As musicals go, Bat Boy is an oddity: the story of a conservative community turned on its head by the presence of a bizarre bat-human hybrid.
Its melange of kitsch, cultish influences come from low-rent Americana: sensationalist newspaper reports; B-movies; promqueen vs trailer-trash stereotypes.
An inter-species love-story about a strange, persecuted creature at the mercy of small-town bigots and mad scientists, it's a singing, dancing comic strip with a message about tolerance and embracing diversity at its core.
'Half-bat is just a metaphor for difference,' says Deven May, who plays the title character. 'I identify with it because there are things this character goes through that I went through.'
The musical began life with a report in The Weekly World News about a boy who was half-human, half-bat, found in West Virginia. Two of the writers started making up stories about what such a creature would be like. In their version, trouble starts when he becomes civilised and falls in love with the daughter of the local vet.
'It has an overdramatic quality,' says veteran British actor/director Mark Wing-Davey, whose own cult status comes courtesy of the role of Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
'People take themselves very seriously, like they do in B-movies. We don't do a great deal of winking at the audience.' Wing-Davey was drawn to the piece for its off-kilter quality. 'There's a slight feel of Twin Peaks,' he says, 'and I have a fondness for odd, strange things.'
First staged in the US, where it was an off-Broadway hit, Bat Boy: The Musical had its UK premiere earlier this year at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Despite over-egged caricatures, heavy-handed plotting and the lack of any real show-stopper of a tune, Bat Boy is worth a punt. Top billing goes to Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming's knowingly camp script, packed with sharp, witty one-liners.
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Deven May comes close second: reprising the role he created for the original US version, he has immense charm and a sweet pathos as the kookily cute nocturnal boy-creature found by thick hicks in a mineshaft. Dressed up with pointy ears and sticky-outy fangs, his oddball charisma is effortless and the physicality of his turn as Edgar the Bat Boy is breathtaking.
May used a menagerie of beasts for inspiration. 'Nobody really knows what a bat boy does,' May deadpans. 'I went and studied bats,' he says. 'And they're pretty dull.
They hang upside down and do a lot of snuffing and preening. Bats weren't working for me. So, I studied my cat, and the chirruping noise he makes. All the frenetic energy, the flapping hands, are a chicken thing. And the loveable part is from my dog.'
Wing-Davey has made minor concessions for a British audience. 'We haven't changed much,' he says, 'but in the American version, the bat boy learns his English from the BBC. American audiences love a posh British accent but it seems less endearing here, so he's got a preppy American accent.'
Both May and Wing-Davey believe the show's themes transcend minor cultural differences. 'It's about outsiders,' argues Wing-Davey, 'and, in America, a whole range of people who are disadvantaged felt it told their story.' May puts it more simply. 'People who are different get shunned every day,' he says. 'This show's about not living in fear - of deformity, of difference. Of happiness.'
Aug 18 to Oct 30, Shaftesbury Theatre, 210 Shaftesbury Avenue WC2, Mon to Sat 7.45pm, Thu and Sat mats 3pm, £15 to £37.50. Tel: 020 7379 5399. www.batboy.co.uk Tube: Holborn
