Schlock 'n Roll

Confetti duty.

What do you get when you add a little too much Grease and Repo! The Genetic Opera to your Meatloaf? Something pretty close to the currently-touring Bat Out of Hell musical based on Meatloaf's trilogy of albums of the same name. The plot is a little vague: something to do with a boy stuck forever at age 18 falling in star-crossed love with the daughter of a tycoon. But no one goes to this show for the plot. You go for the Meatloaf! And the special effects! And the confetti! So much of it, in fact, that it's one stagehand's job to vacuum it all up during intermission so more can replace it later.


I caught a performance of Bat Out of Hell this summer during its run at New York City Center (sadly not on the night Meatloaf showed up). As a Meatloaf fan, it was easy to forgive the show's narrative shortcomings when the actors were totally killing Mr. Loaf's classics. They brought all the passion that the playwright left at home. Check them out below, singing the earworm-riddled title song about a rebel boy riding his steel steed all the way down into the fiery depths. Sadly this is a scaled-down version of the actual production--imagine that bike breaking into pieces at the end. Then fire! Smoke! Confetti!