Jim Steinman’s rock-infused masterpiece storms back to Manchester with Glenn Adamson and an electrifying cast. In his latest ‘Break-a-leg’ column, Ian Cheeseman talks about an exhilarating theatrical experience
Bat out of Hell: the Musical premiered at Manchester’s Opera House on February 17, 2017 (where else) and is a juke box musical using the songs of Jim Steinman, which are familiar to all rock fans through the albums of Meatloaf.
Believe it or not, the story is based on Peter Pan and Steinman’s original working title for the show was Neverland.
There have been versions of the show in the West End, on Broadway, in Canada, Germany and all over the UK and USA on tour. I’ve seen it several times and it’s one of my favourites, particularly with Glenn Adamson as the lead character Strat, who is basically the lost boy Peter.
The story is set in post apocalyptic Manhatten, which has been renamed Obsidian. The ever youthful Strat falls in love with Raven, the daughter of the tyrannical leader of Obsidian, Falco.

The original version of the Musical was cleverly staged on a set that depicted the ghetto and Raven’s bedroom and my son found the futuristic nature of the story a bit hard to comprehend, on first viewing, but though he wasn’t as familiar with the music as I was, he was desperate to go and see it again, as soon as possible.
The music and the performances by Glenn Adamson, and the real life husband team Rob Fowler and Sharon Sexton, who play Falco his on stage wife Sloane, blew him away. As a family, we’ve become such big fans of Adamson that we did a day trip down to the West End to see him in a solo concert at the intimate “Crazy Coqs”, which was brilliant. In my opinion, he’s a genuine Rock Star in his own right. His energy and commitment to the role of Strat has to be seen to be believed.
I had the chance to interview him for my radio show, Break-a-Leg, during which I asked him how he could perform, so consistently, night after night, “That’s what motivates me the most. It’s a role that allows me to take it to the extreme every night and of course it’s a great work out too. I love the show because it allows me to constantly challenge myself to push my self more and more.
These songs have been done so well before and everyone knows that Meatloaf’s voice was incredible, but the director told me that the only way we can impress the audience is to push it to the physical limit. He wondered if we can sing it while exhausted as we perform or when jumping off a bike through fire, but that’s exactly what we do.
“Once Jay Scheib, the director, was happy with what I was doing he suggested we push it even more, to the extent where I wrap the microphone lead around my neck eight times while I sing Bat out of Hell and then catch the microphone. While the show has been resting I’ve missed pushing myself to the limit and coming off stage drenched in sweat and that’s why I can’t wait for this tour during 2025.”
There’s no doubt that Glenn Adamson is something very special, but then so are Rob Fowler and Sharon Sexton. I also spoke to Rob Fowler for my radio show, at the time he was in another Jim Steinman show, Tanz der Vampire, which ran last year in Hamburg. In Bat Out of Hell, Fowler & Sexton have a brilliant on stage chemistry, as you might expect and their vocals are stunning.
Ironically Fowler started his working life as a car mechanic, restoring Formula One cars, “It was basically a death in the family that pushed me towards theatre, as a form of escapism. Since then I’ve sustained a thirty year career in this profession which makes me very proud. When I started being interested in Formula One and Motor Bikes, in my early teenage years, I loved taking them apart and seeing how they worked.
“To be in the theatre I think you have to be a bit eccentric. As a gemini, I’m aware that we seem to attract a lot of drama to us. We like to be centre stage and I’m also a middle child which I think gives you elbows and a demand to be looked at and noticed. I read a quote the other day by the Spanish Academy Award winning actor Javier Bardem that said, Being an Actor is a privilege because we are allowed, we are forced, we are encouraged to see the World through other people’s eyes. That’s so true.
“Once I get my helmet on and ride my motor bike and hear the roar of the engine and feel the elements of nature, I feel I can decompress all those other personalities that I’ve had to live through during my time on stage.”
The 2025 version of Bat out of Hell: The Musical has been described as theatrically stripped back but a cast that includes Glenn Adamson, Rob Fowler & Sharon Sexton guarantees as near perfection as I can imagine, for such a musically brilliant show, I can’t wait to see it again.
It’ll be in Manchester from February 24 to March 8 at the Palace Theatre and touring the UK throughout 2025, I can’t recommend it highly enough.