be a film *and* a stage show, with a cast recording or soundtrack accompanying it. It never happened, but "Whistle down the Wind" with Andrew Lloyd Webber did, and so did "Tanz", and for a while there a musical version of "Batman". In the lead-up to the Broadway opening of "Dance of the Vampires", Jim said he would like to return to "Neverland" one day, which had now gone back to the title of "Neverland".

In 2006, "Bat out of Hell: The Musical" was announced and it was going to be a major stage spectacle in a theatre expressly built for it. There would be BMX riders, all kinds of wild things going on, and even a troupe of flying Russian wizards. By 2016, audition notices had gone out for a tryout opening in Manchester, UK following a workshop in New York where the lead actor Andrew Polec was discovered.

The musical that emerged in previews in 2017 was an emotional experience for many people who had travelled far and wide to see it, fans who had owned "Bat" since the first year, fans who'd only discovered it a few years earlier, and everything and everything else in between. There were people in the audience who discovered the music for the first time. What they saw was a Wagnerian rock operatic rendition of some of Jim's greatest hits weaved together in a version of the story "Neverland". It was no longer "Bat 2100", or the other scripts from over the years, but the story of the Obsidian dictator Falco's daughter Raven who falls in love with the Leader of the Lost named Strat. The Lost had all been frozen in an experiment gone wrong and that was why they were young forever. The stage production, which I have never seen, was a presentation across multiple forms of media, blending film footage with stage. The music was vividly and dramatically brought to life with a rock band, orchestra and a corps of dancers/singers/actors. Make no mistake about it, the energy that you get from "Bat" is about as 110% as you can get from a musical, because they know what they have to live up to as well. It seems silly to say in a post like this that I couldn't do it, but believe me when I say this, I could not do it! I can't do that, you see. It's not that I *won't* do that, haha!

Eventually, the double original cast recording arrived in my eager little hands and I chucked it in, excited for the next Steinman experience in the best audio quality possible. After "Bat out of Hell" and "Bat II", these guys had an Olympian task ahead of them, and that's not even taking into consideration that Jim had been developing this for 50 years. So let's have a look, shall we?

Warning: Potential Spoilers!

Disc 1:

"Love and Death and the American Guitar"---note the title now says "the" instead of "an". Andrew Polec as Strat performs this insane monologue from the "Bat II" and "Bad for Good" albums and he holds his own. The sound effects in the background are wicked too.

"All Revved Up With no Place to Go/Wasted Youth"---the energy and power of this company comes right through from the very beginning, breaking out of their bodies and flying away like a bat out of hell. My only complaint here, about most of this really, is that the songs couldn't have been done at the original album length, but then they'd have been there for four hours.

"Who Needs the Young?"---Falco and his wife Sloane come out to sing this song, actually the first real song Jim said he ever wrote, and the one song included from "The Dream Engine" all the way back in 1969. It's so wonderful to see it take its place here.

"It Just Won't Quit"---a song I truly love of Jim's, now becomes a duet between Strat and Raven singing from different places. I just love it. I'm biased though, because I will always love hearing new versions of this song at this point.

"Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)"---Strat wants Raven to come to Neverland. He's totally worked up about it all, which leads into this song with Strat and the Lost. Again, the energy is phenomenal. This song was added during the previews.

"Good Girls go to Heaven (Bad Girls go Everywhere)"---Zahara and Raven's mother Sloane sing this, since deleted from the production. I have a problem with the fact that the middle bit is missing. I would have deleted everything else before I got rid of the middle, but again I'm biased because that's my favourite part of the song. It's a cool version nevertheless.

"Two out of Three Ain't Bad"---sung by Zahara with Jagwire, I love hearing this as a duet and the voices on display here are terrific.

"Paradise by the Dashboard Light"---again, listen to these voices. Apparently there's a bit of a mega-musical moment here, like the barricade in "Les Mis" or the chandelier in "Phantom", where someone ends up tipping a whole car into the orchestra pit. OMFG!!! Do you know which bit I love the most? The ending where they just sing "It was long ago..." and the counterpoint really gently.

"Making Love out of Nothing at all"---oh wow, this is in here now, as Strat meets Raven following Raven's walk out at her birthday party where her parents have made a fool out of her after they sing "Paradise". It's a beautiful intimate little version.

"Bat out of Hell"---the moment of truth for poor old Strat, because he has to sing this giant of a song. He pulls it off effortlessly, but the character actually dies here, just as violently as the guy in the original song.

Disc 2:

"In the Land of the Pig the Butcher is King"---my favourite track from the "Bat III" album, which started off as a chorus in "The Dream Engine" all the way back in 1972, and then a song for the corrupt Gotham politicians in the "Batman" musical, it's now sung by Falco as he taunts the imprisoned Lost. Again, I wish these songs would go on longer. This is a wicked version, and it's actually the first time the song as it was originally written was performed. Meat's version changed the melody of the verses.

"Heaven Can Wait"---holy cow! Listen to the full cast come together behind Raven on the second part of this! It is just joyful!!!

"Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are"---there are fans who wish that this song would be replaced with something different, since the music for "Objects" had been (by and large) recycled into "Tanz", but I think it co-exists quite nicely in both. To me, they're different songs which share the same music and also a similar feeling. This version here is sung by the Lost.

"For Crying out Loud"---from memory, Strat is brought back from the dead and is reunited with Raven where they sing this song together, one of the best Jim has ever composed. Oh I don't want to think about that right now, given the news, but they do a wonderful job.

"You Took the Words Right out of my Mouth (Hot Summer Night)"---all the cast come together to sing the classic song. Yeah, what else can I say? I cannot fault this really.

"Not Allowed to Love"---OMFG! This is my favourite Jim Steinman song ever. It was written to be sung by either Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle or Batman and Catwoman in the "Batman" musical and the first time I ever heard it was chilling. It's haunted me ever since. This version, sung here by Tink, is no exception. I was so happy to see this song getting released.

"What Part of my Body Hurts the Most?"---Sloane is walking out on Falco, and they sing what might have been the "I'd do Anything for Love" song of "Bat III". Here, it is finally released to the public in the form of this musical. It needs to be a single.

"Dead Ringer for Love"---Zahara, Jagwire and all the Lost come together to sing this. Yeah, not one of my favourites of Jim's but the energy here which is boundless is awe-inspiring.

"Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through"---oh, I can't with this song either!!! They do such a stirring version of it too.

"It's All Coming Back to me Now"---Strat and Raven are reunited as they sing this, which is one of the most beautiful songs of the twentieth century and all time, and they certainly manage to live up to that. I have never felt the ending of this song as intensely as I do this version, and you've got to understand how much of an impact the first two had.

"I'd do Anything for Love (But I Won't do That)"---how fitting, to end the musical on this note!!!

I just saw a report on the Australian news about Jim, and the news reader said "I guess we'll never know what *that* is". Well, if they don't get it now, this will be around in 300 years from now, along with all of this music. Because, you see, as brilliantly exemplified in this extreme section of the musical theatre library, I believe Jim's work will be viewed as the Wagner and Puccini of its day.

Thank you for reading, and take care,

Ryan.