Bat Boy Preview

Tabloid lovers: 'Bat Boy' is here

Thursday, January 10, 2008
BY JENN MCKEE The Ann Arbor News

The off-Broadway cult hit "Bat Boy: The Musical'' - now being staged by the Ann Arbor Civic Theater - isn't about a spunky kid who handles equipment for a baseball team. No, no. Think more along the lines of pointy ears, dark caves, and the true meaning of "night life.''

Inspired by a farcical tabloid article published by The Weekly World News, "Bat Boy'' begins when a group of rural West Virginia teenagers venture into a cave and discover a half-bat, half-human hybrid. The teens bring Bat Boy to their town, where the veterinarian's wife works to "civilize'' him; yet when the local farmers' cows start to die inexplicably, questions arise regarding Bat Boy's animalistic origins, and how much he's really been able to transcend them.

"It gets into the idea of ostracism, which speaks to what goes on at this point,'' said director Timo Anderson, who originally saw "Bat Boy'' in New York shortly before 9/11. "How we're afraid of so many different people, and how we find things to find wrong with them rather than finding things (that are) right.''

Even so, the show is a dark comedy that pokes fun at other musicals while also boasting an eclectic score. "There's a little bit of everything,'' said Andy Ballnik, who plays the title role. "There's a country/western song in it, there's a gospel revival song, there's the very typical love duet, and there's a big act one finale. ... I wasn't expecting the music to be as addicting as it is. ... It was very surprising, because my first initial (impression) was this was some sort of gothic horror show.''

Instead, for Ballnik, the show's score and ironic sensibility recalls recent Broadway hits like "Avenue Q'' and "Urinetown.'' But when a show's blueprint lies in a wildly quirky "news'' story, the question inevitably arises: how campy do you go?

"My experience with comedies is that you play it completely straight, as if it's a deadpan drama, and that's when the comedy really comes out,'' said Ballnik. "That's how I took the character of Bat Boy. There are some massively funny parts, because he's so ignorant to human society and the human world, but I took him as - he's a boy, an adolescent, and he's going through a huge culture shock.''

Anderson, meanwhile, worked to keep the show's cast members focused on the complexity of their individual characters. "It's very easy to accentuate the 'aw, shucks' dumb cow farmers in West Virginia,'' he said. "But that doesn't serve the show, because that doesn't allow the audience to see how normal people can be affected by one person's revenge motive, or (the unwillingness) to accept someone because they're new.''

Ultimately, though, one wonders why did this particular tabloid story so captured the imaginations of "Bat Boy'' book writer Keythe Farley and composer/lyricist Laurence O'Keefe. "I think it was bizarre enough that it caught people's attention, but it wasn't so far out of the ordinary that it didn't have any sort of realism,'' said Anderson. "He wasn't an alien, which has been done. He's kind of a New Age alien. One that we created.''

Jenn McKee can be reached at 734-994-6841 or jmckee@annarbornews.com.