BWW Reviews: BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL Is a Bloody Good Time at York Little Theatre

BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL is based upon the popular character from the late, lamented Weekly World News, a supermarket tabloid that joyously made no pretense of accuracy, honesty, or anything approaching the consensus reality of America. The paper that told us that JFK and Elvis were alive and living together in a secret bunker in West Virginia, that assured us that vampires and werewolves lived, and that polled space aliens to determine their preferences in the US Presidential elections, was one of the great entertainments of our times, especially to the children expressly forbidden by their parents to read it at the checkout counter.

It was from those pages that there emerged one of America's favorite folk characters - the weird, wonderful Bat Boy. So popular was he among the cult cognoscenti that he earned his way into his own Off-Broadway musical, with book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe. It premiered in 1997 at Tim Robbins' Actors Gang Theatre and went Off-Broadway in 2001. Although like far too many shows that year, it was a victim of September 11, it nonetheless won a Lucille Lortel award, two Richard Rodgers awards and an Outer Critics Circle award. It's at York Little Theatre through March 30, directed by Aaron Dalton, and is worth catching if you've never seen it before.

Bat Boy, later named Edgar by the family taking him in, is played by area theatre veteran Ben Long, and Long's performance is exceptional. From his first moments onstage, when, frightened, he attacks a group of teens exploring a cave, to his forced housing in a dog crate, to his learning to speak and to read the Bible, Long's Bat Boy is a wonder. Long completely inhabits the part, and Bat Boy's growth as a person is palpable. Long's also possessed of some brilliant physical comedy in the role. Equally fine is Karen Steelman as Meredith Parker, local veterinarian's wife and Edgar's foster mother. Steelman was last in YLT's GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL, and she's a real belter, whose voice is one of the finest things about this production, especially in her second-act number, "Three-Bedroom House". This show could be seen, easily, for Long and for Steelman alone.

But it should also be seen for the lessons in the book. Bat Boy, although he may have fangs and pointed ears, just wants to be loved, like any other person, blood-drinking or not. It's a story about difference, about unjustified hatred, about bigots and heroes, about love, and loss, and about bad veterinary experimentation gone horribly wrong. It's in many respects a parallel story to Mary Shelley's one of Frankenstein's monster, whose issues in that century-earlier tale were much the same. They invite the questions of just who, and just what, is in fact civilized.

Marisa Hoover, also from GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL, plays Shelley, Meredith's daughter, in a nice turn, and Randy Stamm is Dr. Thomas Parker, whose successful veterinary career may conceal a dark secret in his past. Stacey Schell, as Reverend Billy Hightower, the evangelist, stops the show in the second act with "A Joyful Noise," the show's literal "come to Jesus" number, one that's very different from, but every bit as triumphal in spirit, as "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" from ANYTHING GOES. In fact, as Schell plays the Reverend, there's a feeling of kinship between the revivalist and Reno Sweeney from Porter's musical.

Ultimately, BAT BOY is a musical about a creature with a very human heart, no matter what he seems to need to eat for dinner. However, the timid may be relieved to know that the program assures the audience that no stuffed or other toy animals seen on stage were actually injured during the performance. In the matter of heart, however, it's also worth noting that this production is full of it. The ensemble is energetic and eager to please, milking the sheer camp of the show for everything it's worth.

Ray Olewiler's set design is truly enjoyable for anyone who's ever laughed at a tabloid headline, with a stage floor and a cave emblazoned with blaring tabloid headlines. The use of the black box Studio theatre at YLT makes this work particularly well, as the audience is almost surrounded by the tabloids. The show's themes also work well with the intimacy that the Studio produces from the closeness to the stage.

At YLT, unfortunately, only through March 30. Call 717-854-5715 or visit www.ylt.org for tickets.

To post a comment, you must register and login.