Sunday 11 November 2018

Me and Musicals

Most Alabama guys are lucky in their life to have avoided any attendance at musicals or operas.....that's my humble opinion.  I've been more or less dragged off to five musicals in my life, which two were probably worth the effort, and the rest were something 'less than enjoyable'. 

So this past weekend, I ended up at the another musical.  The catch here, which I felt real positive about....this was 'Bat Out of Hell', which was supposed to feature a lot of Meatloaf's music (from the late 1970s).  It's a memorable album, which I tend to rate as one of the ten best albums overall to listen to. 

My wife and I showed up in Gelsenkirchen (2.5 hours north of the house) and had a whole weekend planned out of this. 

The musical?  It was basically a bastardization effort and they used maybe five or six of his tunes, then threw in some tunes for the musical to work.  Their background story?  Destruction of the Earth, a bunch of young punks, some romance between teens, some fighting with the authorities, and then some wrap-up.....with this Meatloaf music in the background.  I know.....it's pretty weird.

If they'd just come out and done twelve to fourteen of his tunes with no theatrics or jumping around....it would have been a fine show.  But they just couldn't do that. 

The audience?  Well....Saturday evening and only three-quarters of the seats filled.  Probably at least a hundred seats empty. 

Not to complain or nothing, but if you spoke up about some opera business in Alabama, it means you'd be going off to Nashville, and attending the Grand Ole Oprey, with some five-star tunes.  Here?  It's mostly some kind of tale over woes, marginal music, and a bunch of skipping around the stage. 

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