What Happens When ‘Bat Boy’ Grows Up?

In the outstanding sequence of the first act bathorror-comedy gleefully sinks its teeth into My fair lady. A good Christian family of veterinarians in West Virginia have adopted the titular half-man, half-bat man and are trying to teach him to be a civilized man. They have him say the names of farm animals, move on to cards with important proper names, such as “Champs Elysees” and “Great White Way.” He's acquiring a BBC-ready accent – he's watched a lot Masterpiece Theater– but still pushes through until his father takes him aside and feeds him rabbit blood. Suddenly everything clicks: “I think I got it!” He shouts, launching into one of the more inspired parts of songwriter Lawrence O'Keefe's compressed wordplay: ​​”Brooklyn Bridge, Lenin's Tomb, Watergate, Rainbow Room!” The titles go on and on, a joyful throwback to what was the height of sophistication when it premiered in 1997. (On the original cast recording, Bat Boy knows both. Fargo And Rest of the day; now he's up to date with Britney and Lord of the Rings.) This is a great example of a technique bat I’m also inclined to perceive this as a show. O'Keefe and fellow creators Keith Farley and Brian Flemming spend a lot of energy developing a concept based on farcical tabloid cover taking classic musical tropes like small-town pettiness, star-crossed lovers, and big gospel, and then subverting them with messy, bloody contradictions that defy the conventional hope of many in the genre. For example, the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”-style forest fantasy in the second act ends with Batboy's love interest offering him a drink from his veins.

Such student rejoicing made the show Off Broadway cult hit in the early 2000s and has established a strong presence in the repertoire of amateur productions and musical theater programs throughout the country. If you were in college decades later and didn't know someone who did. batyou probably know someone who was angry that they weren't allowed, and at least someone who would lecture you about how O'Keefe went on to write great pop rock scores for Heathers And Legal blonde. (That someone is me.) But what happens when bat trying to grow up? That's the question raised by City Center's two-week gala, directed by Alex Timbers, which gives the musical a solid Broadway cast, ample production capabilities (David Korins designed a multi-level cave studded with stalactites), and a larger band, although in this production they're not on stage and there's some muddiness in the sound mix. Revival too(shudder), has a more serious nature. Like Bat-Boy himself in his three-piece suit, he doesn't always fit, and sometimes the musical motifs should be taken more seriously, although it's impossible to saw off those fangs completely.

It takes a while for this to happen, leading up to a Henry Higgins style episode. bat find its foundation. Timbers, a showman whose early productions Bloody, bloody Andrew Jackson lived somewhere nearby batThe level of quiet irony early on suggests a big dark and stormy spectacle. There is a crash of thunder and confusion as the ensemble stomps through the cave to find and capture Batboy himself. Taylor Trensch is fiercely dedicated to his craft and prances around the stage so animalistically, bald and pointy-eared, that it's surprising when he later reminds you that he can sing with extreme emotional clarity. Trensch understands how to use physical gestures for comedy, as do his adoptive parents, played by radio greats Christopher Sieber and Kerry Butler. But they have a lot to go through before the bloody meat of this show arrives. First, they must establish a hypocritical and empty Christianity in their city. South Park– almost the goal, 25 years ago or now – and a convoluted plot involving attempts to move from coal mining to cattle ranching, which has been revised (“Another Dead Cow” is gone; there's now a scene where Sieber sticks his hand all the way into a cow's reproductive system) but remains convoluted. There's also a developing romance between Bat Boy and his adopted sister Shelley, played by the still-finding-her-path Gabi Carruba, which is expanded upon by a weak new number, “Deer in the Headlights.” I appreciate that Shelley brings more visceral character, although I'm confused by the conflicting traffic instructions she gives with the rhyme “then you gotta run the red light/no more deer in the headlights.”

Fortunately, by batThe thrilling and chaotic finale of the first act, “Comfort and Joy”, this production stuck, and the show's wild and energetic second act was much more successful. The characters, after Bat Boy's disastrous debut at a church revival event, scatter into the woods, and Timbers and company have a lot more fun being a lot less buttoned up. Butler, who was in the original Off Broadway cast bat as Shelly, she has a real gift for campy acting that sells horror-comedies and musical camp (she's a veteran Small store And Xanadu), and she becomes more and more great the more manic her character becomes. Jacob Ming-Trent and Alex Newell stop by to sing their hearts out as the minister and the satyr god Pan, respectively. And Timbers channels DIY energy Peter and the Starcatcher for an episode in which we see Bat-Boy's true origins through shadow puppetry. Although the Timbers and O'Keefe have said they are considering this is a renaissance given the show's core message—essentially, don't deny your inner beast—the idea is much better conveyed through joyful nonsense than through neatness. In any case, by the end we had already moved past the inspiration to “be yourself.” In a great tradition Small store And Carrie, bat gives in to his guignol instincts and gives us a lot of blood. God bless. Don't we all, deep down, just want to rip the heads off stuffed animals?

bat is in downtown New York until November 9th..