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Backstage Tour of BAT OUT OF HELL
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Nov 2, 2022
We got a backstage tour of hit West End musical Bat out of Hell by current cast members Rob Fowler and Sharon Sexton. Find out their pre-show rituals and get a sneak peek at all of the rock 'n' roll that happens backstage to make every show happen. Watch the video below!
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Rob Fowler, I'm playing Falco in Bat Out of Hell. This is my humble abode
0:07
There's a bit of Falco memorabilia around the room, but more importantly, next door is the wonderful Sharon Sexton
0:15
Let's go and get her. She's always late. Look at me! Ready
0:24
You can't come in here because it's too messy. Right. Let's go
0:28
the stage. Blair, which style? Yeah. You go, I'm Sharon. I play Sloane, Bad and Pearl
0:35
And this is our walk down to the stage. At least ten times during the show we have to
0:41
do this up and down walk, which it seems quite nice going down, but... Not so nice going
0:49
up. Yeah, not so nice going up. Right, so we go to the stage right. Yep, stage right to the
0:54
Quick change area, stage left, to basically the water power room, another way onto stage
1:01
Neither of us really hang out here too much because we... Because all our quick changes are so fast, we have to do side stage
1:08
Yeah, but this is where all the fun happens. This is wham! This is where everybody gets their wigs prepped, changed
1:17
So this is, if I'm correct, I don't normally come in here, well never
1:21
This is the girls quick change area. It's actually quite tidy for girls. Am I allowed to say that? And this is Sharon wearing a militia homie
1:32
This is Rob wearing a slum costume. Right, what do we have? We have a lot of..
1:37
This is our CO2. There's so many special effects in the show, which we won't go into
1:43
but if you look at carbon dioxide and the amount of stuff that's here, you kind of get the idea
1:48
there's a lot of CO2 pushed out from under the stage and explosions and special effects
1:55
It's kind of like you meet a Marvel movie with musical theatre
1:59
because you've got this kind of world that joins to a, how do you say, a make-believe world
2:07
Neverland. So here we are, we have the militia outfits, mother helmets and gloves
2:11
These are so hot. I'd really feel for our ensemble, especially during the summer when we get really hot in London
2:16
because as you can see that's the jackets and stuff here so all of these they're really heavy
2:22
and the guys do the most amazing routines in that stuff yeah by hot she means um heated up not sexy
2:30
i get a sexy clothes hello my name is sharon sexton and i play sloan in bat out of hell
2:36
my name is rob fowler and i play falco her husband in bat out of hell sloan falco falco
2:44
We were there from the beginning of the creation of this version of the show
2:50
I mean, Jim wrote it apparently over 40 years ago, and it's been through many roller coasters of writing and rewriting
2:59
and yeah when we started in 2016 we were given a book and told that this is going to be the show
3:10
that's going to Manchester Opera House yeah and since then we create we I think we can kind of say
3:17
now that we've been running it for like over a year and a bit that we have created the kind of
3:22
Yeah, we created these roles with the aid of our director, Jay Scheidt, and that's what you see today on stage in the Dominion Theatre
3:31
I think they've been very clever, actually, the producers and stuff with this company, about letting it grow
3:37
And because the music is so important to people and because there was so much history behind the script
3:42
they really gave us time to play and to change things around and to edit the script
3:48
And it kind of developed a cult following already so by the time it gotten to London and it feels like it grown up quite a lot yeah yeah it definitely settled yeah big time and it not that things become safer they just become more concrete and deeper and more layered and
4:03
exactly you know i mean we've gone through so many changes we've always had this amazing set but there's so many little details that we've
4:09
put in like ourselves as well throughout the touring versions like Rob's bat, which he designed himself pretty much, and our costumes
4:18
Yeah, my character has a baseball bat during the show at one point, and we were allowed
4:23
quite a bit of input in costume, not design of the costume, but the little details, the
4:29
attention to detail, we were allowed a lot of input in. Yeah. And I feel that the characters also consist of our CVs
4:39
So if you looked at the CVs of the actors that are playing any character in Bat Out of Hell
4:44
you could go, oh, they played Sweeney Todd, or they played whatever it may be
4:50
There's a bit of, you invest so much of yourself every night into a role
4:55
And that sometimes is, it goes unwritten, unsaid in musical theatre world
5:02
They just think you're coming on stage and you're saying a few words and singing a few songs, but you give a bit of yourself
5:06
Yeah, especially when you make it. You said everything the other day, actually, because we were actually talking to some people who are currently in castings for other productions of this tour, of this show, because the show is probably, I would imagine, can go worldwide
5:19
But they were asking about us creating the roles and stuff. And you're going, you said a palette
5:23
And that's exactly what it is. It's like you take the bits of you that you know work and you try and put it into something and create it, like the Nancy's or the Liza's or the other bits and pieces that I've done
5:33
And that makes it a joy to actually go out and play every night because you're playing to your strengths because you've made it
5:39
And I think that's for every character in this show. So much of themselves are in it. It comes across
5:44
We've really kind of bonded as a family. And I think that absolutely shows on stage
5:50
We rock the Dominion every night. We have near on 40 people in the cast
5:55
Do we? I think it used to be 39. Yeah. What I love about this show is that every single character has a name
6:02
and all of our ensemble, these costumes are so created to the roles that they play
6:10
and that's what I mean about the show developing. Exactly, we have names from Denham to Liebeshoosh
6:15
I can't say half of them. Many changes, not only to the show via the book
6:21
but costumes, set being more eccentric. The whole plot, actually. we've actually kind of moved scenes around and changed the order of certain things yeah numbers
6:35
have been cut other numbers have been replaced them and you know it's it's all to make the piece
6:41
stronger i think it's probably in the strongest position that it was now but i don't think that
6:45
they'll ever finish creating it because what do they say about musicals they're not written there
6:49
rewritten welcome i don't know whose room this is have you any idea whose room we're in i mean
6:55
who could possibly be here? Oh. Just a little bit of memory
7:01
Welcome back to my dressing room. And we were talking about the
7:06
basically the stamina you need to get through an eight show a week
7:12
Yes, the obstacle course that is itself, bad out of hell. Yeah. Yeah, it's a very high energy show
7:16
You can see from the moment the show kicks off, it's like, it doesn't stop
7:22
And working on a rake stage, you know, is it also can take its toll on your stamina
7:27
because it's a different body positioning. But it's hard when you have your blood pumping
7:32
and that adrenaline in you and you're listening to that level of rock and roll music and you're singing these songs
7:36
you kind of forget about it and you just give it everything and then you come off afterwards and you're like
7:40
oh my gosh I been to war So and it does feel like that especially for us for Paradise for the Dashboard Light which is probably the most exhausting thing that I have to do because it like an eight song and it a marathon
7:54
With it being such a, I mean, like most of Jim's songs, so iconic
7:58
You have to be so on point vocally, but we're doing such a physical routine
8:04
for anybody that's not seen the show so far. this scene and not only because we're in it is definitely worth a gander it's a it's a it's
8:14
one of the many highlights of the show yeah it's incredible but then you have to do land
8:19
at the peak as well which is all yeah it's a bit more like a a rock anthem so it's um but he's
8:25
climbing cages climbing rocks climbing terrors jumping all over the place and it's that kind
8:29
of thing where you set it and you create it and you want it to be the best it can possibly be in
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the rehearsal room and then afterwards you go, what did I do that for? I have to do that
8:38
eight shows a week. Oh yeah. So you set yourself that challenge. You do it
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Yep. I think once it's in your body, you find your limitations and you can make everything
8:50
look how it needs to look. Funny thing about this set though, which I thought was really good that our stage manager
8:56
said to us and to particularly the new people who've joined the company this year, is that
9:01
your backstage track is just as important as your onstage track because especially there's so much
9:07
um there is danger with this set as well because there's so many steps and you know moving parts
9:12
yeah exactly and you know this it's so it is kind of that thing of we all have our routine
9:18
of where we are at certain points and then you know if you meet somebody during the show that
9:23
you don't usually meet that one of you is in the wrong place exactly and because there's so many
9:27
magical special effects in Bat Out of Hell. It's got elements of the Harry Potter magic
9:34
and it really does make the audience gasp at a couple of times in the show where they
9:39
will be talking about how did that happen during the whole intermission. So there's
9:44
and all that. With that going on on stage, that means there's a lot going on backstage
9:48
to make that happen. Yeah, so it's very busy. I think that's what makes this show so unique because it's opened the door for so many other
9:57
people who don't usually come to musical theatre, whereas for a lot of people who are into rock
10:01
music or who have been fans of Meet Love or Jim and followed their work, for so many of
10:06
them this is their first time actually coming to see a piece of theatre and you hear an
10:10
awful lot of our fans who have now gone on to go, oh this is what musical theatre is
10:15
who have gone on to experience the shows in the West End, so it's a great door opener I think, this show
10:20
Yeah I think the fan following from Bat Out of L is so special because it's also introducing
10:29
both worlds of musical theatre together because you've got, like Sharon said, you've got the
10:35
rockers and the... I would basically put it down in a smaller sentence to say that it
10:43
gives the mid 50s, 60 year olds that taste of their wasted youth
10:49
Yeah, that nostalgia. Yeah, and that's what they do. And they bring their kids and the kids probably are like
10:54
oh, I don't know Meat Loaf. And then afterwards, the music from Jim Simon is so timeless
11:00
that the kids, the 18 year olds, they can relate to the Stratton Raven characters
11:06
The parents relate to this dysfunctional marriage. And it's enough for everybody
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And that's why I think Bat Out of Elk can speak to so many different age groups
11:17
Because it's joining different fan clubs. It's joining different age groups. It's bringing characters for everybody to identify with
11:25
It's not a jukebox musical. And that's what we want to get away from
11:30
There's nothing against jukebox musicals. But this is not a jukebox musical It a story with music from Jim Steinem A lot of people have said especially from the launch in the old church
11:46
that we have vocal chords of steel. And I'll basically quote Andrew Pollack, who plays the lead boy in this show called Strat
11:56
He said, to be in Batteville, you have to be a vocal Olympian, because Meatloaf set the bar so high
12:04
and we're doing this eight shows a week. Meatloaf used to sing all the songs
12:09
take my hat off to him, because he sang every single song in his concerts
12:12
but we are doing it eight times a week. So it's about pacing yourself, isn't it? Exactly
12:17
And some of the characters, most of the characters are so physical and with this stage and emotional
12:23
mentally, physically, you have to work out to be in this show, 100%
12:29
I mean there's a bit of how would I say you see a lot of flesh
12:36
but not in a bad way in a good way well it would be in a bad way if we didn't run every day
12:41
exactly yeah and vocally we have to take really good care of ourselves but your muscles
12:47
kind of they become used to the task that's set it's a typical muscle memory isn't it
12:52
yeah it is but you feel it when you take a couple of days off I had a few days off there a few weeks ago
12:56
only three so I didn't do the show and when I came back, my body felt it
13:00
So it's like being on a treadmill. When you're doing it every day and you keep your stamina up, it's fine
13:04
But this is actually now the longest run that we will have ever done the show for
13:08
because in the last year we've had breaks of a few weeks in between each venue
13:13
And I think from next week onwards will be the longest that we will have done it for
13:19
So that will be interesting to try and keep the stamina up. Yeah, but I also think you have to take into consideration
13:25
that if these songs are naturally in your voice, then it's not going to be as challenging as somebody
13:33
who's probably two tones lower naturally and they have to force that out eight shows a week
13:39
The casting of this show was through David Grimrod and Will Burton, such, I'm sure, a challenging process
13:46
because they had to find these vocal Olympians who could sustain the same quality eight shows a week
13:54
and yes you have to drink all your water and do all your little tricks
13:59
there's a book coming soon we're writing a book we really are honestly
14:04
it's so funny anytime anybody has any kind of problems or concerns or queries about their voice
14:11
I think it's because we're mum and dad we both get the knock on the door it's like Dr Rob and Dr Sharon
14:16
we have all our tricks up our sleeve and we all depend on each other
14:20
and somebody's running upstairs for some papa car and somebody else is running downstairs for a manuka honey
14:24
or a lozenge or the secrets which we'll tell you in the book. Coming to stores near you soon
14:30
My backstage ritual is I have to have my jewellery on at a certain time and I have to use my
14:40
weights before paradise because of what I'm wearing or not wearing in paradise
14:48
I have to sit on the motorbike that says Paradise on it before I go out and say what part of my body hurts the most
14:58
Because it's Paradise. It's not the thing and it's just a thing I do and now I think I will have a bad show if I don't do that
15:03
I also have to touch both cushions on the couch before I'm wheeled. I don't know why
15:08
I think it's just to check that they're there but I know that they're there and I know the crew are there and I know that they'll be okay
15:13
But I have to do a touch, touch, sit. sometimes it's nice to stick your finger in somebody's nose
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what is that for
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