Moncton, N.B. singer wins big with Las Vegas role in Bat Out Of Hell

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Travis Cormier is all revved up with some place to go.

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The 29-year-old Moncton, N.B. native is the male lead in the Sin City production of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical, which opens at the Paris Las Vegas on Friday night (Oct. 7) with tickets on sale through January.

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“It’s pretty surreal,” said Cormier down the line from Vegas on Thursday. “This is definitely a dream-come-true for me. I’ve been a Meat Loaf fan since I discovered the (1977) Bat Out Of Hell album when I was a kid, maybe like 12. Just to get to honor (Meat Loaf after he died in January 2022) is incredible.”

The musical, co-produced by Toronto native and legendary tour promoter Michael Cohl (The Rolling Stones, U2 ), first debuted in spring 2017 in Manchester, and later that year in T.O., with various productions going strong ever since.

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The kicker for Cormier, who started his first rock band at age 14, was that he’d never done a musical when the show’s casting director called him to audition.

“It’s definitely something I’ve never really imagined myself doing,” said Cormier. “But it was just such a perfect fit when I saw a description of the role (of post-apocalyptic gang leader Strat) and the type of songs that I’d be singing. It was like. ‘That role was made for me.’”

Turns out Cohl felt similarly after Cormier’s early August audition from his Montreal living room via Zoom because he lost his passport.

“Singing these songs is unbelievably tough,” Cohl said on Thursday. “We had auditions in New York, L.A. and Las Vegas and no success over May, June, July. And (Travis) starts to sing and he gets a minute and half into the song and (co-producer David) Sonenberg, who was there in the original days with (Bat Out Of Hell composer Jim) Steinman, taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘this is the guy Steinman was looking for.’”

Cormier, who trained at L.A.’s Musician’s Institute, was a runner up on the 2016 season of Quebec’s The Voice and released his 2018 debut album, Dollars & Hearts, with producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi) in Vancouver followed by a 2021 EP, Where’s Time Gone.

The son of two hairdressers — his dad John runs The Hair Clinic back in Moncton — the married Cormier has had his family in Vegas all week to cheer him on.

“They’re just so proud of me — my dad was tearing up,” said Cormier.