Since it opened at the Coliseum in 2017 the rock musical BAT OUT OF HELL, featuring songs made famous by Meatloaf has firmly established itself as a West End favourite. Now in its new and I imagine long-time home, the massive Dominion Theatre, it seems bedded in for a significant run.
Jordan Luke Gage will be taking on the lead role of Strat from 3 September
Unusually for a rock show that’s so popular with audiences, it also found favour with critics too, most of whom are of an age and demographic who felt nostalgic for the Meatloaf hits of their youth. One of the most admired elements of the show was the performance by Andrew Polec as the lead character, Strat, an outlaw teen who steals rich kid, Raven, away from her wealthy family into a dystopian underworld, oppressed by her father.
It’s no surprise then that the producers have plucked Polec from the West End production to head a tour of North America, BOOH has already been a massive hit in Canada when the London cast played a run in Toronto.
He’ll be a hard act to follow at the Dominion but it’s been announced that Jordan Luke Gage, who’s been alternating the role with Polec for sometime, will move up to claim the part as his own. I haven’t seen Gage’s performance yet but I did catch the alternate Strat, Simon Gordon, in action and was very impressed.
Scrawny and limber, there’s a heroin chic about his rock star swagger that makes him both dangerous and vulnerable. Combine this with his soaring vocals and it’s a blisteringly good performance. He also has great chemistry with Christina Bennington as the object of his forbidden love which is perhaps surprising given the clear bond she’s clearly had with Polec since the show was launched. She has an amazing, exhilarating, effortless rock voice too. I directed her in one of her last leading roles and she’s an unusually warm, intelligent and hard working performer who deserves every moment of the adulation the role of Raven has brought her.
BAT OUT OF HELL, isn’t a great musical, the songs, often sung by characters we’ve no investment in, seldom advance the plot, and if you’re not a fan of composer, lyricist Steinman or aren’t familiar with his work they all sound similar. However it is a GREAT juke box musical. The futuristic, Blade Runner-like concept, the twisted Peter Pan plot, the set, lighting, sound and performances are all beautifully conceived to embody the American Gothic spirit of the mega-selling BAT OUT OF HELL albums just as successfully as the MAMMA MIA Greek holiday concept suits the songs of ABBA.
Visually it’s probably one of the most spectacular productions in London at the moment with some eye popping special effects and rock concert sound levels. Combine that with anthemic, stadium size songs like "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad", "You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth" and "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" and you have a musical which pins you to your seat.
If the new lead, Jordan Luke Cage, is as good as Simon Gordon, and why wouldn’t he be?, BAT OUT OF HELL is going to be thrilling West End audiences for a long time to come.
Congratulations too, to Associate Director, Nick Evans and General Manager, Julian Stoneman (who I’ve worked with) for keeping the show in top shape over a year into its run and long after the original creative team have left.
Book with confidence if you’re a stadium rock fan!
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