Celebrating Meat Loaf

Celebrating Meat Loaf at Muriel Kauffman Theatre - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Rock opera doesn't live on vinyl—it needs volume, drama, and the feeling that the whole room is about to explode. Celebrating Meat Loaf brings that theatrical storm to Kansas City April 8, led by alumni of Meat Loaf's Neverland Express band. Musical director, guitarist, and producer Paul Crook is part of that musical legacy, and vocalist Andrew Polec—who originated Strat in Bat Out of Hell: The Musical—knows how to carry a melody built for maximum emotion. This concert has its own identity. It's musicians who played the material honoring the legacy they helped create.

The catalog of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman rewarded excess: big feelings, bigger arrangements, and lyrics that turned heartbreak into an anthem. The appeal is that theatrical-rock release: outsized emotion, big arrangements and performers with a direct connection to the catalog. It's a chance to enjoy Meat Loaf and Steinman's dramatic music as a concert, with Crook and Polec giving this tribute a character of its own.

This is a concert, not the stage musical. Polec's musical-theater background and Crook's Neverland Express connection give fans two different links to the music without turning the evening into an impersonation. If Meat Loaf and Steinman's larger-than-life writing speaks to you, hear this legacy concert at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre. For the theatrical rock of Meat Loaf and Steinman, get tickets to Celebrating Meat Loaf on April 8.