Staff "asked the man to leave but he refused to move for several minutes. Eventually, he agreed to leave and the show was able to continue."
According to The Guardian, the West End production of Bat Out of Hell was halted during the Thursday, March 30th evening performance by a disruptive audience member.
A statement from the Bat Out Of Hell team said that the audience member was "talking loudly throughout the performance and [was] being quite disruptive. They asked the man to leave but he refused to move for several minutes. Eventually, he agreed to leave and the show was able to continue."
After an uptick in recent incidents of audience misbehavior in the theatre, The Theatre Union Bectu conducted a survey on anti-social behaviour in audiences. Nearly 50 percent of workers questioned said that they may quit, detailing how violent assaults and sexual harassment against them, coupled with mass brawls between audience members, had poisoned the workplace environment.
79.9% of responses told Bectu that they had experienced "acts of bullying, violence, intimidation, harassment, or abuse of staff." and over 50% of respondents - a majority - believed that their employers needed to rethink their approach to alcohol sales.
Following the survey, Bectu has formed a 'safer theatres charter', which calls on venue management to take a more proactive, thorough and zero-tolerance approach to anti-social audience behaviour. Supporters can sign the charter here.
Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell - The Musical, featuring Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf's greatest hits toured the UK and Ireland, before starting it's run at the the Peacock Theatre which ends today, 1 April 2023.
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical will also have a residency at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino from 27 September 2022.
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical wowed critics and public alike when it played limited seasons at Manchester Opera House, London Coliseum and London's Dominion Theatre from 2017 to 2019. The musical also ran successfully in Canada, Germany and at New York's City Centre in 2019. The current UK and Ireland tour began performances at Manchester Opera House on 11 September 2021 and has been playing to sold out houses and great critical acclaim.
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical won the Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical at the Evening Standard Awards and was nominated for 8 WhatsOnStage Awards, including Best New Musical.
Bat Out of Hell became one of the best-selling albums in history, selling over 60 million copies worldwide. 16 years later, Steinman scored again with Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, which contained the massive hit I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That).
For the stage musical, the legendary and award-winning Jim Steinman incorporated iconic songs from the Bat Out of Hell albums, including You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night), Bat Out of Hell, I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) and Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, as well as two previously unreleased songs, What Part of My Body Hurts the Most and Not Allowed to Love.
The electrifying rock songs of Mr Steinman propel an epic story of rebellious youth and passion as Strat, the immortal leader of The Lost, has fallen in love with Raven, the beautiful daughter of the tyrannical ruler Falco.
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical has book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman, direction by Jay Scheib, choreography adapted by Xena Gusthart, with musical supervision and additional arrangements by Michael Reed, set and costume design by Jon Bausor, original costume designs by Meentje Nielsen, original wig designs by Linda McKnight, video design by Finn Ross, lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe, sound design by Gareth Owen, orchestration by Steve Sidwell, original casting by David Grindrod CDG and UK Tour casting by Anne Vosser.
Bat Out of Hell - The Musical is produced by David Sonenberg, Michael Cohl & Tony Smith, with executive producer Julian Stoneman.
This tour is dedicated to the memory of Jim Steinman, who sadly passed away on 19 April 2021, and Meat Loaf, who passed away on 20 January 2022.
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