Bat Out of Hell at Royal & Derngate Theatre Northampton Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Janine Rumble

To be honest with you, I am still not sure what I just witnessed, other than to say it was a night of fire, glitter, love, betrayal, loud rock music and alarming states of undress with the back story being inspired by a very famous and much-loved book from yesteryear, of whom the author may either be turning or rocking in his grave.

I went to see Bat Out of Hell, with a high level of naivety and a lack of knowledge of what the show was actually about…note to self…research shows before to have some idea of the plot. I have grown up with Meatloaf songs and assumed (wrongly) that the show was about Meatloaf or had some sort of link to his life, but I was wrong, very wrong.

The premise of the story is a gang of misfits (The Lost) who never age past 18 and have a little one called Tink as part of the gang, who live under the city streets and who are tormented by Falco (Rob Fowler), a businessman, who wants to rid the city of The Lost. His beloved daughter, Raven (Katie Tonkinson), becomes obsessed with the leader of The Lost, Strat (Glen Adamson) and it is the battle between them, her parents (Sharon Sexton) and The Lost that runs through the story, mostly told through the songs of Jim Steinman and Meatloaf. Their songs are used so well throughout the show to tell the story and the singing…wow…wee…Britain definitely does have talent where these singers are concerned, their vocal range and power was truly amazing and makes me wish that I could sing like that, with such power, passion and also tenderness and compassion. How they kept up that level of performance all the way through the show, I have no idea.

The singers were accompanied by an eight strong live band, who were situated around the stage and they were just as amazing as the singers.

The stage was dark, desolate, dystopian, with a tunnel in the middle with large screens above that showed clips of the city, or rooftops or abandoned tunnels, wherever the story was set. To the right of the stage was Raven’s house and for some strange reason, she was mostly followed by a camera operative, who followed her and others around and what the camera operative could see was projected onto the large screens in real time. I found it rather odd watching the screen, but I guess it gave more details to the viewer than they would have traditionally seen.

There were many die hard Bat out of Hell and Meatloaf fans in the audience, who really loved it and have obviously seen the show more than once. Because there was a back story linked to a famous book/character, which I did not understand to begin with, for me, it made the story tricky to follow, but the more I watched the show, the more I recognised the links to the other story but given a much more modern twist. I really did enjoy the talents of the singers and dancers.

All of the company were brilliant, the singing and the dancing was amazing and I would recommend it on that alone.

At points during the show, there are confetti canons exploding, these will make you jump, just a warning, if like me, you are of a sensitive disposition.

I give this show 4/5 for the singing alone. Go and watch it before the end of its run.

Rating: 4/5

If you would like to see the show, it is on at the Derngate until l 20th September. Tickets can be purchased from royalandderngate.co.uk and are priced between £17 and £52.