As an entertainment, the Speakeasy Stage Company's season opener, "Bat Boy: The Musical", lives up to their reputation for good performances, fast paced staging, and a kind of tacky originality. As a musical, this product of Tim Robbins' Actor's Gang in L.A., has all the earmarks of a college show; excess story elements as the authors try to get one more joke in, a meandering plot line that just grows, and a pastiche score which falls somewhere between parody and homage. The fact that all three of its creators are products of the film school scene is partially to blame. All that's missing from this Jones & Schmidt inspired effort is Ed Wood popping out at the end to shriek; "That's a wrap."
Speakeasy's Artistic Director Paul Daigneault manages to create an interesting evening out this jumble of tabloid sensationalism, low-budget horror movie over-acting, and sketch-comedy echoes of musical theatre. Emerson grad Miguel Cervantes bounds his way through the title role and creates a modicum of the requisite sympathy for Edgar even as the script invites ridicule of the whole idea. Speakeasy board member Kerry Dowling has easily the best voice in the company, and as Mrs. Parker, the mother in the show, some of the strongest musical material. Boston College junior Sara Chase, as Shelley Parker, the ingenue, fits the part, which could be dropped into any teen angst series on T.V. Veteran leading man Michael Mendiola, last seen in the title part in Speakeasy's "Floyd Collins", is effective as the mild-mannered veterinarian/evil mad scientist behind the overly convoluted secret of the Bat Boy.
All the company except Edgar plays multiple roles or back up the ensemble. BDavid Krinitt mostly plays the clueless sheriff but also shows up as a peacock wearing his pistol as a codpiece in "Children, Children", a complex costume fantasy suggesting "Celebration!", The Lion King" and "Seussical." The three children who find the Bat Boy underground and drag him into town are Austin Lesch (Rick), Lisa Korak (Ron), and Sarah O'Malley (Ruthie). They also appear as male and female townspeople, with minimal costume changes. B Mary Callanan, who plays their blowzy mother, really shines in the second act opener as Rev. Hightower, leading a rousing gospel number. It's unfortunate that the first act opening number, "Hold Me, Bat Boy", which of course shows up as the show's closer, doesn't have the same potential. And then there's Bud, played by Kevin Alan Ramsey, the hapless Coke delivery man and hapless farmer. Ramsey has his moment as Pan in the fantasy, which would be the eleven o'clock number if the show didn't stretch so long.
"Bat Boy", despite its success Off-Broadway, still feels like a show in development, with all the good ideas still onstage, competing as entertainment, but not advancing the narrative. The opening number, which can make or break the evening, is the weakest part of the mix, coming out of nowhere after a prologue in the dark--the capture of Bat Boy. Setups which are probably intended to be obviously clumsy--nudge, nudge, wink, wink--are also boring. The first act would benefit from radical pruning and rearrangement, starting further along in the sequence, using fewer/shorter songs, and flashing back only as needed. After all, that's how the second act has to conclude
The second half needs similar tightening; there's too much development which should have been handled more economically in the first place. The "Revelations" sequence, crucial to the ersatz plot, would be a prime target for rethinking. And while a love song between Edgar and Shelley is inevitable, "Inside Your Heart", even well performed as it was here, fails to inspire. The insipid reprise of "Hold Me, Bat Boy," imploring the audience to find their inner whatever achieves neither self-parody or musicality, try as the ensemble and the choreographer, David Connelly, may.
The BCA theatre, a venerable basement installation still unfinished after more than a quarter-century of use, provides a convincing air of menace to the proceedings. A slaughterhouse track with hooks serves as a set piece and a way to bring on supertitles. The centerpiece, Bat Boy's cage serves as background for much of the action, and of course, holds the entire ensemble for the final curtain. IRNE award-winning designer, Kristin Loeffler, has again chosen the right elements to turn this uninspiring space into a showplace, from rolling units to the signature tabloid "flash" painted on the floor. M.I.T.'s Karen Perlow has stretched the lighting possibilities by including center foot light from a set unit in the first row and various practicals which add variety. Jenna Rossi, costuming for Speakeasy for the first time, comes up with a sleazy cartoon look for the cast's multiple changes. Music director Roger Grodsky and conductor Paul Katz do the rather derivative score proud, with help from sound designer, Haddon Kime, who should have been asked to supply more sound effects.
This show probably has a future at smaller venues, on college campuses, and most likely as an independent art house movie-musical. "Bat Boy" doesn't however have the enduring strength of "Little Shop..." to which it's routinely compared. Unfortunately it will probably inspire future projects by even less talented habitues of the L.A. scene. A local Boston critic suggested after seeing the first U.S. production of "Dracula-a Chamber Musical" that he expects to hear Laurence Talbot howling an aria sometime soon. Given some of the music theatre pieces proposed recently, the tabloids will probably inspire someone to create a show involving the world's fattest baby, Roswell aliens, and a survivor of the Titanic. (One can't help reading the front pages waiting in line at the checkout.)