On a really, really cold Friday evening in early February, KDR and I set out to traverse the several hundred freezing yards to that mightiest of all entertainment venues, The Buxton Opera House, to watch a show we had been told of, but to be perfectly honest – knew nothing at all about. It was called “Vampires Rock – Eternal Love” and was written  by, starred, directed and even produced by Steve Steinman, a name that seemed to sit in my memory – but for what?

We had donned our best ‘rock chic’ attire, met in the pub close by, The Old Clubhouse, and readied ourselves for a few hours of ……. we really did not know what.

We love the Opera House. We visit several times a year. It is beautiful inside and out, and ‘olde worlde’, and a terrific venue for any brand of the arts. (I actually volunteered there a few years ago, as one of the wonderful front of house team. In one year I worked everything from Panto to Opera, Ballet to Comedy – and of course MUSIC… Hawkwind, orchestras, soloists, Rick Wakeman. A truly fantastic experience and something I would urge locals to investigate!)

The Buxton Opera House & Pavilion Arts Centre, to give it it’s full title, is a registered charity which operates and looks after the Opera House and also runs the Cinema and other events in the Pavilion Theatre, next door. The Opera House itself is a listed building that dates back to 1903, and was designed and built by renowned architect Frank Matcham, the man behind the Hackney Empire, Hippodrome, Coliseum,  Palladium and Victoria Palace Theatres, in London, as well as others. 

Anyway – I digress – VAMPIRES……

We had read about Steve Steinman and his 1994 start on TV’s, ‘Stars in their Eyes’ singing and wowing as a Meatloaf Tribute. The memory started to roll – yeah I remembered this guy. The show’s posters promised a campish vampire setting with original songs and music. What could there be not to like?

From the first seconds, the show grabs the audience with exhilarating heavy rock, (from a live band who are soon revealed), PANTOesque humour and audience participation, all are backing to a very simple love story between an aging male vampire, Baron Von Rockula, and his various female acolytes, aided and abetted in varying degrees by the hilarious and outrageously played Bosley – his butler, man-servant and friend. The banter, on and off script, between Steve Steinman himself, as the Baron and John Evans as Bosley, is brilliant from the start,  seaside postcard humour at a high pitch, with an obvious love of what they do that shines through everything. The chat to the audience throughout the show gives away quite early that the real love affair here is actually between this troupe and the people who have been coming to see them for thirty years…. The audience quite obviously love this singer and his shows and all the people he brings with him.

The show contains twenty original songs of lost-love, vampire-lore, advice-about-love, and longing (you guessed it – for love), which are very ably sung by Steinman, Evans and the rest of the cast and are a mix of power ballad and out-and-out rock’n’roll. The five musicians in the band are masters of their genre and supply a constant barrage of pumping rhythms that keep your toes tapping and your head banging, but never get in the way of the story.

The finale sees the whole Opera House audience on its feet, rocking, singing along and clapping. Terrific stuff indeed…..

This production is just one of three that Steve Steinman will tour this year around the UK, “Love Hurts” power ballads and anthems, and “Like a Bat of Hell – Anything for Love” his endlessly popular Meatloaf Tribute show. Tickets are apparently becoming limited and this reviewer can only suggest that you check him out on YouTube, or at his website www.stevesteinmanproductions.com as soon as you can. 

For further information about The Buxton Opera House, visit https://buxtonoperahouse.org.uk

All pictures taken from the Official Brochure