The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Bell Media is getting into live musical theatre, hoping for Meat Loaf to spawn a runaway hit. The Globe's Iain Boekhoff writes that the telco is set to announce Tuesday that it is entering into a new, long-term, multiproject partnership with Iconic Entertainment Studios, founded by producer Michael Cohl. The first act for the new partnership will be Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, based on Meat Loaf's album -- the fifth top-selling album of all time -- and its two sequels. BCE's Bell is taking its cue from the success of Mamma Mia!, another musical that turned bestselling songs into a theatre production that spawned a $1-billion worldwide phenomenon. Bat Out of Hell: The Musical is set to begin its first showing on Feb. 17, 2017, in Manchester. The live theatre business is a notoriously difficult one. Stats show that less than a third of commercial Broadway productions broke even between 1999 and 2008. Canada's short-lived Dancap Productions was shuttered in 2012 with an estimated $40-million in losses. Mr. Cohl's flop was Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with the production closing prematurely and at a loss estimated at up to $60-million (U.S.).