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Saturday, Mar 20, 2010
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Bat Boy: Not your usual musical |
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| Bat Boy: Not your usual musical | ||
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by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer Bat Boy, The Musical By Keythe Farley, Laurence O'Keefe and Brian Flemming Directed by Christopher Zinovitch ArtsWest Now through November 10, 2007 It hangs upside down, it jumps, it bites, it sings&It's Bat Boy! If you like wacky, offbeat, weird, run over to ArtsWest to see this show. The story is supposedly based on a tabloid newspaper article about a boy who is born part bat, part boy and found in New York. The musical tells of finding the boy, caging him in the home of the veterinarian, and the town fear of the stranger. The boy learns to speak and even read the Bible and longs for acceptance from the town. He and the daughter of the vet fall in love, which appalls her parents, for reasons that become clear in the end. The town wants him dead, as a girl lies sick from his bite in the hospital. There are overtones from Hamlet, even. This is a rollicking production, with good singers and flexible set by Will Abrahamse. The biggest problem is that it's a very small space, with way too much sound. Everyone wears headset microphones, since they have to sing over the very, very loud in-house band. RJ Tancioco, a talented and experienced musical director, creates very a professional band, but couldn't they unmike the instruments (particularly the drums)? When you don't have to protect your hearing, there are great performances by Troy Wageman as Bat Boy, who can sing and hang upside down at the same time!, and Heather Hawkins as Mrs. veterinarian, who takes to the boy and protects him from the rest of the town. The rest of the family, Krystle Armstrong as the daughter and Nick DeSantis as the vet, are also fun to watch, with great voices. The play skewers Christianity, society, politics, all sorts of topics. It's not for people who believe theater should be "realistic," so keep an open mind. It's not your father's musical. For more information, go to www.artswest.org or call 206-938-0339. To comment on the review, write sgncritic@gmail.com. |
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