BAT OUT OF HELL Musical Sets November Developmental Lab; 2016 Premiere?

First announced back in 2009, BroadwayWorld.com broke news earlier this year about the long gestating BAT OUT OF HELL Musical - revealing exclusively that musician and producer Todd Rundgren joined the team and that the show was hoping to make a 2016 world premiere in Toronto. Producers Michael Cohl and David Sonenberg have joined the project as co-producers, alongside the previously announced Elva Corrie.

Today, an Equity casting notice has revealed that a developmental lab is now set for November for the project, and that director Jay Scheib has joined the team.

Jay Scheib is the Director of Theater Arts and a professor at MIT. Scheib's productions include the recent mutiplatform "Platonov, or the Disinherited," which premiered as part of the Without Walls Festival at La Jolla Playhouse followed by a three week run at The Kitchen in New York City. Conceived as a 100 minute single-take feature film, Scheib's adaptation of Chekhov's play was broadcast live from The Kitchen to the AMC Empire 25 Cinema in Times Square and to BAM Rose Cinema in Brooklyn. Other recent works include Luigi Nono's "No hay camino hay que caminar" as ouverture to Monteverdi's "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse" under the title "Odyssee" Scheib new staging opened the season of the newly restructured Staatstheater Darmstadt in Germany. Scheib's staging of Thomas Adès' opera "Powder her Face" was the season opener for the final season of New York City Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Called "dazzling," by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times, "Powder her Face" went on to play Festival d'Opéra de Québec in Canada.

We're told that both Broadway and London's West End are under consideration for the show's next stops, based on the developmental lab.

Here's what we know about the casting breakdown:

STRAT: Male 18-25; Strat is the young and rebellious leader of a gang of misfit youth who refuse to grow up. Fearless physical actor, idealistic, valorous, and madly in love with the daughter of the oppressive FALCO; must bring a wild, raw energy to an excellent rock/pop tenor or baritone a la Freddie Mercury voice.

RAVEN: Female 18-25; The beautiful and zealously-sheltered, teen-aged, daughter of the tyrannous FALCO. No longer willing to be locked down, RAVEN will risk everything for STRAT; must bring an angry youth revolt to an ingènue with an excellent pop/rock lyric soprano or alto voice.

FALCO: Male 40's-Early 50's. Rules THE CITY OF OBSIDIAN with unbridled cruelty. A jealous angry tyrant of a man, FALCO is also the Chief of Police. A tyrant with a sense of humor and sharp as nails wit, FALCO must have a beautiful, if comic, baritone or bass pop/rock voice.

SLOANE: Female 40's. FALCO's partially resigned but decidedly independent wife and mother to RAVEN. Seeking a wildly intelligent, physically daring singer with a sexy rock-and-roll sensibility. Mezzo Soprano voice.

ZAHARA: Female Early 30's. De facto cool girl, hanging with the LOST, rides a motorcycle and is a practitioner of the dark arts and magic. Soubrette or Mezzo Soprano voice

SEEKING ACTORS 18+, ALL ETHNICITIES FOR THE FOLLOWING ROLES:

TINK: Male 13. Tink is defined by an unquenchable admiration for his ''ultimate big brother.'' Same vocal type as Strat.

JAGWIRE: Male 18; Jagwire is a hotheaded, trendsetting member of the LOST. One of Strat's most valued friends, and right hand man, Jagwire is in love with Zahara. Same vocal type as Strat

Note, no official production timetables, creative team or schedules have been announced as of publication. As always, we will bring you further updates as they become available!

The first Bat Out of Hell album, with Meat Loaf, was released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records and sold over 40 million copies worldwide. The stage adaptation has long been in development. 2014 news on the project revealed the involvement of director Kenny Ortega and book writer Stuart Beattie, both of whom are believed to no longer be associated with the project.

Jim Steinman began his writing career in theatre with Joseph Papp and the NY Shakespeare Festival in 1969, after Papp saw Dream Engine, a rock opera Steinman wrote and starred in at Amherst College. Composer, lyricist and producer Jim Steinman's theatre credits include Dance of the Vampires, Footloose, More Than You Deserve, Neverland and Whistle Down the Wind. He wrote produced Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell and Back Into Hell albums, and has worked with the likes of Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, The Sisters of Mercy, Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, Boyzone and more.

Cohl's most associated in the theatre world with Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, but he remains active with an associate producer credit on Finding Neverland. Prior to that, he produced Broadway's A Night with Janis Joplin and Rock of Ages and was an associate producer on November, Spamalot, La Cage aux Folles and Bombay Dreams.

He was also involved as a producer on A Night With Janis Joplin's Off-Broadway production which was canceled just 48 hours before re-opening at the Gramercy Theater in 2014, and as lead producer of the canceled Jesus Christ Superstar arena concert tour. That tour was canceled after rehearsals had begun, under two weeks before it was to kick off officially.

Prior to that, Michael Cohl was at the top of the worldwide concert tour market, working with The Rolling Stones, U2, Pink Floyd, and Barbra Streisand, etc., produced Emmy Award-winning films ("Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" and "John Lennon: The New York Years"), films for the big screen (Live at the Max and Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light) and Billboard's Creative Content Award-winning Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! He is a multiple award winner, receiving Emmy, Tony (Spamalot) and Juno awards, Canada's Walk of Fame, Music Hall of Fame and was the first recipient of Billboard's Legend of Live Award.

Todd Rundgren is an multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. First hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop star, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972 Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Straight Up by Badfinger, Stage Fright by the Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf, New York Dolls by the New York Dolls, and Skylarking by XTC. Since then, he's been touring, recording, producing and in April 2013, Rundgren released his 24th solo album, State.

David Sonenberg is the founder and CEO of DAS Communications Ltd., a full-service management company located in New York and Los Angeles for artists in the entertainment industry. DAS's first management project, Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell, set an industry record for a debut album with worldwide record sales to date of more than 50 million. Other clients of DAS Communications have included Jim Steinman, Jimmy Cliff, Southside Johnny, Jimmy Iovine, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Keith Thomas, The Spin Doctors, Joan Osborne, Spacehog, The Fugees including Lauryn Hill, The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend and Indiggo.