Highlight  Bat Out of Hell.

We had a quiet morning helping with the ivy clearance. With the cats going to Italy tomorrow, Jane and Ian were keen to clear the wall fully for the builder and also to start on a full clearance. I did some blogging then helped bag up the 5 bags of ivy which is all the garden waste they can have for a week.

After a lunch of leftovers, we tubed into Tottenham Court Road and found the Dominion Theatre at one of the exits. This gave us time to walk to one cache but it was too cold to go any further.

Today’s first treat was the ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ show, which I had thought was finished in London. It proved to have recently reopened.

Bat Out of Hell is a rock musical written by Jim Steinman based on the album. Steinman wrote all of the songs, most of which are songs from the Bat Out of Hell trilogy of albums by Meat Loaf including Bat Out of Hell, II: Back into Hell and III: The Monster is Loose. The musical is a loose retelling of Peter Pan and Wendy, set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan (now named "Obsidian"), and follows Strat, the forever young leader of The Lost who has fallen in love with Raven, daughter of Falco, the tyrannical ruler of Obsidian.

Some familiar names

The musical premiered in Manchester and ran there for 2 months. It opened in London on June 5, 2017 and ran there until August 22, 2017 before moving to Toronto, Canada, from October 14, to January 7, 2018. The musical returned to London at the Dominion Theatre in April 2018.

The story line was trite but the production was well done with some spectacular scenes. As a fan of the three albums I really enjoyed it but John’s main comment was that it was loud, but he enjoyed the music also.

We had the cheapest seats here, and discounted as well, but they were OK. We were at the back but could see it all. Some people moved just before the lights went down, we presumed to get better seats. The 4 people in front of us either left at the interval or relocated so our view in the second half was even better. The people behind us were planning a revisit.

The request was to not sing along except for the finale. The staff were watching and someone enthusiastically waving her arms in front of us was signalled to put them down. Fair call.

We tubed back and put on warmer clothes before we all went to the Bluebird (Donald Campbell’s race car) for tea. This is a second restaurant with that name that has opened where the TV studios were. We gather some parts are still used but the site is being downsized and the main part may be turned into apartments. The venue did not really reflect the bluebird car although there were 2 birdcage seats in the front. We choose a booth for warmth and enjoyed our 40% reduction off the meal, thanks to Jane having postman cards. We assume the locals got them by post to encourage them to try the restaurant. The squid starter we all shared was a favourite and Jane commented it would make a nice snack with a wine when they went to the nearby library.

On our return we found Katherine has to tweak her accommodation plans so we sorted out where bedding etc is for the sofa bed in preparation for her staying from Sunday. Then, while Jane and Ian finalised their trip preparations, we did the same for our drive over the next 4 days, and then we were off to bed.