Preview
BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL
Mob Hit Productions
Starring Adrian Marchuk, Shari Wattling and Adam Burton
Written by Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe
Directed and choreographed by Mark Bellamy
Runs June 16 to 25
Vertigo Studio (Tower Centre)
As anyone who has cooled their heels in a supermarket lineup knows, there’s a hierarchy to the gossip mags and tabs. At the top, there are the glossy, more or less legit publications, such as People and US. Then there are the scummy celebrity scandal rags, led by the notorious National Enquirer. Like Emerson’s Brahma, one to them are shame and fame.
And then, sticking to the bottom of the print-media barrel like hardened bubble gum, emblazoned with headlines worthy of the Third World War, there’s the one and only Weekly World News. A defiantly crummy-looking tabloid that apparently has yet to discover colour printing or Photoshop, the hilarious WWN has earned its wide popularity (an alleged readership of one million – and everything should be "alleged" when you’re dealing with this paper) by publishing some of the most brilliant scoops in the history of modern journalism.
Where else but in the WWN did we learn that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are gay lovers and have adopted a shaved ape baby? Or that Jesus’s sandal was found in Central Park? And we can always trust this blaring organ to be the first to bring us fresh predictions by the dead Nostradamus, the latest sightings of the undead Elvis and news of the world’s fattest cat.
But the Weekly World News’s most enduring and endearing reportage involves a little blood-sucking, bug-eating chap dubbed Bat Boy. WWN broke the story on the discovery of this cave-dwelling mutant in 1992 and has been faithfully following his saga ever since. And, like Peter Parker with Spider-Man, the paper always seems to be the first – and only – media source to get the latest Bat Boy scoops. Where was CNN when Bat Boy led the way to Saddam’s hole-in-the-ground hideout in Iraq? Where was The Washington Post when he was being considered by John Kerry as a potential running mate? Or People, when he declared his love for Jenna Bush?
Serious journalists may scoff, but perhaps Bat Boy is, like it or not, a new kind of tall-tale character for the era of space aliens, conspiracy theories and Jerry Springer, as quintessentially American in his way as Paul Bunyan or John Henry.
Comedy writers Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming (co-creators of TV’s Rugrats) and songwriter Laurence O'Keefe seem to think so. They’re the twisted brains behind Bat Boy: The Musical, a bizarre cult favourite that took wing in L.A. in 1997, flitted onto Off-Broadway in 2001 (only to be sent flapping after 9-11), crossed over to London last year and is now hanging (upside down, of course) at the Vertigo Studio in a new production by Mob Hit.
A HERO FOR OUR TIMES
"He’s become a modern folk hero," says Vertigo Mystery Theatre artistic director Mark Bellamy, an unabashed fan of Bat Boy’s original cast recording who gleefully agreed to loan out his musical directing and choreographing skills for Mob Hit’s staging.
"He’s the classic underdog," adds Adrian Marchuk, the Ontario singer-actor hired to play him. Bellamy met Marchuk in Toronto this winter while both were attending that city’s production of Bat Boy (which, like the London one, was slaughtered by the critics) and realized he was perfect for the role. Although not too perfect. The pointy ears and fangs aren’t Marchuk’s own, but prosthetics courtesy of makeup designer Whitney Huget-Penner.
In the musical, Bat Boy isn’t just an underdog hero, however, he’s also the freak who wants to be accepted, the monster who’s more human than the human beings who shun and revile him. Discovered in a cave outside the tiny West Virginia burg of Hope Falls, he’s handed over to the local veterinarian (Adam Burton), whose wife (Shari Wattling) and daughter (Lynley Engh) become Bat Boy’s Pygmalions, reshaping him from a feral child into a civilized lad named Edgar. But his longing to be normal can’t overcome his natural need to slurp on the occasional juicy artery. And before long he’s riled up the ignorant and intolerant folks of Hope Falls.
"He’s the product of some strange genetic mutation, but at the same time he’s inherently human," says Marchuk. "It’s kind of like Frankenstein, where the monster isn’t necessarily the monster; it’s the people who are responsible for him and demonize him, they’re the real monsters in our society."
Like its cult-fave forerunners, The Rocky Horror Show and Little Shop of Horrors, Bat Boy is largely a genre spoof, not only quoting classic horror films but also serving up nutty musical numbers that parody such mainstream fare as My Fair Lady, Les Miz and The Lion King. "It’s a reaction to the Disneyfication of musical theatre," says Bellamy. "It has a nice gritty quality to it, a bit like a fringe show."
But he and his collaborators are aware that even a wacky send-up like this needs some degree of believability to work.
"When you base something on a tabloid, of course, there’s a certain level of unreality and kitsch that’s built in," says Bellamy. "But it’s a tricky balance – you can’t go too far with it, or it just becomes silly and stupid. There has to be some level of reality underneath it."
ACTING LIKE A BAT
Marchuk has certainly approached his role in that spirit. To make the character physically convincing he spent a lot of time watching bat documentaries on cable, downloading bat videos from the Internet and poring over children’s picture books about bats. "You have to ask yourself, ‘What is the audience going to expect from a bat child?’" he says. "‘How is he going to move, how is he going to bite?’"
But Marchuk says the real acting challenge is to play the boy inside the bat. That, and singing while hanging upside down. But seriously: "While it’s a lot of fun to play the animal stuff," he says, "Bat Boy is actually one of the more human characters in the show. He has a lot of compassion, a lot of wit and understanding. And he has a very human plight: he wants to know where he comes from, where he belongs. He wants to find love, fit in, have a family, and he wants to be accepted in spite of his differences. And this is a child who never gets to leave the house because he might get lynched."
There may, in fact, be a hint of tragedy here, and a lesson about not denying your inner beast. But hey, come on, it’s not that serious. Or, as Marchuk puts it, "It’s not Ibsen." No, indeed. The Guardian critic Michael Billington may have found the more apt comparison when he described it as "the theatrical equivalent of a movie like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."
LITTLE MUSICAL, BIG CHALLENGE
But, while it may only be a little, kitschy musical spoof, it’s proven to be a bigger undertaking than Mob Hit anticipated.
Not only does it have a cast of 10 (with five actors playing multiple roles), but also a five-piece band with two keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. And its score may be more rock than Rachmaninoff, but it’s pretty sophisticated. "That’s taken a lot of us by surprise," says Marchuk, who studied musical theatre at the University of Windsor and has been performing professionally for six years. "The music is a joy to sing, but it isn’t easy."
Luckily, the company has a musical director with classical credentials, Calgary Philharmonic violinist Brigit Knecht, and such expert musicians as pianist Kevin McGugan, fresh from tickling the ivories in Alberta Theatre Projects’ 2 Pianos, 4 Hands.
Bellamy, who has won a pair of Betty Mitchell Awards for his choreographic work at ATP and Theatre Calgary, admires Mob Hit for choosing to do this show. The little company hasn’t shied away from big projects – it successfully staged Timothy Findley’s costume drama Elizabeth Rex at the start of this season – but like all musicals, Bat Boy has more to it than meets the eye.
"It’s huge. There are all these costumes, a gigantic score," he says. "This would be a challenging show for ATP to tackle, but for these guys to take it on is really brave."
For Bat Boy tickets and more information, call Vertigo at 221-3708 or visit www.thisisamobhit.com |
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