I saw Bat Out of Hell four times at the Manchester Palace, Coliseum and the Dominion Theatre and was blown away by the energy and power of the cast. So it was an absolute pleasure to see Sharon Sexton and Rob Fowler create a cast reunion at The Other Palace, for a full blown Jim Steinman Cabaret with a three piece band and a host of guests from the cast of the show.
In front of an adoring and participative audience, the show was an opportunity to plug a worthwhile cause in Movember Foundation (male suicide and prostate cancer) for which Sharon and Rob have released a single of “My love, my life” which can be downloaded from CDbaby.com.
After a jolly “Me and my Shadow” opening, Rob and Sharon often took a back seat to give centre stage to a cast of ten former members of Bat Out of Hell. They demonstrated what a phenomenally talented group of artistes they are as they belted out the hits from the show. In addition, Rob’s daughter joined them to charmingly play young Raven, and then profiled lovely Emma Mullen, who joins them soon in the Mamma Mia international tour.
The basic structure of the show was based on how they created the back story for their characters, Falco and Sloan during rehearsal. Erin Ong had produced some delightful simple but effective pencil drawings to illustrate how they met and the death of his father, Lord Falco.
However it was the music that made the show irresistible with a three piece band of Steve Corley on keyboards , John Gregson on guitar and Nerys Richards on cello that gave such a gorgeous rich backing to the singers.
It almost seems unfair to pick out highlights from the fabulous show but Georgia Carling was wonderful recreating Raven and being pursued by a hoard of Strats (Simon Gordon, Ben Purkiss, Ruben Van Kerr and Barney Wilkinson). Hannah Ducharme did an excellent version of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and Stuart Boother got a standing ovation for “Nessum Dorma” .
Even Danielle Steers got in on the act via a phone link before going on stage for the final performance of Bat Out Of Hell on Broadway . Sharon did a charming version of “She Used To Be Mine” from Waitress. Of course the show would not be complete without a great Bat Out Of Hell sing-a-long.
Rob and Sharon have put this show together and it is a joy to see – they both have great stage presence and know how to sell a song as well as looking fabulous together. But the abiding memory is the celebratory nature of the cast together and you hope it will not be too long before we will see them all on the West End stage again.
Reviewed by Nick Wayne
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