He's doomed, of course (the bite comes back to haunt him, and Dr. Thomas Parker, the veterinarian, turns out to be a villainous fellow), particularly once the secret of his parentage is revealed. That's the one scene in the play that doesn't work, overlong and toppling into silliness. But long before the climax, the show establishes its credentials as an omnibus parody, garish in almost every respect but constrained below the bar of foolishness by the vivacious direction of Scott Schwartz and the winking lyrics of Laurence O'Keefe. "A boy with his complexion's/Gonna meet with some objections," the flummoxed sheriff acknowledges in an early number.

Mr. O'Keefe also wrote the score, and with Alex Lacamoire, the musical director, provided the arrangements for a five-piece rock band. The music is tuneful, particularly in its harmonically inventive duets; otherwise it is largely devoted to satirizing Broadway schmaltz. (Fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Frank Wildhorn beware.) From the moment a group of slacker spelunkers descends from the rafters into the darkness where the Bat Boy dwells -- "This cave rocks!" -- and in their excitement fire up a bong, the show is a jaggedly imaginative mix of skewering and self-puncturing humor.

The two-tiered patchwork quilt of a set -- it serves as a slaughterhouse, a living room and a revival tent as well as the woods and the Bat Boy cave -- isn't terribly attractive, but it does seem apt for a show that houses an atticful of theatrical and comedic bric-a-brac. In fact, the show is open to criticism for borrowing; its originality lies mainly in its vast embrace of cultural references, mostly pertaining to the theater. But it sends up everything it touches with energetic glee and more often than not genuine smarts.

The education of the Bat Boy by the Parkers (Meredith names him Edgar) is accomplished in a single, hilarious musical number that fondly pokes fun at Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle and ends with Edgar's speaking in a British accent. And a major production number, surrounding the consummation of love in a forest bower between Edgar and the teenage Shelley Parker (Kerry Butler) manages, in a riotously staged mishmash, to invoke Genesis (the Bible book, not the band), Greek myth, Dracula, Shakespeare and "The Lion King."

The plot is inventive but probably too convoluted to detail in full. It involves a town once dependent on coal mining trying to make a comeback (foolishly) with cattle ranching; a sheriff up for re-election; one family bent on vengeance, another with deep emotional rifts; a revival meeting; and the title character's tragic flaw: he's addicted to drinking blood.

Mr. Schwartz has cast this show appealingly. In particular Ms. Hopkins as Meredith sings beautifully, and she is a deft comedian. Learning of Edgar's blood lust, Ms. Butler, as Shelley, renders her love ballad to him with such ardent, youthful sugar that the self-mocking bathos of the song -- "Now you're scared/You're in need/Clearly someone has to bleed" -- becomes ineffably sly.

Among the supporting players, Trent Armand Kendall, a rotund but agile man, stands out as a rocking, gospel-singing evangelist, and in a cameo, paddling across the stage on his belly wearing a bicycle helmet and a plastic trash can cover strapped to his back, he's a tortoise. It's a big laugh in a show that, surprisingly enough, is full of them.

On a dark and chilly corner of Union Square, in a theatre deep and cavernous, lives a woeful creature who is neither man nor beast. He is Bat Boy of the wild and witty BAT BOY THE MUSICAL, starring the captivating Deven May as the maligned and misunderstood young rodent.
Things are not right in the aptly named town of Hope Falls, West Virginia. For one thing, something’s got into the cattle. "Every one of those cows is laying around like a welfare mother." All this trouble got started when three smart-aleck kids climbed down into a godforsaken cave and discovered something unspeakable, a hideous beast -- half-boy, half-bat.

If you think this all sounds like an item out of the National Enquirer, you’d be close. The story first appeared in a tabloid with an even sleazier reputation. "Bat Child Found In A Cave!" read the Weekly World News’ shocker headline, accompanied by a photo of a freakish child with Spock-like ears, bulging eyes and hideously pointy fangs.

Yet, on stage, there’s something pitifully adorable about Bat Boy. In spite of his Max Schreck looks, he’s really quite lovable. Dr. Thomas Parker, the local veterinarian, nearly follows through with the sheriff’s advice to put the animal down, but wife Meredith bribes him with a rare offer of sex to spare the poor dear. For some reason, she feels a certain attachment.

Meredith and daughter Shelley set out to tame and refine their darling Edgar, as they have named the beast. In one of the sillier numbers, "Show You a Thing of Two," Meredith’s tutorials are met with a salvo of belches, streams of drool and a hysterical serpentine tongue dance. But, thanks to a bit of patience and some BBC language tapes, Edgar is chatting up a storm in no time, replete with English accent.

The townsfolk, however, have no tolerance for Meredith’s misguided benevolence. With their livestock in limbo and a kid on death’s door, they’re out for blood. So, too, is Edgar. You see, while the Parkers may have taught him to take tea and quote scripture, they still haven’t cured his dietary bloodlust.

Written by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, BAT BOY THE MUSICAL is one of the cleverest shows to have reached the theatre in a quite some time. With its camp characterizations and keen dialogue, BAT BOY provides light-hearted entertainment on the surface with a subtle subtext you can really sink your teeth into. Though it may appear to be an irreverence romp, at its heart lies an off-beat, downtown version of a morality play.

That’s not to say BAT BOY THE MUSICAL is ever heavy handed. Quite the opposite. From start to finish, writers Farley and Flemming never shy away from slaughtering a few sacred cows, one literally. For the savvy theatre-goers, there is no shortage of inside send-ups. Shows from MY FAIR LADY to THE ELEPHANT MAN take a kind-hearted drubbing. "I’m not a boy. I’m an animal," cries Edgar to the angry mob.

Even the flagship of this horror-camp genre, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, gets a bracing skewer. In the wicked paean to the American Dream, "Three Bedroom House," Meredith and Shelley long for a home with a pit bull and a bolted gate, not some glossy domicile out of House & Gardens.

And, what would the story of a half-bat/half-bay be without tons of Christian symbolism? The sheriff, who is up for re-election, sings of the townsfolk’s Christian Charity early in the first act (rhyming "kitchens" with "constituents"). Edgar discovers the joys of guilt, quoting from Genesis "Blood shall ye not eat." In his touching reprisal of A Home for You, Edgar vows if God will cure him of his diabolical diet, "I’ll eat nothing but soy." The product of a unique conception, Bat Boy is Hope Falls’ salvation, ready to take them under his wings.

Refreshingly, the townsfolk are not characterized as narrow-minded stereotypes and phobic fanatics, at least not beyond the point of redemption. They are simply members of the greater flock who have gotten a little off message. "Save me Bat Boy," these lost lambs chant, "Only you can make me whole." BAT BOY THE MUSICAL begs us all to live the universal gospel of Love Thy Neighbor.

The performances in BAT BOY THE MUSICAL are all stupendous. Kaitlin Hopkins as the homespun Meredith Parker hits both vocal and comedic excellence. Kerry Butler as Shelley strikes just the right note as the angst-ridden teenager. And, Trent Armand Kendall does cartwheels as man, woman and beast. Director Scott Schwartz, who co-directed Broadway’s JANE EYRE, has been blessed with a brilliant ensemble, lively compositions and a truly inspired book.

But, it’s Deven May as Edgar who hits the jugular. His sweet, slobbering dolt lulls us into an immediate trance. From captive beast to a dashing bon vivant to a tragic sacrificial soul, we are enchanted by his disarming simplicity. His adorably crooked arms and goofy smile warms us to the heart. May finds the perfect balance between light-hearted camp and honest pathos and carries it throughout the entire performance. In Bat Boy, there is much more than meets the ears.

NEW YORK -- If musical theater is dead, then a bunch of highly irreverent people are having a swell time dancing on its grave.

Those folks would be the team behind Bat Boy the Musical (three stars out of four), the wacky, whimsical and hip tour de force that opened last Wednesday at the Union Square Theatre off-Broadway.

Using a convoluted and most improbable plot involving a pointy-eared, half-human creature who stirs up trouble in a small Southern town, Bat Boy sinks its teeth into a variety of cultural and social conventions, sending up everything from conservative values to contemporary teen dress and jargon.

But the show is at its sharpest when it bites the very tradition that spawned it, parodying the fusion of theatrical pretense and rock 'n' roll bombast that has become the modern musical.

The opening number, Hold Me Bat Boy, establishes the title character as an unlikely martyr-hero by evoking that mother of all bombastic rock musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar. As guitars wail loudly, the company gyrates in unison, singing lyrics -- by Laurence O'Keefe, who also provides incisive, accessible music -- that would make Tim Rice blush in their highfalutin' earnestness.

More subversive fun follows after Bat Boy winds up in the home of a scheming veterinarian, whose fussy wife and ditzy daughter develop a curious fondness for him. Dr. Thomas Parker's diabolical machinations nod to Jekyll and Hyde, while the hilarious scene in which his daughter Shelley seduces Bat Boy makes winking references to The Lion King.

Nor do classic musicals escape Bat Boy's fangs: There are shades of My Fair Lady and West Side Story in the protagonist's tutoring sessions with Dr. Parker's wife, Meredith, and the show's mock-tragic conclusion.

All this satire is executed with affection and imagination by authors Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, and by a marvelous cast directed by Scott Schwartz with wit and vigor. Deven May is a revelation as Bat Boy, combining a robust singing voice and dazzling physical agility with shrewd comic timing. As Shelley and Meredith Parker, Kerry Butler and Kaitlin Hopkins also sing beautifully and prove canny comedians, while Sean McCourt deftly manages Dr. Parker's evolution from hapless husband to vivacious villain.

Fine supporting performances are turned in by Doug Storm, who plays Shelley's doofus-like beau as a cross between Axl Rose and Kid Rock, and Trent Armand Kendall, who appears in a range of amusing bit parts.

Those with prudish sensibilities or delicate constitutions should stand forewarned: Vampirism figures prominently in Bat Boy, as do intimations of bestiality and incest. But anyone with a healthy sense of humor about human and artistic folly will eat up this crisp, delightfully tart and immensely satisfying confection.

Bat Boy The Musical has landed in New York City. This new piece, a product of Los Angeles’ Actors’ Gang, was inspired by an article in the Weekly World News that told of the capture of a bat-child. This cover story took the supermarket tabloid to new heights and became the second highest selling edition of the publication (the "Elvis is Alive" edition beat it). With this pedigree for the plot, and driven by healthy wit and satiric humor, writers Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming (story and book) and Laurence O’Keefe (music and lyrics), have fashioned a musical that is a satiric delight.
The story unfolds in Hope Falls, West Virginia and begins when three young people, exploring caves outside of their hometown, discover a "bat-boy" in the caverns one day. The boy is as scared of the intruders as they are of him and in his fear, he bites one of them. The young explorers manage to capture the boy and bring him back to town.

In town, the Sheriff, not knowing what else to do with the young captive, takes him to the local veterinarian, hoping that the good doctor will dispose of the problem. The Sheriff is particularly concerned that, as the creature has already attacked one of the citizens, and as there is a strange malady killing the local ranchers’ cows, the Bat Boy will not be a welcome addition in the townspeople’s minds.

The vet, however, is out hunting when the Bat Boy is brought to his house. Before he returns, his wife has taken a shine to the boy and convinces her husband that there is good in the boy and that she will teach him to be a useful member of society.

The wife accomplishes her task with remarkable rapidity, and in the process also develops a fondness for the boy that angers her husband. This affection sets in motion a chain of events that fuel the musical’s second act and drive the work toward a bizarrely epic Greek ending.

This parody of Greek tragedy is only one of the targets of the creators’ wicked humor. During the course of the evening, they manage three deft parodies of well-known musicals from the opening "Hold Me, Bat Boy" which evokes Jesus Christ Superstar to "Show You a Thing or Two" which becomes in its own fashion a homage to "The Rain in Spain" from My Fair Lady. These two numbers are in Act One. In Act Two, the opening of The Lion King becomes a bacchanalia for stuffed animals to delightful effect.

In addition to poking fun at musical theater, Bat Boy The Musical takes aim mostly at B-movies but also turns its humor toward the hypocrisy of "Good Christians" who are motivated by evangelical religion; and the gullibility of the American people who devour tabloids as their source of current events.

With all of this, there is great fun throughout. Some of the lyrics are extraordinarily funny, making just the right use of knowing bad rhymes. Two of favorites were: "In a cave many miles to the South/There’s a boy with fangs in his mouth" and "I’m not a garden gnome/Why can’t I make this world my home?" There are also some good one-line jokes about the ill cows, and the explanation for Bat Boy’s British accent, once he begins speaking, is priceless.

The humor does begin to run a little thin in Act Two as the evening moves toward its conclusion. The plot’s denouement is more than a little drawn-out and one hopes that the authors might consider a bit of pruning as Bat Boy The Musical settles into the Union Square Theater for what could be a long-run..

The performances are, for the most part, exceptional. Deven May, who is repeating the role of Bat Boy, which he created in Los Angeles, has physicality as the bat boy that defies explanation, but convinces one that he is indeed part bat and part human. May’s voice is rich and works well for the wide range of musical styles in the character’s numbers.

Kerry Butler, as the vet’s daughter, provides the appropriate mixture of teenage rebelliousness and adult maturity in her love for Bat Boy. As Shelley’s mother, Kaitlin Hopkins’ performance is exceedingly winning. Hopkins maneuvers through all of the different comedic aspects of the character as if there couldn’t be anything more natural. Her comic timing and deadpan humor is ideal in the role. She has a terrific voice as well. Of the leading characters, one only wishes that Sean McCourt as the vet, Dr. Parker, could have plumbed the depths of his character for a little more nuance.

As directed by Scott Schwartz and designed by Richard Hoover and Bryan Johnson, the production feels just a bit too big for the charms of the material. There are portions of the set which seem to be there simply for the purpose of taking up space rather than for any specific purpose. Additionally, there are times when it is difficult for one to figure out where ones focus should be. Whereas the opening of The Lion King carefully pulls one’s eye toward each creature as it enters, the parody in Bat Boy The Musical has the feeling of a three ring circus gone amok.

These concerns about the production do not detract from the musical’s chief goal and that is to make audiences laugh, and in this, the musical succeeds.

This Los Angeles import is an unqualified success. Rarely do we see a piece of theatre that is at once so smart, silly, self-aware, and easy to enjoy as "Bat Boy: The Musical." It's too early to say whether Deven May is a staggeringly gifted actor, or whether he has just found the role he was born to play. In any case, it is well worth a trip to the Union Square Theatre to see him devour the titular part. From the moment he is discovered in the darkness of a cave in Hope Falls, WV, he remains one step ahead. His physicality accounts for as much humor as his timing, and to top it off, he's got a killer voice. Just as impressive as May is Kerry Butler, who plays Shelly, the girl who learns to love the Bat Boy. The young actress makes a complicated character completely understandable, and her wide range of emotions is made to look effortless. The story is based on a popular tabloid article. After biting one of the spelunkers that finds him, the pointy eared, razor-toothed 'freak' is brought to the town veterinarian, Dr. Thomas Parker (Sean McCourt) to be put to sleep. But his wife, Meredith, (Kaitlin Hopkins) develops a motherly affection for him and convinces her husband to let "Edgar" live. Under her tutelage, he becomes more cultured than any of the townspeople, but still they cry for his blood. Meanwhile, Edgar, however refined, still has to deal with his own hankering for the red stuff. The cast is clearly having a great time on stage, and this makes watching all the more enjoyable. Each ensemble member is double cast, in cross-gender and cross-racial roles. and given the self-conscious nature of the production, all of this leads to more laughs. The costume design (Fabio Toblini) is one of the shows' most admirable elements. Rather than seeing the double-cast roles and quick changes as a hindrance, Toblini has fun with them. Scott Schwartz' direction has made this show unforgettable. The humor is consistent, and jokes run through every aspect of the production. The music is referential, incorporating gospel, rock, and mock hip-hop. It calls Rent, The Lion King, Jesus Christ Superstar, and a slew of other musicals to mind, all the while managing to maintain an original, distinct narrative.

When we first heard about Bat Boy The Musical, we thought it was about baseball. Apparently, so did most of the headline writers in New York: reviewers for the two tabloids have written that the new musical at the Union Square Theatre "hits a home run." During the show’s first two numbers, a generic rock tune with a banal lyric followed by a mock-rap misfire (the words of which we could not make out), we thought the mighty Bat Boy was about to strike out. But then the show’s tone and style suddenly took hold, and Bat Boy revealed itself to be a musical comedy slugger. Oh, by the way, it’s not about baseball. It’s about a boy who’s equal parts bat, Eliza Doolittle, and Jesus. And he’s in a musical comedy that sucks the blood of many another show and lives and thrives in its own delightfully derivative way.

The plot of Bat Boy is as loopy as its source material, a fabled cover story in the outlandishly cheesy Weekly World News. Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, who provided the book of the musical, were inspired by that rag’s yarn about a half-bat, half-human child found in a cave in West Virginia. They teamed up with composer Laurence O’Keefe and turned something laughable into something, well, really laughable, singable, and actable. Bat Boy, under the inspired direction of Scott Schwartz, could well be this decade’s Little Shop of Horrors. (That comparison is not lightly made).

In a nutty nutshell, here’s the story: Our hero, found in a cave, is brought to the local vet’s house to be put to sleep, but his humanity is reawakened by the vet’s wife, Meredith (Kaitlin Hopkins). From the point when Meredith sings to him and he, in a cage, suddenly harmonizes in return, Bat Boy takes off like a bat out of hell. The woman showers the boy with love and attention, teaching him to speak, read, and act like a proper English gentleman. This transformation is one of the funniest scenes you will likely find in the theater this year.

What seems, at first, to be a one-joke rock musical soon evolves into a diverse pastiche of everything from My Fair Lady to The Lion King. The referential aspects of the show are fun to pick out; but you need not, for instance, realize that at one point they’re spoofing Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde to enjoy the moment. The show works on its own energy and inventiveness, lifted by a cast that could hardly be improved upon. In the title role, Deven May gives a career-making performance. His acting is physical yet internalized, and his dramatic skills are as rangy as his exquisite voice. He’s also wonderfully funny. In fact, May should immediately start writing acceptance speeches for all the awards he’ll win at the end of the season.

He is not alone, however, in carrying this show. Kaitlin Hopkins here gives one of the most fully rounded female musical comedy performances in a long time. Her timing is masterful, she sings like a dream, and she finds just the right tone for her character. Sean McCourt, who plays her husband, the veterinarian, is spectacular in his own dark fashion. Kerry Butler as the ingenue who first loathes, then loves the bat boy, has an extraordinary voice. Trent Armand Kendall, in multiple roles, galvanizes the show at the start of the second act as a revivalist preacher. And so it goes, right down the cast list.

Scott Schwartz’s direction is fast-paced and full of gags. After a rocky start, he pulls the disparate pieces of Bat Boy together to achieve a consistent tone of cheeky, downtown humor in spite of the wild gyrations of the plot. The book by Farley and Flemming is droll, and it’s often matched by O’Keefe’s dryly comic lyrics. But O’Keefe’s music is uneven; the show’s best numbers are those rooted in the genuine musical comedy tradition, like the killer "Three Bedroom House," sung by Hopkins and Butler.

Bat Boy just wouldn’t be the same without the atmospheric sets designed by Richard Hoover and Bryan Johnson. The show’s lighting has been smartly created by Howell Binkley, with the exception of one sequence that blinds and abuses the audience. Finally, Fabio Toblini’s costumes are a blast. Bat Boy looks as great as it sounds.

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