Spring Break
He lives!
Award-winning musical celebrates tabloid hero Bat Boy
Matthew Keil
Issue date: 3/2/06 Section: Showcase
The off-Broadway hit wasn't something that Nimke thought could be taken seriously when Seidman first introduced it to him.
"He was a little wary of it at first … I told him about it, and he said 'that's really strange,' " Seidman said with a laugh.
Seidman said when he first saw the original production in New York, he knew it was something different. When Nimke finally saw it performed for himself, he was
also convinced.
"It just seems at first to be totally ridiculous," Nimke said, referring to the tabloid character turned theater centerpiece. "When I saw it, I realized how much it has to say."
Behind the grotesque appearance of Bat Boy (as played by junior Max Athorn), there is a message of acceptance, Seidman said. Brought into a closed-minded community by the family of a veterinarian, Bat Boy is introduced to a world that is not eager to accept him.
"It makes some pretty bold statements about how we label people," Seidman said. "Bat Boy could easily be replaced with anybody who has ever been discriminated against."
Since Weekly World News first introduced him, Bat Boy's escapades have documented him as a morally complex character. Stories which have regularly appeared in the publication's pages have documented Bat Boy stealing cars one week and joining the army to fight Saddam Hussein and tyranny the next.
Nimke said in the musical, the townspeople may be the ones that are morally confused.
"They discriminate against him based on his physical appearance, and that's what causes him to lash out violently," he said.
But the social premise of "Bat Boy: The Musical" doesn't lend it to pigeonholing. Nimke said the story's entertainment value is more than apparent, citing the musical's "working mix of humor and horror."
Whether or not the musical depicts Weekly World News' cave- dwelling hero as the next icon of pop culture rebellion is in the eye of the beholder, but Seidman said the
atypical production is in a world of
its own.
Between drugs, sex and a defiant outcast, it may be the prototype for an incendiary musical, Seidman said.
"It blends a lot of different aspects," Seidman said, "but in the end it really is a rock show."
"He was a little wary of it at first … I told him about it, and he said 'that's really strange,' " Seidman said with a laugh.
Seidman said when he first saw the original production in New York, he knew it was something different. When Nimke finally saw it performed for himself, he was
also convinced.
"It just seems at first to be totally ridiculous," Nimke said, referring to the tabloid character turned theater centerpiece. "When I saw it, I realized how much it has to say."
Behind the grotesque appearance of Bat Boy (as played by junior Max Athorn), there is a message of acceptance, Seidman said. Brought into a closed-minded community by the family of a veterinarian, Bat Boy is introduced to a world that is not eager to accept him.
"It makes some pretty bold statements about how we label people," Seidman said. "Bat Boy could easily be replaced with anybody who has ever been discriminated against."
Since Weekly World News first introduced him, Bat Boy's escapades have documented him as a morally complex character. Stories which have regularly appeared in the publication's pages have documented Bat Boy stealing cars one week and joining the army to fight Saddam Hussein and tyranny the next.
Nimke said in the musical, the townspeople may be the ones that are morally confused.
"They discriminate against him based on his physical appearance, and that's what causes him to lash out violently," he said.
But the social premise of "Bat Boy: The Musical" doesn't lend it to pigeonholing. Nimke said the story's entertainment value is more than apparent, citing the musical's "working mix of humor and horror."
Whether or not the musical depicts Weekly World News' cave- dwelling hero as the next icon of pop culture rebellion is in the eye of the beholder, but Seidman said the
atypical production is in a world of
its own.
Between drugs, sex and a defiant outcast, it may be the prototype for an incendiary musical, Seidman said.
"It blends a lot of different aspects," Seidman said, "but in the end it really is a rock show."