A weird, wild and wonderful musical comes to Radford

If you did any grocery shopping at all in the early 1990s, you almost certainly witnessed the parade of harrowing cover stories featuring the half-human, half-animal tabloid fabrication known as Bat Boy.

According to the Weekly World News, Bat Boy was found by scientists in a West Virginia cave, repeatedly escaping captivity, only to be hunted down and caught again. He drank blood to survive and had run-ins with everyone from Saddam Hussein to Santa Claus.

So naturally, a musical was only a matter of time.

Beginning on April 2, Radford University’s Department of Theatre will perform “Bat Boy: The Musical” for audiences eager for thrills, laughs, twists and turns.

“The audience will definitely go on a roller coaster ride,” said director Robyn Berg. “Just when you think you know which direction the story is headed, it throws a curveball your way.”

The production features a large cast of primary characters, townspeople, a chorus and animals, who are frequently moving, often in conflict. There is dancing, stage combat, and of course, song.

“There is a hoe-down number, a revival number, rock numbers, and ballads,” said Berg. “There is incredible diversity and complexity to the score, which allows the actors to stretch in multiple ways.”

“We are also using stage blood, fog, and haze. It is truly unlike almost anything else in the musical theatre cannon,” she added.

The story revolves around the discovery of Bat Boy by some teenagers who bring him to the sheriff who takes him to a local veterinarian. Simultaneously, the cows near Hope Falls are dying mysteriously and tensions quickly go on the rise.

The title character is played by Patrick Hurt, a junior music major and theater minor whose natural energy comes forward in every performance.

Hurt describes the experience of playing Bat Boy as fun but challenging. For one thing, the physicality of crawling, jumping, screaming and singing night after night requires thoughtful pacing.

Additionally, Hurt says the character’s development requires a psychological transformation on stage as the play unfolds.

“When we first meet Bat Boy, he doesn't speak, doesn't communicate, and pretty much only is thinking about his basic needs,” Hurt said. “But as the show goes on, you see him grow.”

“His overall character arc was certainly a mountain for me as an actor to tackle.”

As one might expect, the town’s residents receive Bat Boy in a variety of ways, from pity and curiosity to suspicion and outrage.

Zoe Keith plays one of the townspeople, Mrs. Taylor, whom she describes as “Mama bear times 400.”

“She’s kind of crazy,” Keith says. “But she has her reasons. They’re not great reasons, but she has her reasons for being crazy about her kids.”

Keith says the play gives her a chance to take her emotionally driven character to exciting levels.

“I get to scream and hoot and holler. I have fun lullaby I sing to my daughter, Ruthie, in the show,” she explained as she smiled. “I just love it so much.”

Keith also notes that besides the wild and often raucous nature of the musical, the play has substance. The primary characters have depth and the conflicts run well below the surface and into human nature.

“The main theme of Bat Boy is how we treat the abnormal. This creature comes into a town and the question is, what are they going to do? How will they react?”

Berg added that the play explores issues that are just as important, if not more so, today than when the play was first produced more than 25 years ago.

“In today’s world, we see dividing lines everywhere,” Berg explained.

“’Bat Boy’ provides an opportunity to examine not just erasing the lines, but also our temptations to scapegoat, shame or ignore others who may not look like us, act like us or share the same beliefs.”

“Bat Boy: The Musical” will be performed on Radford’s main campus in Preston Hall in the Bondurant Auditorium. On April 2, 4, 5 and 6, the show will start at 7:30 p.m. and there is a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, April 7.

This play contains mature themes: discrimination, sexual content, blood/violence; and adult language.