History Theatre / BatmanTheMusical

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Max Schreck, presumably. It's kind of hard to tell where he belongs in this thing, or if "In The Land Of The Pig" was even his song.

Demo recordings and other details about the production can be found [[http://www.freewebs.com/batman_themusical/home.htm here]].

In hindsight this seems like a blatantly ridiculous idea, but at the time it was taken quite seriously. Creator/TimBurton was to direct. Ultimately, though, the plans fell through, following the failure of the badly [[InNameOnly Americanized]] ''Tanz'' adaptation ''Dance of the Vampires'' (which gained one of the abandoned Bat-songs).

In 1998, Warner Bros. had been paying attention to the recent successes of their rival Disney putting ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' and ''Disney/TheLionKing'' onstage, as well as Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's splashy take on ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''. Clearly [[ScreenToStageAdaptation movies-into-musicals]] were the next big thing, from their POV.

''Definitely'' not to be confused with ''Theatre/BatboyTheMusical'', ''Webvideo/HolyMusicalBatman'', or ''Theatre/BatmanLive''.

The story as can best be surmised is a combination of [[{{Film/Batman}} Burton's two]] [[Film/BatmanReturns Batman films]], with the vengeful, brooding Batman protecting the terrified citizens of Gotham from the Joker's murderous antics while also tangling with glamorous kleptomaniac Catwoman. Max Schreck, the CorruptCorporateExecutive from ''Returns'' is also present, though in absence of the Penguin's plot from that film it's rather hard to guess where he fits into this adaptation. One of the main changes made to the general Bat-mythos, though, is that it ties Selina Kyle/Catwoman directly into his origin as well as the Joker, who (once again, as in Burton) is here retconned as the petty crook who gunned down Bruce Wayne's parents. Selina ''also'' witnessed the Waynes' deaths, as a frightened orphan child, and was struck by how quickly one can lose everything one has. Batman and Catwoman become full romantic partners as adults based on this common pain, and she ultimately dies in his arms as he tells her that they're "still the children [they] once were".

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The Joker. In his VillainSong, he goes off on bizarre tangents about things like [[PeterPan Captain Hook and the Lost Boys]] (a recurring bit of AuthorAppeal for Steinman) and randomly references everything from ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' to Music/{{Eminem}}.

In hindsight this seems like a blatantly ridiculous idea, but at the time it was taken quite seriously. Creator/TimBurton was to direct. Ultimately, though, the plans fell through, following the failure of the badly [[InNameOnly Americanized]] ''Tanz'' adaptation ''Dance of the Vampires'' (which gained one of the abandoned Bat-songs), and Steinman packed off much of what he'd written to give to Music/MeatLoaf as standalone pieces when the two reunited for ''Bat Out of Hell III''.

** An InUniverse example occurs when the Joker crows, "Eat your heart out, Creator/StephenSondheim!" after coming up with a patricularly clever rhyme during his ReferenceOverdosed VillainSong.

In 1998, Warner Bros. had been paying attention to the recent successes of their rival Disney putting ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' and ''Disney/TheLionKing'' onstage, as well as AndrewLloydWebber's splashy take on ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''. Clearly [[ScreenToStageAdaptation movies-into-musicals]] were the next big thing, from their POV.

* An InUniverse example occurs when the Joker crows, "Eat your heart out, Creator/StephenSondheim!" after coming up with a patricularly clever rhyme during his ReferenceOverdosed VillainSong.

However, a dedicated fan has preserved the demos recorded during the show's development. Listen at your own peril [[http://www.freewebs.com/batman_themusical/home.htm here]].

* AntiHero: Catwoman is thoroughly painted as one of these rather than a villainess, which makes her solo, "I Need All The Love I Can Get", an example of a...
* BadGirlSong rather than a VillainSong

* DarkIsNotEvil: This Batman was intended as a good-guy analogue to [[Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet Sweeney Todd]] or ThePhantomOfTheOpera--an outsider warped by the worst society has to offer and now avenging himself against it.
* DatingCatwoman: Literally. And apparently without them knowing each other's identities in ''civilian'' life rather than in costume.

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Catwoman.
* FinalLoveDuet: "We're Still The Children We Once Were"
* FollowTheLeader

* WhatMightHaveBeen
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: The Joker's VillainSong poses this question.

This show, along with 1966's ''It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's Franchise/{{Superman}}!'', rather suggests that the only thing more toxic to a musical (in America, at least- the aforementioned ''Tanz'' is a phenomenon in Europe and Japan, and ''Theatre/DraculaEntreLamourEtLaMort'' did well in Canada) than [[VampireMusicals vampires]] is superheroes. (Er, break a leg, ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark''...)[[note]]It [[TroubledProduction did]].[[/note]]

This show, along with 1966's ''It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's {{Superman}}!'', rather suggests that the only thing more toxic to a musical (in America, at least- the aforementioned ''Tanz'' is a phenomenon in Europe and Japan, and ''[[DraculaEntreLamourEtLaMort Dracula: Entre l'Amour et la Mort]]'' did well in Canada) than [[VampireMusicals vampires]] is superheroes. (Er, break a leg, ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark''...)[[note]]It [[TroubledProduction did]].[[/note]]

* ShoutOut: "Wonderful Toys" is ''full'' of these, and to apparently whatever Jim Steinman [[strike:thought the Joker's manic, rambling personality would come up with]] wanted to include. The reference to ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' is especially notable.

* CutSong: Per usual for a Steinman production, it's made mostly of these, though with the exception of "Angels Arise" it's more fragments of trunk songs than the full things. "Graveyard Shift" includes bits of "Edging Into Darkness" from Steinman's 1970s musical version of ''Literature/TheConfidenceMan'' and "Nowhere Fast" from ''Film/StreetsOfFire''.
** The guitar riff and chorus of Catwoman's song ("And I need all the love I can get/And I need all the love that I can't get to(o)") are reused from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDuW3NvjqJY "More"]] by Music/TheSistersOfMercy, Steinman having worked with as a RecordProducer on its parent album and being listed as a co-writer on the song. (Talk about SelfPlagiarism...)