Bat Out of Hell: The Musical
Aug. 4th, 2019 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckro“On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?”
“What? No. What?”
“You’re supposed to come up with a reply!”
My first reaction upon the plot becoming clear was: “It's Neverland. It's Neverland!” It's the futuristic Peter Pan musical Steinman has been dreaming up since the 70s. Meat Loaf has talked about it in interviews. Apparently, every song Steinmen ever wrote has a place somewhere in the “true” version of this—and I have to wonder if the original draft of this show (clocking just under 3 hours) was significantly longer. (The Wikipedia entry indicates that several songs were cut or replaced over the course of the show touring before reaching NYC.)
I also had the early impulse that a producer said, "You can't make an entire musical with just power ballads!" And Steinman said, "Hold my beer." I’ve subsequently revised that; I suspect there were a bunch of less-popular songs that actually figured better into the plot that were cut by producers who want this to be The Meat Loaf Jukebox Musical. Honestly, “Two Outta Three,” “Objects in the Rear View Mirror,” and every “Anything For Love” are not particularly plot-important and if you were genuinely trying to create a meaningful show, they’d hit the cutting-room floor. (Similarly, if you don't know “American Guitar” or the “Hot Summer Nights” lead-in dialogue, there are long segments that make no sense. No, wait, I take that back: They don't make sense either way, but knowing the bits makes them feel less pointless.)
To the extent that there is a plot, it actually has a lot of the beats from Peter Pan, if Hook and Smee (Falco and Sloan) were Wendy's (Raven’s) overprotective parents and everyone was a teenager rather than a child. The lost kids are "genetic freezers", locked at age 18, except for Tink, who was locked as a kid and resents it. And is clearly in love with Strat (Peter), but we are not given the chance to clap if we believe in fairies. Note that this all taking place after the “chemical wars” and earthquakes that turned the city into an island. (Falco apparently rules the city, but all the useful plot information about that got lost and all we know is he’s rich, wants to build housing, and has a brute squad that can’t deal with a dozen teenagers.)
Jim Steinman is clearly also a freezer, stuck around age 17 for his entire career, writing endless power ballads that all could take place between teenagers in the back seat of a parked car. Credit to him: The emotional level of every one of his songs is at the perfect point to represent teen-age. Everything is over the top, everything is true love or true heartbreak, everything is the end of the world. To break up her parents having sex in “Paradise,” Raven pulls the engine out of the car and throws it in the orchestra pit, causing angry musicians to storm out. This is after Falco (the dad) strips down to shiny briefs that Dr. Manhattan might have found a bit too revealing. And it's all so earnest. Even when they're getting laughs, you can never tell if they're intentionally going that hard for the laughs or if they really mean it.
The costumes reminded me most of the live-action TMNT movie from my childhood--80s dystopia-punk by someone whose fashion sense froze in the late 70s.The set design was a bizarre angled building that was blocked for half the audience, so scenes inside it were filmed on a camcorder and projected on the opposite wall. One genuine complaint: It needed more pyrotechnics. They've got flashes and glitter and a motorcycle crash, but this really demands some actual flames.
Overall: Honestly, if they stripped the sets, dumped the plot and just turned this into everyone talking turns wailing Meatloaf's greatest hits, they'd have a much better show that I suspect would make more money. The singers are great and Steinman is an excellent songwriter. But this show is a goddamn trash fire. (I loved it.)
“What? No. What?”
“You’re supposed to come up with a reply!”
My first reaction upon the plot becoming clear was: “It's Neverland. It's Neverland!” It's the futuristic Peter Pan musical Steinman has been dreaming up since the 70s. Meat Loaf has talked about it in interviews. Apparently, every song Steinmen ever wrote has a place somewhere in the “true” version of this—and I have to wonder if the original draft of this show (clocking just under 3 hours) was significantly longer. (The Wikipedia entry indicates that several songs were cut or replaced over the course of the show touring before reaching NYC.)
I also had the early impulse that a producer said, "You can't make an entire musical with just power ballads!" And Steinman said, "Hold my beer." I’ve subsequently revised that; I suspect there were a bunch of less-popular songs that actually figured better into the plot that were cut by producers who want this to be The Meat Loaf Jukebox Musical. Honestly, “Two Outta Three,” “Objects in the Rear View Mirror,” and every “Anything For Love” are not particularly plot-important and if you were genuinely trying to create a meaningful show, they’d hit the cutting-room floor. (Similarly, if you don't know “American Guitar” or the “Hot Summer Nights” lead-in dialogue, there are long segments that make no sense. No, wait, I take that back: They don't make sense either way, but knowing the bits makes them feel less pointless.)
To the extent that there is a plot, it actually has a lot of the beats from Peter Pan, if Hook and Smee (Falco and Sloan) were Wendy's (Raven’s) overprotective parents and everyone was a teenager rather than a child. The lost kids are "genetic freezers", locked at age 18, except for Tink, who was locked as a kid and resents it. And is clearly in love with Strat (Peter), but we are not given the chance to clap if we believe in fairies. Note that this all taking place after the “chemical wars” and earthquakes that turned the city into an island. (Falco apparently rules the city, but all the useful plot information about that got lost and all we know is he’s rich, wants to build housing, and has a brute squad that can’t deal with a dozen teenagers.)
Jim Steinman is clearly also a freezer, stuck around age 17 for his entire career, writing endless power ballads that all could take place between teenagers in the back seat of a parked car. Credit to him: The emotional level of every one of his songs is at the perfect point to represent teen-age. Everything is over the top, everything is true love or true heartbreak, everything is the end of the world. To break up her parents having sex in “Paradise,” Raven pulls the engine out of the car and throws it in the orchestra pit, causing angry musicians to storm out. This is after Falco (the dad) strips down to shiny briefs that Dr. Manhattan might have found a bit too revealing. And it's all so earnest. Even when they're getting laughs, you can never tell if they're intentionally going that hard for the laughs or if they really mean it.
The costumes reminded me most of the live-action TMNT movie from my childhood--80s dystopia-punk by someone whose fashion sense froze in the late 70s.The set design was a bizarre angled building that was blocked for half the audience, so scenes inside it were filmed on a camcorder and projected on the opposite wall. One genuine complaint: It needed more pyrotechnics. They've got flashes and glitter and a motorcycle crash, but this really demands some actual flames.
Overall: Honestly, if they stripped the sets, dumped the plot and just turned this into everyone talking turns wailing Meatloaf's greatest hits, they'd have a much better show that I suspect would make more money. The singers are great and Steinman is an excellent songwriter. But this show is a goddamn trash fire. (I loved it.)
