Why Am I Just Finding Out About This Now?

In the wake of the recently announced Spider-Man musical, I've found out that the long-talked about Batman musical is a dead project. This was going to feature the music of Jim Steinman, and I am an unabashed Steinman geek. I never thought Batman should have a musical, but if he was going to have one, Steinman is the guy to write the songs.

So imagine my surprise to find out that Steinman actually wrote some songs for it, and posted the demos on his website. He cribbed one of them, "Angels Arise" for Dance of the Vampires. From what he writes on his site, he wasn't a fan of that production, and being one of the eighteen people who saw it, I can't say I blame him. I enjoyed it, but I freely admit it wasn't good.

Still, it would have been interesting. It was clearly based on the Tim Burton movie (one of the songs is "Wonderful Toys") but included Catwoman and, interestingly, had a young Selina Kyle as a witness to the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents by the Joker. I wouldn't want to see them adapt it to the comics, but it is an interesting way to tie those three characters together.

At least one of the songs, "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King" appears on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell III.