Bat Boy (musical)
Bat Boy is an off-Broadway and Westend musical. The story of the American magazine " Weekly World News " about a figure half human, half bat found in a cave inspired Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming to develop a stage implementation. Together with the American composer Laurence O'Keefe they wrote the piece, which celebrated its world premiere on Halloween 1997.
The musical implementation differs greatly in the representation of the Bat Boy from the report in the "Weekly World News" (June 23, 1992). In the musical, Bat Boy learns to speak of his family, accepts himself for the creature he is and tries to become part of society. The presentation of the magazine, however, consistently depicts the bat boy as a wild and bloodthirsty beast.
The musical received several awards as well as very good reviews from the New York Times and the New York Post , which spoke of a classically good and intelligent comedy.
history
In a cave, the children Rick, Ron and Ruthie Taylor are attacked by "Bat Boy", a mixture of bat and boy. Bat Boy is caught and sent to veterinarian Dr. Hand over Parker to put him to sleep. Parker's wife Meredith, however, feels sorry for the poor creature and asks her husband to let him grow up in the family. Dr. Parker agrees, hoping that the formerly broken marriage will return to its former harmony and passion.
Bat Boy receives lessons from the Parkers at home and learns English from BBC tapes. His first-class demeanor is only occasionally marred by difficult-to-suppress bouts of bloodlust. Not least, Parker's daughter Shelley watches Bat Boy's transformation from a creepy pet to a handsome young man with benevolence. However: Bat Boy is not allowed to leave the house with his unusual appearance. When a religious revival ceremony is to be celebrated in the village, which is ravaged by a mysterious cattle death, Bat Boy protests. He doesn't want to be locked away any longer and shows himself to the crowd. The initial horror quickly turns into a general celebration - until Dr. Parker appears and announces that Bat Boy's Bite killed Ruthie Taylor. A chase begins. Bat Boy flees into the woods with Shelley, but is eventually caught. To save him, Meredith Parker reluctantly reveals her terrible secret about Bat Boy's origins - but it's too late to avert the bloody showdown .
background
On June 23, 1992, the Weekley World News magazine reported the discovery of a bat cub in a cave in West Virginia , and the articles published in the following weeks received great attention from the American public. As it turned out later, "Bat Boy" was a magazine invention to stop the circulation from falling. In the summer of 1993 Keythe Farey and Brian Flemming acquired the stage rights to "Bat Boy" and wrote the book, which O'Keefe provided with songs in the style of rap , rock , ballad and revue.
From 1995 the authors were looking for a producer for the musical, but all theaters rejected the play at first because it was considered too "shrill" for the general public. After a slight revision, the first production took place at the Actors Gang Theater in New York in autumn 1997 . After the great success in New York on Off-Broadway, a production took place in London, for which the play was further revised.
The German premiere took place in Munich in German, the staging was very much based on the original American staging, with critics complaining that the translation was sometimes unsuccessful. After a change in the German publisher and a major revision by the translator, the premiere of the new version took place in Wetzlar in 2008, for which the director made further changes (including the order of the scenes and the distribution of the text among the roles). to make the piece more accessible to the German audience. In addition, two songs were sung in English in Wetzlar.
Web links
- Official website , English