“Is nothing sacred anymore?” to quote one of many lyrics from Jim Steinman (1947-2021), who coined the term ‘Wagnerian rock’, to denote a combination of his style of rock songs and the style of the operas of nineteenth century composer Richard Wagner. If the fans and followers of Taylor Swift love her ten-minute version of ‘All Too Well’, Steinman’s songs, performed in full, are more often than not considerably longer than most chart music tunes. Even the song titles are longer than almost everyone else’s – take, for instance, ‘Life Is A Lemon and I Want My Money Back’ and ‘Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are’. Steinman’s most well-known collaborations were with Meat Loaf (1947-2022), though this one-off concert did very well to showcase songs from outside Meat’s canon.
To return to the question I started with, upcoming productions at the London Coliseum include Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, performed by the State Ballet of Georgia and English National Ballet respectively. So this might be an unusual choice of venue for an adult contemporary / pop / musical theatre / Wagnerian rock concert. Then again, the resident show at the time of writing is a production of the Cyndi Lauper musical Kinky Boots. And in the summer of 2017, after a run at the Manchester Opera House (which, despite its name, these days stages almost everything except opera – musicals, plays, concerts, ballet and a seasonal pantomime), Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell the Musical, as it was called then, played at the Coliseum. One of the Coliseum’s ushers loved it so much she even applied to join the team at the Dominion Theatre after the show confirmed a second London run in 2018 there, and the barman who served your reviewer in the interval at this concert remembered how good the 2017 production was.
In 2004, Bat Out of Hell: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was released, containing live performances of all of the songs from the 1977 album Bat Out of Hell (amongst other tunes). It is not as if bringing together Steinman’s music and a live orchestra hasn’t been done before. Curiously, this concert seemed to assume everyone already had knowledge of Jim Steinman’s life and work – a reasonable assumption, perhaps, given, for instance, Steinman’s music and English lyrics for the German-language musical Tanz der Vampire (that is, Dance of the Vampires), and his collaboration on the musical Whistle Down The Wind with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Still, it was odd not to have been reminded of Steinman’s major achievements, either in the show itself, or otherwise in a feature length article in the show’s programme, which doesn’t even have a picture of Steinman in it, let alone a dedication to him, let alone a timeline.
I would have liked to have understood better the connections (if any!) the various soloists had with Jim Steinman’s music. I don’t mean those soppy and sentimental ‘what this song means to me’ testimonials. The audience didn’t hear much from the cast, other than the songs they were billed to perform. The programme’s biography for Karine Hannah ends with: “her on stage banter is humorous, bawdy, and electrifying”. What a missed opportunity to treat the audience to some of that! I get it – Steinman’s lyrics and music are strong enough to speak, or rather sing, for themselves, without embellishment. But aside from the occasional breaking of ranks to communicate with the audience directly, an unnecessary distancing effect, enhanced by the sheer size of the orchestra pit at the Coliseum (the Orchestra of English National Opera (ENO) was on stage for this concert), was created.
Not everyone was familiar with every tune, and it was great to hear some lesser-known works alongside familiar classics. Part of me wonders whether the Chorus of ENO would have been more appropriate to accompany its Orchestra – at least from my vantage point, not every lyric could be heard clearly. Trying to listen to ‘Dead Ringer For Love’ performed live, to be fair, is a bit like trying to work out the lyrics to ‘Rule, Britannia!’ – it just somehow gets less decipherable as it goes along. Perhaps it barely matters when most of the audience knows the song anyway.
The strongest performances came from the aforementioned Hannah, whose rendering of the title number of the show, closing out proceedings, was sublime, and from Danielle Steers, singing ‘The Catwoman’s Song’ from Steinman’s Batman: The Musical, a show which never got off the ground in the end, perhaps because the Broadway run of his Dance of the Vampires was short-lived. Red closed out the first half with ‘Holding Out For A Hero’, while Zoe Birkett had fun duetting with Glenn Adamson on ‘I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’. Tyce Green did a very polished rendering of ‘Bat Out of Hell’, markedly different from Meat Loaf’s signature intensity but nonetheless quite spectacular.
Damon Oliver on the saxophone was excellent, with solo parts in ‘Good Girls Go To Heaven’ and ‘Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through’. It is nothing short of remarkable that with the might of the Orchestra of ENO on stage, a real highlight of the evening’s proceedings was a piano solo medley played by Rob Barron. With no notes in the programme from the director or the production team, it is unclear precisely why Total Eclipse was brought to the London stage now, or what future plans, if any, are in place. I’d see it all again, and judging by the audience’s reaction at curtain call, I very much doubt I’m in a minority of one. An eclectic, enjoyable and effervescent experience.
Review by Chris Omaweng
A one-night gala event celebrating the work of Jim Steinman. Steinman wrote songs built for scale: dramatic, relentless, and unapologetically theatrical. Total Eclipse is a new orchestral concert bringing his greatest hits catalogue to the London Coliseum in a full symphonic and rock hybrid, with the Orchestra of ENO on the iconic Coliseum stage, fused with a live rock band.
ACT ONE
Overture, based on ‘The Storm’ (Bad For Good, Jim Steinman album, 1981)
Bad For Good from Bad For Good
Good Girls Go To Heaven from Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (Meat Loaf album, 1993)
Safe Sex from Original Sin (Pandora’s Box album, 1989)
Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young from Streets of Fire: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1984) / Dead Ringer For Love from Dead Ringer (Meat Loaf album, 1981)
Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through from Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell
The Catwoman’s Song from Batman: The Musical (unproduced)
Making Love Out of Nothing At All from Greatest Hits (Air Supply album, 1983)
Holding Out For A Hero from Footloose: Original Soundtrack of the Paramount Motion Picture (1984)
ACT TWO
Entr’acte, based on ‘Great Boleros of Fire’ (instrumental version of ‘Gods’ from the musical Neverland (1977), full version as ‘Godz’ on the Meat Loaf album Braver Than We Are, 2016)
Bat Out of Hell from Bat Out of Hell (Meat Loaf album, 1977)
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad from Bat Out of Hell
Paradise by the Dashboard Light from Bat Out of Hell
Ravishing from Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire (Bonnie Tyler album, 1986)
Pray Lewd (piano solo medley of ‘Original Sin’, ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’ and ‘It Just Won’t Quit’) from Original Sin
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now from Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose (Meat Loaf album, 2006)
I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) from Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell
Braver Than We Are from Hero (Tyce Green album, 2017)
Total Eclipse of the Heart from Faster Than The Speed of Night (Bonnie Tyler album, 1983)
Cast: Glenn Adamson, Christina Bianco, Zoe Birkett, Tyce Green, Karine Hannah, Natalie May Paris, Red, Danielle Steers, Robbie Waugh, Grant Zavitkovsky
Backing Vocals (for Capital Voices): Annie Skates, Katie Birtill, Sumudu Jayatilaka, Steve Torwell, David Combes, Lance Ellington
The Orchestra of English National Opera, conducted by Jack Bennett
Director – Christopher D. Clegg
Sound Designer – Harry Greatorex
Lighting Designer – Jack Weir
New Arrangements and Orchestrations – Jack Bennett, Andrew Jones and Will Parker
TOTAL ECLIPSE
London Coliseum
3 May 2026
