| Batman in Love | 18-27 January 2007 Pump House Theatre & Arts Centre
Local Board Road
Lower High Street
Watford
WD17 2JP Time: Eves: 7.30pm / Saturday Mat: 2.30pm Box Office: 07903 411150 |
The birth of a new rock musical is a complicated process and for director Roger Martin, seeing his baby Batman in Love come into being at The Pump House Theatre in Watford last night, it was a labour far beyond love. Roger and musical director Lee Farman sifted through a pile of old Queen albums to select lyrics for the show and then choreographed the whole thing together with musical numbers and a central storyline about The Joker exacting his revenge on his half brother Robin. Seduce The scene opens on the town of Pleasantville where Batman and Robin are keeping things in order until a spate of bicycle thefts requires them to take action. Meanwhile, The Joker recruits Catwoman to seduce Batman and remove him from the scene – quite literally, so the evil mastermind is free to teach his little brother a lesson. | "It’s certainly worthy of a UK tour and could achieve cult status in time." | | Melanie Anglesey, Watford Observer |
The Pump House Youth Theatre coped ably enough with Queen’s repertoire from the bombastic We Are The Champions and Don’t Stop Me Now to the fey ballads like Seaside Rendevous and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy. Challenging The show features a challenging 19 or so of Queen songs, some of which are so rushed they are rendered inaudible, which is a shame, since the audience were really only interested in the hearing the ones they knew and only got the joke of the dialogue, which mirrors the opening lines, when they recognized the song. Hence, well-known hits such as 'Killer Queen' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' fared far better than 'I’m Going Slightly Mad' and 'Save Me'. The second half was tighter and funnier and overall the cast could sing and act well, though the addition of a few more comic book gestures would not have gone amiss. These are minor quibbles though, in a thoroughly inventive musical which has the potential, with a bit of fine-tuning, to go on and on. It’s certainly worthy of a UK tour and could achieve cult status in time. The glam rock strutting and risqué dialogue, not to mention the leather clad Bat Boys, would have made Freddy Mercury very proud. |
Read Melanie's interview with director Roger Martin.
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Melanie Dakin Features writer, The Watford Observer | 
