Theatre

Here are loads of facts about Bat Out Of Hell

With Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical reaching Manchester and London very soon, here are loads of interesting facts about the Meat Loaf inspired production.

Following the eternally young Strat and his wild gang, The Lost, Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical is a post-apocalyptic love story inspired by one of the most successful rock albums in history. This much we know.

But here’s some things you might not know about the production, which kicks off its Manchester run on Friday 17 February at the city’s Opera House, before moving to London’s Coliseum on the 5 June 2017.

Before we get started, here’s some footage from the event’s London launch back towards the end of 2016.

And here’s everything you want to know, and didn’t even realise:


Bat Out Of Hell is one of the five best-selling albums of all time and was originally written as a musical by Jim Steinman 50 years ago!

The Bat Out Of Hell creative team have between them 2 Grammy awards, 4 Olivier awards and 3 Olivier nominations, 2 Tony awards and 3 Tony nominations, 1 Emmy nomination, 2 Drama Desk awards, 15 other prestigious arts awards and an OBE!

Jim Steinman, the man behind the music, lyrics and book for the show, has been described by the LA Times as ‘the Richard Wagner of rock’, and has written and produced records that have sold more than 190 million copies worldwide.

Jon Bausor, responsible for designing the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, has masterminded the biggest set ever to be installed at the Manchester Opera House!

The orchestrator, Steve Sidwell, had to listen to every single song in the show and write out each and every note. There are over 1,000 pages of music in the show.

The show’s choreographer, 22 year old Emma Portner, has worked with Justin Bieber on his Life is Worth Living music video and Purpose World Tour.

The show’s lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe lit the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014 for a lifetime of services to the arts.

Michael Reed, the show’s musical supervisor has conducted, orchestrated and arranged credits for over twenty West End shows, five Royal Variety Shows and the Eurovision Song Contest.

The show will use 3,240 lightbulbs in 350 lights weighing in at 2.7 tonnes (the equivalent of six Harley Davidson motorbikes), to create an authentic, spectacular visual mix of rock concert and West End musical that exceeds any other show that has visited the Manchester Opera House.

194 speakers, 150 microphones and 27 computers will work to amplify the voices and band each night.

The show will use over 30km of electrical cable, which is 25 times the distance between Manchester Piccadilly Station and Manchester Opera House.

Jim Steinman has won multiple awards in his career including a Grammy and the BMI Song of the Year Award and has been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.

The show features Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf’s greatest hits including I’d Do Anything for Love, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Dead Ringer for Love, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad and (of course) Bat Out of Hell.

The show features two new Jim Steinman original songs.

It is directed by award winning opera director Jay Scheib (Guggenheim Fellowship & Obie Award for Direction).

Over the course of rehearsals, the cast and crew have consumed over 4,000 cups of tea and coffee, and in excess of 550 litres of water!

25,000 sheets of A4 paper have been used during the rehearsal process for scripts, musical scores, illustrations, drawings and countless rehearsal notes.

The cast will wear 300 pairs of shoes every night varying from platform boots and Dr Marten’s to Wellington Boots and red “New Yorker” dance shoes.

500 square feet of leather and 300 metres of dyed silk, latex rubber and sequinned fabric have been used to create the 199 costumes that the cast will wear each night.


PHEW!

Fancy seeing what all of these facts lead to on stage? Bat Out Of Hell tickets are available now through Ticketmaster.co.uk.