BATTY AS HELL

Excellent performances struggle against
muddled storytelling and sound problems
in this production of the cult musical

Amy Barker, Michelle Moran, Johnny Shea

The entire time I watched Bat Boy: The Musical at Umbrella Stage in Concord, I was trying to place it within what I know of the theatrical tradition. It’s like Pygmalion, I thought, as mom Meredith Parker (Amy Barker) tutored young Bat Boy (Johnny Shea), recently discovered in a cave. Young Bat Boy has remarkable potential and quickly goes from squeaking and grunting to reviewing Western civilization in BBC English and graduating summa cum laude (though we don’t know from what). It was funny, thanks to Barker’s and Shea’s wonderful performances, as well as that of Michelle Moran as Meredith’s daughter Shelley. I just wish I’d been able to understand more of what seemed like witty lyrics buried under the noise of poorly balanced sound.

Amy Barker and Brian Demar Jones

With a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, Bat Boy: The Musical draws its inspiration from a 1992 Weekly World News story about a half-boy, half-bat creature supposedly found living in a cave. The now-defunct tabloid was known for sensational and mostly fictional “news.” The musical takes that absurd premise into darker territory, mixing comedy, horror, and questions about acceptance.

Maria Sylvia Norris, Thomas Vice, and Will McGarrahan

Maybe it’s like Pygmalion meets Sweeney Todd, I thought a little later, when Meredith’s husband, Dr. Thomas Parker (Brian Demar Jones), went on a killing spree for reasons I won’t reveal here. Then, when we found ourselves in a magical world of glitter and stuffed animals for reasons I never understood, I thought perhaps A Midsummer Night’s Dream had entered the mix. A complex explanation for Bat Boy’s existence eventually suggested a PBS NOVA documentary. (You could add Oedipus Rex at some point, too.)

The Cast

Perhaps another production would have revealed the strengths of this musical more clearly. Its 2001 Off-Broadway production was a hit, a Boston production by SpeakEasy Stage Company won an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Production, and Encores! in New York had a very successful revival last November. Here, despite the efforts of director Jeremy Johnson and choreographer Brianna Fallon, I found the shifts in tone and storytelling difficult to follow.

SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal‘s lighting design was excellent. I just wish its strengths, along with those of the above-named performers (shout-outs to Will McGarrahan and Maria Sylvia Norris as well), had been put to better use.

photos by Jim Sabitus

Bat Boy: The Musical
The Umbrella Stage Company
Theater 144 at The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street in Concord, MA
Thu–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3
ends on November 8, 2026
for tickets ($20–$62), visit The Umbrella Arts Center

for more shows, visit Theater in Boston

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