“Bat child found in cave” read the June 23, 1992 cover of satire publication “Weekly World News.” The article described a mysterious half-bat, half-man creature that had been spotted roaming the streets after leaving his subterranean quarters. 

After the success of the article, there was only one logical way for the batboy story to proceed and that was — of course — a musical. With the story as well as book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, and music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, “Bat Boy: The Musical” took to the McClintock Theatre stage, directed by Jared Gertner, this past weekend.

The show is entirely cast out of the Bachelor of Fine Arts musical theatre sophomore cohort, featuring Parker Simon as Bat Boy himself. Simon shocked audiences from his first moment, jumping out of the dark in his form-fitting costume and remained astonishing until the dramatic end. Simon really embodied the character and he went to great lengths to portray this strange creature.

Alongside Simon, Calista Zajac came fresh off a performance in “SIX: The Musical In Concert!” with the same amazing voice seen just a short time prior. Zajac took on the role of Shelley and sang the co-lead’s numerous songs with great skill. She continues to prove herself as a very strong member of the musical theatre program at the School of Dramatic Arts.

In a performance that only continues to improve as the show goes on — especially once the show reaches the end of Act One — Josh Adam Davis as Dr. Parker acted with a fantastic power that brought the audience into the mind of the progressively more deranged doctor. Davis made the audience laugh, scream and gasp as he proved himself to be a highlight of the show. 

The show continued to thrive off of the role-changing ensemble that was consistently helping bring the world to life with performances from Drew Margolis as the Sheriff to Vero López as Meredith. The rest of the cast repeatedly elevated each other’s performance throughout the show. When much of the cast was performing the big dance numbers, they demonstrated their singing talent, alongside the more intimate times with just one or two actors on stage. It was hard to find a time where the audience was unable to compliment the performance.

The show’s music was performed under the musical direction of Benet Braun with Selma Elbalalesy on keys #2 for the majority of the show — other than select moments where she took to the stage to perform. While the songs flowed, Claire Tablizo’s choreography really helped bring the larger numbers to life, filling the stage with the cohort’s dance talent, helmed admirably by Sabina Martín, who served as dance captain alongside various other roles.

SDA utilizes the Second Stage program to highlight the actors and the text, but it tends to feel a bit off for something as grand as a musical like this. A more traditional musical would be performed in a larger proscenium theater with a bigger set, but McClintock Theatre is anything but big. 

To have such a unique and intimate performance of musical theater can end up hurting the show. While there is an immense amount of talent in “Bat Boy” and this cohort generally, there were some bland acting performances that were very apparent seeing those performances mere feet away. 

Musical theater is no easy feat; to act, dance and sing all at once is incredibly impressive but at times it feels like the cast focused so much on the latter two that the former got lost. This would be perfectly fine if it was in a more traditional setting, but in McClintock Theatre — where audience members are so close to the actors and can see every aspect of the performance behind the actor’s eyes — the actors are given an incredibly difficult task. 

On top of the questionable space to perform such a large musical, the show itself was not without its issues. The text itself certainly had some problematic aspects and without a doubt was incredibly full of pure shock value. There was nearly too much shock value, which ended up distracting the audience from most anything other than shock. 

This shock value was not necessarily a bad thing, but it felt as though it was not entirely clear among the cast what the approach to this was. While some leaned fully into it, and it worked well, not everyone was as overtly outgoing and embracing of that aspect of the show, leading to some discrepancy among the different performances.  

Within the writing, it felt a bit uncertain and left audiences uncomfortable at times, mostly in good ways — but not always. What starts off feeling like a classic “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) tale comes back from the second act ending in a cacophony of something that is hard to categorize. 

To say the show isn’t unique would be a gross misrepresentation — if nothing else, it is that. However, to say it was a perfect fit for this cohort’s Second Stage show would also be incorrect. “Bat Boy” is a wild time indeed with some outstanding performances and aspects to it but ultimately falls short in the writing and presentation.