If you can remember standing in line at the supermarket checkout perusing tabloid covers in the early ’90s, you might remember the head-turning headline that graced the cover of the June 23, 1992, issue of Weekly World News: “Bat Child Found in Cave!”
The cover photo showed the creepy, stretched face of a pale, screaming boy with pointy bat ears; inside, the story described how a half-boy, half-bat of about 10 years of age was found “in a hellhole cave in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia.”
The wild tale went on to say that his human mother, “Susan Boy,” had conceived him with the boy’s bat father, and it even claimed that such hybrid offspring had existed for centuries.
When an idea like that lands in a playwright’s lap, what are they supposed to do, not use it? Which is how Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming came to write Bat Boy: The Musical in 1997, featuring songs by Laurence O’Keefe. And now you can catch a production of this wacky, ridiculous, over-the-top show, presented jointly by the University of Nevada, Reno’s Department of Theatre and Dance and the School of Music, at the Redfield Proscenium Theatre at UNR through March 15.
Yes, the show reads much as the old WWN story did nearly 34 years ago. Backed by a driving soundtrack, courtesy of a live, five-person rock band set above the action, the partly nightmarish, partly hilarious tale of Bat Boy begins in a cave outside Hope Falls, W.Va., a podunk town of 500 residents. Here, the troublesome Taylor kids—Rick (Coy Romo), Ron (Bellamy Barnes) and Ruthie (Ava Amico)—stumble upon an unfamiliar creature (played by Hunter Healy) hidden in the shadows. When Ruthie tries to feed it some of her Fritos, the creature lashes out, biting her and sending her to the hospital.
So of course the town needs to capture this mysterious creature, which they dub “Bat Boy,” and keep it in a cage, for everyone’s safety—and for research purposes, as humans are wont to do. For some reason, it’s the home of Dr. Thomas Parker (Luke Clark), a veterinarian, and his family that Sheriff Reynolds (Marco Bisio III) selects as the place to keep Bat Boy.
Meanwhile, at the Parkers’ home, the doctor’s wife, Meredith (Mariana Hoffman), is giving her daughter, Shelley (Izzy AuCoin), a stern talking-to about the generally terrible nature of boys, especially Shelley’s boyfriend, Rick, and the importance of maintaining her virtue for as long as possible. When Rick discovers that the creature who put his sister in the hospital is now caged in his girlfriend’s home, the two fight, and she kicks him out.
Before long, with Shelley’s help, Meredith has renamed the creature Edgar and taught him to speak (in a posh accent, thanks to old recordings of BBC), read, write and generally fit into society. It’s a bit like My Fair Lady, only the pupil has pointy ears, creeps around on all fours, drinks blood and occasionally emits high-pitched squeals. As time passes, mother and daughter develop a love for the weird Bat Boy.
But unbeknownst to them, danger lurks right under their noses—and it isn’t from the pointy-eared newcomer. When the townspeople start to notice the gradual disappearance of their noticeably scrawny cattle, and an enraged Mrs. Taylor (played hilariously by MJ Boga) throws a fit about Bat Boy’s presence after what he did to her daughter, their cries for justice escalate. Although Edgar desperately wants to live in the community as one of them, a jealous Dr. Parker gets the others even more riled up. All Edgar can do is save himself, with Meredith and Shelley’s help.
Hunter Healy’s performance as Bat Boy is so bizarre, incredibly funny and surprising that you could almost believe it was written for him.
It’s a tough show to pull off for several reasons, not least of which is the absurdity of the story. Then there’s that live music—huge kudos go to band members Aren Long, Teagan Loranz, Mikey Vick, Jordan Taylor and Lukas Farias—which is present for almost the entirety of the show and maintains volume and high energy throughout. The clever, ironic lyrics convey essential story details, and the actors must carry a tune while enunciating, ensuring sufficient volume while often performing in a rapid patter. And under the direction of Susanna Vaughn, they do so well. It’s always a pleasure to find local actors who also can carry a powerful musical number, and Bat Boy presents several of them, including Hoffman as Meredith, AuCoin as Shelley, Healy as Edgar/Bat Boy and a wondrous second-act character, Reverend Hightower, played capably by a velvet-voiced Ria Howard.
In fact, the ensemble cast of townspeople, despite playing “minor” roles, for the most part, manage authentic-sounding (yet hammy) Southern accents and impressive physical comedy.
At times, the music overpowered the lyrics to the point of making them indiscernible; however, I caught the show in a final dress rehearsal, so it’s highly likely a better balance will be achieved for the full run.
Healy’s performance as Bat Boy is so bizarre, incredibly funny and surprising that you could almost believe it was written for him. The squeals of fear and delight, along with the priggish British accent he occasionally brings out, feel like signature moves, and they elicit laughter every single time. But more than that, his physicality—extremely bendy, lanky and awkward—and his talent for facial expressions and gestures convey the sense that he is otherworldly while seeming to also invite the audience in on the joke.
While the show explores such important themes as otherness, the desire for acceptance, mob mentality and the role of nature vs. nurture, it’s also a weird, wild, escapist ride you’ll never forget—if you can just set aside your disbelief for about two hours.
The University of Nevada, Reno’s Department of Theatre and Dance presents Bat Boy: The Musical, at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 1:30 p.m., Sunday, from Friday, March 6, through Sunday, March 15, at the Redfield Proscenium Theatre, at the Church Fine Arts building. Tickets are $25 with discounts for seniors, students and UNR employees. For tickets and additional information, visit events.unr.edu/event/bat-boy-the-musical.