Rocker Meat Loaf's 1977 breakthrough album "Bat Out Of Hell" has inspired a passionate love story for the stage, fusing the classic catalog of songs with some previously unreleased music.
"Jim Steinman's Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical" will open at the Coliseum in London's West End on June 20, 2017 and run for a limited month-long engagement. On Thursday, Meat Loaf, 69, and the cast offered a preview to an audience in the British capital with an outdoor performance.
The stage musical is a tale of youth, love and rebellion, set in a dystopian city. The lead character is the head of a gang and falls in love with the daughter of a tyrannical ruler.
About a hundred people packed St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden to catch a glimpse of the live renditions of the record's famous songs, while a dozen or so Harley-Davidson bikers revved their engines in support.
American musician Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, told Reuters that it was lyricist and composer Steinman's idea to open the musical in London instead of New York, because he felt music played a more integral role among the British audience.
"He felt the people in London and in Europe ... relied still on music to be part of their lives, where America really doesn't. You used to mark time, events in your life, by music that was playing," the Grammy-winning rocker said.
"Bat Out of Hell" became one of the best-selling albums in history, with hit singles such as "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth" and "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad."
The musical will also include Meat Loaf's 1993 hit song "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)," as well as two previously unreleased songs, "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most" and "Not Allowed to Love."
