Bat out of Hell at Peacock Theatre

Just because I go to places like Glyndebourne does not mean that I avoid more overtly commercial shows and Bat out of Hell at a lot to recommend it. I bought, and liked, the album when it first came out and this production had the cache of the Sadler's Wells brand which implied some respectable dancing.

Peacock Theatre, Sadler's Wells' young mischievous sibling, is pretty well hidden on Kingsway and is one of those confusing theatres where you enter at ground level and go downstairs to the auditorium. In my case it was only as far down as Dress Circle Row A to Seat 30 for which I had paid £55 

Bat out of Hell is what is now called a Jukebox Musical in that the songs are all popular songs put into a musical rather than songs written specifically for that musical; they story is built around the songs.

Obviously that restricts the story but Bat out of Hell does pretty well in crafting a story out of bombastic lyrics. There is a fairly predictable boy meets girl from the other side of the tracks story at the centre and this is nicely enriched with another two love stories.

A consequence of having several leading characters is that the singing duties are spread fairly widely and that was a good thing as that provided some welcome variety and also they could all sing pretty well.

There was lots of pretty good dancing too. It was all ensemble dancing with a lot of different movement going on across the stage.

And then there were the songs. In some way going for such a limited source of material but it was a fair source and the production did a good job in spreading the more famous ones throughout the show, ending with a raucous rendition of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" during which all the plot threads were neatly closed.

Bat out of Hell is still not really my sort of show but just once in a while it is good to see something light, exuberant and fun, and it certainly was.