Peterborough's Glenn Adamson on a theatre role he just had to have

Glenn, who cut his teeth in productions at Thomas Deacon Academy and the Key Youth Theatre, is currently touring with Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical, and you can catch him on stage down the road in Milton Keynes from June 14-25.

A fan of the two music industry greats, Glenn knew as soon as he saw the show in London that it was next on his “to do” list.

“I grew up surrounded by a lot of Jim Steinman music even though it is not really my era," says Glenn.

“It was the sort of music I listened to – my passion has always been rock music and then theatre and the two together no one has quite combined that like Jim Steinman. All of his songs are theatrical, they are story songs, look at something like Paradise By The Dashboard Light it is an 8 minute film.

“I was enamoured by the work he did and created so I knew it growing up; maybe not so much about Jim Steinman himself at the time but the Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler and Celine Dion hits that he had, I knew all of them and loved to sing those.

“Then I found the musical,” he adds.

“I went to see it in London while I was appearing in American Idiot and remember sitting there. I had a friend in it and I said ‘that has got to be my next job’. Then as soon as I knew it was going on tour I called my agent and told him ‘I'm doing it’.”

As it turned out, as soon as American Idiot’s run – which saw Glenn tour the UK and head down to New Zealand and Australia with the show – came to an end he was cast in Bat Out Of Hell. But before hitting the stage the pandemic came along and like the rest of the industry things came to a halt – including a tour of America, which might still happen.

But things did start to get back to normal last year.

“We were lucky and we went out on tour in August, as soon as full capacity was allowed,” says Glenn. “We were really lucky. The US tour is on the back burner but the UK tour is on the road and that is great.

“Then it is transferring to Australia in November and then a run in the West End starting in February.”

And so far – Glenn was about to open in Bradford when we spoke – it has gone very well.

"The energy from the audiences, after the pandemic and everything, is amazing,” he says.

“The audience is a real mix too, from people who have seen it hundreds of times, to some who are a fan of Meat Loaf or Jim Steinman, but we have some younger fans who have just found the musical.

“The biggest praise for me is when people say it made them feel 18 again after watching it.”

For those that don’t know, the musical – loosely based on Peter Pan – is set in a dystopian future where anyone exposed to the outside world doesn’t age. Glenn plays Strat, who is stuck at age 18, and it is the story of his relationship with Raven, who hasn’t been exposed to the outside world and grows older.

Anything For Love, Dead Ringer, It’s All Coming Back To Me – It’s just banger after banger, all the big Steinman hits.

Tickets are available from ATGTICKETS.COM/MiltonKeynes