Theatre Review: Laugh Attack at Union Square Theatre—“Bat Boy: The Musical”
by Jan Aaron

Can a Bat Boy discovered in a cave in Hope Falls, West Virginia, find happiness in New York? Yes—judging from the laughter and applause at the Union Square Theatre.

“Bat Boy: The Musical” breathes life into a tabloid creature with the body of a boy but seriously deformed with the pointy ears and sharp teeth. While the town’s people want him destroyed, the sheriff (Richard Pruitt) leaves him with the local vet Thomas Parker (Sean McCourt) where he is accepted by his wife, Meredith (Kaitlin Thomas).

With some trepidation by her teenage daughter, Shelley (Kerry Butler), they name the boy Edgar and start to educate him. Very quickly he learns, in a hilarious scene satirizing “My Fair Lady’s” language lesson, to speak with a British accent. Soon he is reading the classics and pouring proper tea. Bat Boy pokes fun at other shows, too.

Deven May’s electrifying Bat Boy performance is worth the entire evening. He inhabits the creature that has a love for learning and a lust for blood. May expertly sings, dances, clowns, mimes and makes you feel the outrageous character’s pain to his addiction when he’s singing his “Apology to a Cow.” Hopkins, as the adoptive mother, has both a lovely voice and good comic timing. Vivid also is Trent Armand Kendall, a chubby but graceful actor, who rocks the house with his revival singing and hilariously plays the role of a frantic mother among others.

The complicated plot involves a faded coal mining town trying to raise cattle on a hillside, a deeply held family secret, and a half a dozen other strands. Everything falls into place deftly as directed by Scott Schwartz. The imaginative production’s five-piece rock band accompanies the clever lyrics of Laurence O’Keefe who wrote the score with Alex Lacamoire.

(Union Square Theater,100 East 17th St. 212-307-4100; $50-$55.)

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