Characters, choreography make 'Bat Boy' a satire to see

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

Bat Boy (Shannon Loo) is offered food by Meredith Parker (Karin Valasek), as Shelly Parker (Sherry Chock Wong) looks on. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser 'Bat Boy' Manoa Valley Theatre Through Sept. 28 $30, $25, $15 988-6131

Based on a pulp newspaper account of a creature found in a West Virginia cave, the story and book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, is a grade B movie satiric monster melodrama with operatic overtones and Shakespearean tragedy high notes.

Mostly, when it gets too weird for words, the music kicks in.

Directed by Scott Rogers, the production is visually stunning from its first scene. Spelunkers rappel down ropes into a dank and foggy underground cave. Attacked by the monster, they scoop him into a burlap sack and take him to the local veterinarian to be "put down."

The vet's daughter is immediately attracted to the half-boy, half-bat, and the vet's wife becomes maternal, gentling the Bat Boy and teaching him language. But he continues to spook the townsfolk, rattling their revival meeting and causing their cows to fall off the mountainside.

There's the classic nighttime scene where villagers storm the slaughterhouse to destroy the blood-sucking beast, and — ultimately — the hidden-secret flashback that reveals his true origins, proving that some of the locals are not as innocent as they have pretended.

You won't come away humming the tunes with titles like "Ugly Boy" and "Apology To A Cow," but musical director Keith Griffin and his hidden orchestra pump out loud sound, while a full-throated chorus matches the volume in several prolonged scenes of high emotion.

To get the satire just right and to allow the bizarre story line to work its perverted magic, performances must have the ring of unaffected earnestness. Anything too far over the top will quickly spoil the play's spirit.

Karin Valasek has got it about perfect as the veterinarian's wife. She's warmly self-controlled in the June Cleaver style, with a stubborn streak that brings real punch to the line that pulls the monster out of the worst of his rages, "Edgar, I'm your mother!" She also sings well and provides a steady anchor to even the wildest scenes.

Kevin Yamada is equally straight-arrow as the veterinarian, until he starts suddenly popping up with a manic look and a hypodermic needle filled with neon liquid. Both parents provide the initial pseudo-normalcy that allows the freak show to stand out.

Shannon Kaleo Loo excellently supplies the horror element in the title role. First appearing naked in the smoggy cave, the Bat Boy progresses to gunny sack to cage to designer suit in an accelerated evolution from animal to something nearly human.

In full posture and clear lighting he sports pointy ears, orange hair and a green complexion. Loo acts the tortured misfit very well and sings with wonderful emotion even when dangling upside down from a metal bar. But he also has the feeling for the love scenes, which prove his sensitive, human side.

Sherry Chock Wong is the beauty to this beast as the teenage daughter who falls hard for her unlikely tabloid prince, making the hackneyed dialogue sound almost plausible and giving stature to the melodies.

The large company does fine ensemble work, doubling in cross-gender roles and bringing spirit to the crowd scenes and to the choreography by Katherine Jones. Lighting by Lloyd Riford and special effects by Karen Archibald fill out some remarkable stage pictures.