Review: Total Eclipse

3-5-26 London Coliseum by Teresa Brown

There are tribute concerts, and then there are nights like Total Eclipse: Symphonic Steinman. Bringing the music of Jim Steinman together with the Orchestra of the ENO was always going to be ambitious, but at the London Coliseum it became something genuinely huge — part rock concert, part theatrical event, part symphonic spectacle.

The venue itself felt perfectly matched to Steinman’s music. The grandeur of the Coliseum suited the oversized emotion and drama running through every song, while the orchestra gave the material a scale it naturally thrives on.

The performances were consistently strong throughout the evening. Glenn Adamson brought the full rock edge fans would expect from a former Bat Out of Hell lead, while Danielle Steers delivered a smoky and powerful Catwoman’s Song. Karine Hannah’s vocals, meanwhile, soared through some of the evening’s biggest moments.

One of the standout numbers came with It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, where the full force of the orchestra elevated the song into something genuinely cinematic. Steinman’s music has always flirted with operatic excess, and with a live orchestra behind it, that theatricality suddenly made complete sense.

The finale, Total Eclipse of the Heart, brought the evening to an emotional high point. Hannah’s performance landed with real impact and the audience response was immediate, with a standing ovation beginning before the final notes had even faded.

Under Jack Bennett’s direction, the concert wisely resisted turning Steinman’s catalogue into parody or nostalgia. Instead, it leaned into the scale, emotion and sheer ambition of the music. Stripped of some of the 80s baggage often attached to these songs, what emerged was a reminder of just how intricate and theatrical Steinman’s writing really was.

Loud, melodramatic and gloriously sincere, Total Eclipse: Symphonic Steinman felt exactly as Jim Steinman’s music should: oversized, emotional and completely unapologetic about it.

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