The Dream Engine

Jim Steinman - Composer & Lyricist
Click here for a chronology of some of Jim Steinman's work

Jim Steinman is one of the most successful rock and roll visionaries of all time. His inexhaustible passion for his work is legendary. Throughout his illustrious career, he has taken on many roles – writer, producer, arranger and solo artist. He has always been a non-conformist and his appetite for and appreciation of the extreme has set him apart from his contemporaries.

In 1969, as a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Jim Steinman wrote the book, music and lyrics and starred in a new musical he called The Dream Engine. Famed Broadway impresario and New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre Founder Joseph Papp attended the show and was so impressed he went backstage at intermission and immediately bought the rights to the show. He planned to open it at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park but at that time New York City officials advised him that Steinman’s material was viewed as too daring, sexually explicit and violent to be performed in an open public place. Papp then commissioned Steinman to collaborate with Michael Weller (Hair/Ragtime screenplays). The result was the 1974 premiere of More Than You Deserve. It was during auditions for this musical, that Steinman first met Meat Loaf. Spin Magazine names this meeting as one of the Top 10 most important moments in the history of Rock and Roll.

In 1977, Steinman’s first written album, Bat Out of Hell, sung by Meat Loaf, became the biggest debut album ever and was recognized as the best selling recording of all time. The sequel, Bat Out Of Hell 2 (1993) became #1 in 38 countries and spawned the biggest rock single ever. From 1980 onwards, Steinman brought his versatility to films; released his only solo album Bad For Good; wrote Dead Ringer another blockbuster for Meat Loaf; wrote and produced hit singles and albums for Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Sisters of Mercy, Barry Manilow and many others; created Pandora’s Box (his all-girl band) and entered the world of animated films (“Anastasia”).

As the songwriter and Grammy Award-winning producer behind such huge hits as Total Eclipse of the Heart, It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Making Love Out of Nothing at All, Holding Out for A Hero, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Anything For Love and Bat Out of Hell (albums), Jim Steinman’s music has sold well over 120 million units and created eleven #1 songs.

Jim Steinman returned to the theatre world collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the West End production of Whistle Down the Wind and with Roman Polanski and Michael Kunze on Tanz Der Vampire (Dance of the Vampire), in 9th year in Europe (Vienna, Stuttgart, Hamburg) and currently running in Warsaw and Tokyo, opening soon in Berlin). In addition to his latest venture, THE DREAM ENGINE, Jim has a number of new projects in development.

THE VOCALISTS

Rob Evan - Vocals