Review: Bat Out of Hell The Musical (Touring)

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 at Leeds Grand Theatre

⭐️⭐️⭐️

From “Bat Out of Hell” and “Dead Ringer for Love”, to “I’d do anything for love” and “It’s all coming back to me now”, Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf have some cracking hits to their names. In Bat Out of Hell, The Musical, those hits are given a pretty generous outing – with book, music and lyrics from Steinman and more than a few apparent nods to obvious influences, the show brings us a love story against a chaotic backdrop.

With strong echoes of We Will Rock You (a dystopian land; a banishment of the rock’n’rollers), Romeo and Juliet (forbidden love; besotted youths) and even Peter Pan (a gaggle of “lost” individuals who never grow up once they’ve run away), there’s a sense of familiarity to plot elements even while the plot itself… feels pretty flimsy. 

So, Katie Tomlinson is Raven, our Juliet of sorts – just 18 and not up for any more time obeying rules. Rob Fowler is Falco, Raven’s stern pops and the iron-fisted ruler of the land. Sharon Sexton is Sloane, a feisty spouse counterpart to Falco and owner of the most impressively powerful voice of the show – seriously, Sexton is gifted and blows the roof off in a stunning rendition of “What part of my body hurts the most”.

Luke Street is Strat, our amorous Romeo who has travelled the land clutching a poster of Raven, ready to conquer love. As one of the “lost”, Strat naturally has a band of lost boys and girls propping him up, with that “outcast” dynamic leading to quirky, off-centre characters. Stand-outs include Georgie Bradshaw (Zahara), Peter Camelleri (D’Essasuite), and Carly Burns (Valkyrie) – each and all elevating the show with their soaring vocals.

Yet despite such a strong cast, it remains the story and brief in-between scenes that lack real quality and depth – it all just feels a bit hollow, making the emotional ties between characters not entirely credible, despite beautifully crooned ballads. Quite frequently in fact, the stage seems chaotically populated, with random dance breaks in the background of scenes and it becomes difficult to find where we should be focusing; it might be aiming for Rock’n’Roll free spirit vibes, but it all feels a bit bamboozling.

Set and costume by Jon Bausor leaves no doubts as to setting and style, with a barren backdrop, torn garments and plenty of leather, while lighting design from Patrick Woodroffe brings all the drama to proceedings. Well, I say all but video designer Finn Ross brings a soap opera quality to the various altercations as Tom Samuels provides onstage filming throughout, which is projected on large screens – presumably aiming for a cinematic quality but not quite pulling it off thanks to the stylistic mis-match of hand-held mics, even for dialogue.

Production values are pretty high when it comes to music numbers though, with impressive pyrotechnics, confetti and relentlessly energised ensemble choreography from Xena Gusthart, all of which serve to make the many musical moments “pop” and sell the show well as a celebration of those massive hits.

Ultimately, this show prioritises hits over story, and that will be perfectly fine for some and not so much for others… Meat Loaf fans shouldn’t be disappointed given the handling of the music, but casual fans like myself might find the show as a whole entertaining and lively but not entirely fulfilling.

Bat Out of Hell is at Leeds Grand Theatre until April 26th, 2025 – more information and tickets can be found here.