Some good news and bad news for Steinman fans in the NRW region of Germany; the bad news is - Bat Out Of Hell das Musical closes this September at the Metronom Theatre, Oberhausen. The good news is - Tanz Der Vampire is opening at the same venue from October for 5 months!
More info and tickets: Tanz Der Vampire official website
Great news for Scandinavian fans of the musical Tanz Der Vampire - the first ever Scandinavian production opens in Denmark next year!
Under the name Dance Of The Vampires, the musical is due to open at Det Ny Teater, Copenhagen, Denmark : 23rd January 2020 - 19th April 2020
A musical by MICHAEL KUNZE and JIM STEINMAN
Musical Supervisor: MICHAEL REED
Orchestration: STEVE MARGOSHES
Original production: VBW
CREATIVE TEAM
Staging - DANIEL BOHR
Scenography - PAUL FARNSWORTH
Musical Director - PER ENGSTRÖM
Lighting Design - JASON TAYLOR
Sound Design - RICHARD SHARRET
Translation: KAREN HOFFMANN
CAST
Krolock - PETER JORDE
Abronius - KIM HAMMELSVANG
Chagal - JESPER ASHOLT
Rebecca - CHARLOTTE GULDBERG
Magda - JULIE STEINCKE
Koukol - HENRIK LUND
In other roles -
MONICA ISA ANDERSEN
SØREN TORPEGAARD LUND
ANDERS BILBERG
CHRISTIAN LUND
SEBASTIAN HARRIS
MARTIN LOFT
JAMES LEECE
MIKKEL HOÉ KNUDSEN
ROBERT THOMSEN
JONAS SUURBALLE CHRISTENSEN
PAUL JAMES ROONEY
LINDA OLOFSSON
LINDA FABRICIUS HULTEMARK
ANNE-METTE RIIS
ELISE JOHANNE ANDERSSON
ANASTASIA STOJKO
ANDREA ULVENSTÅL
SAMIRA ALM
More info and tickets: Det Ny Teater - Dance Of The Vampires - website
Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jim Steinman's THE DREAM ENGINE will be presented as a special event as part of Amherst College's 1969 class reunion festivities at the location where it all began, the Kirby Theater, with the Tony Award nominated director once again taking the reigns, Barry Keating.
Steinman's international chart-topping global smash hits include Meat Loaf's BAT OUT OF HELL albums as well as Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and "Holding Out For A Hero", Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em And Weep" and Barbra Streisand's "Left In The Dark" as well as memorable musical contributions to the films A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, STREETS OF FIRE and THE SHADOW. Additionally, Steinman provided the score for the international blockbuster stage musical TANZ DER VAMPIRE. Most recently, Steinman provided book, music and lyrics for the West End, Toronto and German productions of BAT OUT OF HELL: THE MUSICAL. Of note, Steinman was presented with an honorary doctorate from Amherst College in 2013.
Leading the cast of THE DREAM ENGINE will be award-winning BAT OUT HELL: THE MUSICAL headliner Andrew Polec along with TV/film notable Mimi Kennedy plus several members of the original cast including Larry Dilg and current Amherst students in keeping with the youthful themes of the epic theatrical experience. Special guests to be announced.
Directed by Keating with creative consultation by Pat Cerasaro, associate direction by Ellen Parks and music direction by Drew Wutke, the 50th anniversary presentation of THE DREAM ENGINE portends to be a once in a lifetime experience like no other. Let the revels begin!
THE DREAM ENGINE will presented on May 30 at 8PM at the Kirby Theater at Amherst College. Ticket information is available at the official site here: https://engage.amherst.edu/event/registrations/index/820.
For ONE night only, The Dream Engine returns!
For their 50th anniversary reunion, Amherst College's Class of '69 are putting on a show - scenes and songs from The Dream Engine.
Written by Songwriters Hall of Famer Jim Steinman ('69) and Tony Award Nominee Barry Keating ('69) This will be an hour and a half event celebrating the 50th year of this provocative, controversial work. Show will feature the full Historian's speech, songs with live band, scenes, professional and student performers.
Thursday, May 30th 2019 at 8pm sharp, Kirby Memorial Theater, Amherst College, Amherst, MA.
Donations will be accepted before and after the performance but they are not required. This is a free event sponsored by Amherst Class of '69.
Tickets: contact amherstdreamengine@gmail.com to reserve tickets - leave your name, phone number, and how many tickets. Seats are very limited, so do not hoard reservations and if you reserve tickets and discover that you that you will not be coming please notify the reservations email immediately and release the reservation(s.)
Bat Out Of Hell the Musical - North American tour will launch in 2019 ahead of a previously announced season at New York City Center. The production is working with everyone involved to reschedule the dates and news about the North American Tour will be announced soon.
To sign up for priority tickets for New York City Center in Summer 2019, please go to the official Bat Out Of Hell Musical website.
The 5th annual Wilma Awards took place on Sunday 4 November 2018 at the Arts Theatre in London's West End.
Congratulations to both Sharon Sexton and Danielle Steers for winning "Best Performer In A West End Show" and "Best Supporting Cast Member In A West End Show" in the Wilma Awards respectively, for their roles in the cast of Bat Out Of Hell.
Well done! These awards are thoroughly deserved!
Full results: Winners announced for the West End Wilma Awards 2018
Photo source: Rob Fowler (via Instagram)
The remainder of the North American tour of Bat Out Of Hell has been postponed. We will have new dates pending their availability.
Bat Out Of Hell das Musical opens at the Metronom Theatre in Oberhausen, Germany very soon. Previews open 2 - 7 November and booking is currently open through to the end of May 2019.
Some promotional videos, so you can hear the musicianship going into the German production:
Wo tut mir der Schmerz am meisten weh (What Part Of My Body Hurts The Most) - Willemijn Verkaik / Alex Melcher
Jetzt kommt alles zurück zu mir (It's All Coming Back To Me Now) - Robin Reitsma, Sarah Kornfeld, Willemijn Verkaik & Alex Melcher
BAT OUT OF HELL - Robin Reitsma
The North American tour has begun - in Toronto, Canada. 3 weeks at the Ed Mirvish Theatre and then on to the US!
A taste of what you'll see - here are Andrew Polec and Emily Schultheis performing a (very short version of) For Crying Out Loud on Canadian TV, shortly before the tour started.
The final show for Bat Out Of Hell at London's Dominion Theatre will be on the 5th January 2019. UK fans, and European fans who prefer to see the show in English (rather than German), time is running out for you to see the show locally. Book your tickets, see it while you can.
This is the end of a chapter, not the book… we must remember that as we give ultimate thanks to the UK cast, crew, band, management team etc. etc. that gave us Manchester and two London runs. You all have set the standard other productions will be judged by. BRAVO and THANK YOU!
The cast for the German production of has been announced, and everyone is especially hyped to see Willemijn Verkaik taking on the role of Sloane!
Eagle-eyed Tanz Der Vampire fans may also recognise a few names!
Cast for Bat Out Of Hell at Oberhausen, Germany, 2018 - 2019
MAIN CAST:
Strat .................................. Robin Reitsma
Raven ................................. Sarah Kornfeld
Sloane ............................. Willemijn Verkaik
Falco ................................... Alex Melcher
Tink ................................. Tom van der Ven
Zahara ............................... Aisata Blackman
Jagwire ............................... Benet Monteiro
Ledoux ................................. Michael Moore
Blake ............................ Lorenzo di Girolamo
KNOWN UNDERSTUDIES:
Walk In Cover Strat/Cover Ledoux - Antonio Calanna
Cover Sloane - Franziska Schuster
Cover Falco, Ensemble - Carl van Wegberg
Cover Raven, Ensemble - Maureen Mac Gillavry
Cover Raven, Ensemble - April van Amelsvoort
Cover Tink, Cover Blake, Ensemble - Sander van Wissen
REST OF ENSEMBLE:
René Becker
Jacob Fearey
Rhys George
Vinicius Gomes
Jessica Lapp
Gonzalo Campos Lopez
Masengu Kanyinda
Charlie Knight
Luca Maus
Jolijn van de Pol
Bathoni Puplampu
Anna Julia Rogers
Ida Linnéa Svanberg
Niall Swords
Bethany Terry
Karen Walker
Tarquinn Whitebooi
Exciting news for North American fans - it's your turn to be bowled over by Andrew Polec as Strat, as he switches from the London production of Bat Out Of Hell to the North American tour - for the remainder of 2018 and through 2019.
As Jim Steinman (@realjimsteinman) said in a series of tweets (1/2) to Andrew:
@andrewpolec a line from For Crying Out Loud "for giving me a child when my body is old" comes to mind as I try to find the words to thank you for unrelentingly and tirelessly giving your whole soul to @batthemusical these last few years. @AndrewPolec Another lyric "going all the way is just a start" also comes to mind as you depart London to conquer North America. Thank you my Strat, my Superstar for continuing to bring our dream @realmeatloaf to life.
Cast for Canada and USA, 2018 - 2019
MAIN CAST:
Strat ................................... Andrew Polec
Raven ............................... Emily Schultheis
Falco ................................... Bradley Dean
Sloane .................................... Lulu Lloyd
Zahara .................................. Harper Miles
Jagwire ................................. Tyrick Jones
Tink .................................. Avionce Hoyles
ENSEMBLE:
Will Branner
Samantha Pauly
Zuri Washington
Alana Randall
Erin Mosher
Emilie Battle
Kaleb Wells
Nik Alexander
Adam Kemmerer
Michael Milkanin
Lincoln Clauss
Alex Deleo
Paulina Jurzec
Nick Martinez
Tiernan Tunnicliffe
(In London, the role of Strat is being taken over by Jordan Luke Gage - who has been playing Strat as an alternate, and appeared daily as an ensemble cast member since February 2018)
The West End production of Bat Out Of Hell the Musical has been nominated in several categories for this year's West End Wilma awards.
Best Supporting Cast Member in a West End Show
Danielle Steers (Bat Out Of Hell at the Dominion Theatre)
Best West End Show
Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical (Dominion Theatre)
Best Understudy
Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky (Bat Out Of Hell at the Dominion Theatre)
Best Performer In A West End Show
Sharon Sexton (Bat Out Of Hell at the Dominion Theatre)
CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE NOMINATED! (I guess they really love Zahara and Sloane, huh?)
Public voting will open online 7 September 2018 at westendwilma.com for theatre lovers to vote for their winners.
Sunday 4 November 2018 (4-5.30pm) marks exactly five years since the first West End Wilma Awards were held at Freedom Bar, in Soho. The following years were hosted at the Hippodrome Casino and The Delfont Room. This year, a special fifth anniversary gala ceremony will be held at The Arts Theatre in London’s West End with 350 specially invited guests and this year the public can come too!
Tickets are on sale priced £20 / £25. 10% of every ticket sold will be donated to the National Autistic Society, helping to create Relaxed Performances of theatre shows, helping to make theatre accessible to all.
If you would like to attend these awards in person, tickets are available now, from here.
Bat Out Of Hell the musical have begun to officially announce North American tour info as each theatre confirms dates.
The tour kicks off in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in October 2018, then embarks on a tour around the U.S. through to Summer 2019.
Official website for the North American tour: tickets and info
The West End production of Bat Out Of Hell the Musical has extended its booking period from October 2018 through to January 5th 2019!
Official website for the London production: tickets and info
To promote the upcoming German production of Bat Out Of Hell in Oberhausen, Germany, a promotional tour of the NRW region took place, on the 26-27th July 2018.
In sweltering heat, the Bat Truck (carrying a massive portable stage), escorted by a fleet of bikers on Harley Davidson motorcycles, made their way around the NRW region - to Essen, Bochum, Oberhausen, Dortmund and Düsseldorf - over two days. Select cast members (and musical director Robert Emery) put on a free show of around 20 minutes of solid Bat Out Of Hell songs at each venue, thrilling crowds at each stop.
Full footage of each promo show is available to watch on the "Bat Out Of Hell - Das Musical" page on Facebook.
Official Website (for tickets & info)
MASSIVE NEWS! Bat Out Of Hell The Musical Original Cast Recording is now available to download / stream on iTunes, apple music, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, and direct from Ghostlight Records.
Go here for links to them all!
(You can still buy a physical copy of the CD in person from the Dominion Theatre, or online from Amazon UK.)
Digital Release – July 6th
CD Release coming soon
The award winning musical based on the classic albums releases its soundtrack
Jim Steinman’s 40 year rock n roll dream comes true
Jim Steinman - "BAT OUT OF HELL what's that? Oh yeah. I remember now, it's been a long time getting this show up and running. I couldn't be happier. And now to have the Cast Album available! I guess Rock N Roll Dreams do come Through!!!!"
Bat out of Hell - The Musical proudly releases its original cast recording, continuing the extraordinary rock n roll legacy of the some of the most successful records in music.
Written by Jim Steinman, Bat Out Of Hell became one of the best-selling albums in history, selling over 50 million copies worldwide after its 1977 release, the fourth biggest selling studio album of all time. 16 years later, Steinman scored again with Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which contained the massive hit I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). The story of the original album is as epic as its music, involving a long search for a record label that would release such an ambitious album, finding a combustible young singer called Meat Loaf capable of singing the high octane songs and ultimately scoring a huge hit against the odds. But the album was also originally written as a musical by Steinman, making this cast recording the realisation of his 40 year dream.
One of the songs was written while Steinman was an undergraduate at Amherst College in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, Steinman wrote a theatrical musical that was presented in workshop in Washington D.C. in 1974 and featured many of the songs that would ultimately appear on the Bat Out Of Hell album Unique to such a challenging album, new and incredibly talented performers were required to recreate and reimagine Steinman’s opus.
The results are stunning, with incredible performances by a young cast, headed by Andrew Polec as Strat, Christina Bennington as Raven and vocal powerhouse Danielle Steers as Zahara. Favourites including Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad, Paradise By Dashboard Light, You Took The Word Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) and Dead Ringer For Love are brought to life alongside Bat Out Of Hell and I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).
There are also two previously unreleased songs that appear in the musical - What Part of My Body Hurts the Most and Not Allowed to Love. The winner of the Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical 2017, Bat out of Hell – The Musical wowed critics and public alike when it played limited seasons at Manchester Opera House, London Coliseum and Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre in 2017, and has been seen by nearly 500,000 people to date. It began previews at London’s Dominion Theatre on Monday 2 April and is currently booking to 27 October 2018. Jim Steinman’s Bat out of Hell – The Musical is a romantic adventure about rebellious youth and passionate love, set against the backdrop of a post-cataclysmic city adrift from the mainland. Strat, the forever young leader of The Lost, has fallen for Raven, daughter of Falco, the tyrannical, ruler of Obsidian.
Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical has book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman, direction by Jay Scheib, choreography by Emma Portner, with musical supervision and additional arrangements by Michael Reed, set design by Jon Bausor, costume design by Jon Bausor and Meentje Nielsen, video design by Finn Ross, lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe, sound design by Gareth Owen, orchestration by Steve Sidwell, casting by David Grindrod CDG, fight direction by Stuart Boother and musical direction by Robert Emery. The German language premier of the exceptional rock spectacle, will be held at the Stage Metronom Theatre, Oberhasuen, Germany in November 2018. Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical is produced by David Sonenberg, Michael Cohl, Randy Lennox & Tony Smith.
Bat Out Of Hell The Musical opens at the Stage Metronom Theater Oberhausen, in November 2018. Tickets are on sale now!
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical is proud to be partnering with the Invictus Games Foundation, the governing body of the Invictus Games.
As part of the year-long sponsorship partnership, the musical has made an initial financial contribution to assist the foundation in its transformational work on behalf of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans.
To launch the partnership, an exclusive charity gala performance of Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical will be held for Invictus Games competitors. This also includes hundreds of tickets being made for veterans and their families to see the show – including transport funds for those outside of London – and private tours, family theatre workshops and a special employment programme to assist wounded, injured or sick serving or ex-service personnel interested in careers in theatre.
For more details, read here on the Invictus Games Foundation website, or here to read a BBC news article about it.
If the announcement video above isn't working, or you'd just like a copy to keep, feel free to download it here
Jim spent a long time trying to think of an opening night gift that would be both meaningful and in keeping with Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical. As we brainstormed I recalled a long interview Jim gave in 2003 for an Ultimate Albums special on VH1. He spoke for nearly four hours but they only used a small clip on TV. As a "thank you" for having helped them source material, the producer gave us a copy on VHS tape to use in a non-commercial way sometime in the future. We hadn't, up until a couple of weeks ago, ever transferred the tape to disc. When we watched it back we knew we had the opening night gift in our hands. Jim titled it "The Lost…Interview" and I added "Words by Jim Steinman" as a twist on his iconic album credit.
Anyone even remotely interested in Bat Out Of Hell, Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf, the music industry, songs, art, culture, life or love should be thrilled with this. Jim's mind is a rare and beautiful thing and he speaks openly on many topics you, the London cast of Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical, will be familiar with: the jugular nature of love, the importance of making people feel the extremes, the joy of "going over the top" and how Obsidian and The Lost came to be. You'll also hear about how Jim's genius, Meat Loaf's enormous talent and David Sonenberg's unwavering belief all worked together to breath life into the vision you all, so superbly, recreate nightly.
Jim always says this album "belongs to everyone." That's true but it needs a conduit and you are it's lifeline. You are now the jugular vein from which both young and old hearts feed.
Jim asked that I "thank them all without naming names. Everyone is important and I needed them all for it to work."
No life is the same after "Songs by Jim Steinman" and no life is the same after seeing Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical. You are part of a continuum that started in Jim's mind as a teenager and will outlive us all. Bat Out Of Hell lives wherever love lives, wherever youth lives and wherever passion rules.
Congratulations to each of you individually but especially, all of you together.
Godspeed & Peace to You