Review: BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL Has Plenty of Bite at Music Theater Heritage

There are plenty of musicals about people who feel like outsiders. Few take that idea quite as literally as BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL.

Currently playing at Kansas City’s Music Theater Heritage, this wonderfully strange show follows a half-human, half-bat creature discovered in a West Virginia cave. What begins as a ridiculous tabloid story quickly becomes something much more interesting: a musical about prejudice, fear, family, and the lengths people will go to protect their version of normal.

And yes, it is every bit as bizarre as it sounds.

Inspired by a 1992 Weekly World News headline, BAT BOY features a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe. The musical premiered in 1997 and developed a devoted following after its 2001 Off-Broadway run. Its combination of rock music, outrageous comedy, and genuinely dark subject matter has made it something of a cult favorite.

Under the direction of Ernie Nolan, Music Theater Heritage brings the unusual story to its MainStage Theater for a Halloween-season engagement that feels particularly well-timed.

At the center of the story is Edgar, played by Bryson Kendall. Discovered living in a cave, Edgar is brought into the home of veterinarian Dr. Thomas Parker, portrayed by T. Eric Morris, and his wife Meredith, played by Jessalyn Kincaid.

Meredith becomes determined to teach Edgar how to live among people, while her daughter Shelley, played by Taylor Jennings, develops an increasingly complicated relationship with the unusual visitor.

The premise provides plenty of opportunities for comedy, but Edgar’s transformation is what makes the story worth following.

As he learns to speak, understand human behavior, and navigate a world that never asked him to be part of it, the audience is presented with an interesting contradiction. Edgar becomes increasingly civilized while many of the people surrounding him behave with considerably less humanity.

It is not a particularly subtle message, but BAT BOY has never been interested in subtlety.

The musical’s strength is its willingness to embrace the ridiculous without completely abandoning the emotional stakes. There are moments of outright absurdity, unexpected romance, and some genuinely unsettling developments. The script moves between these extremes quickly, occasionally asking the audience to accept more than seems reasonable.

That unpredictability is part of the experience.

Laurence O’Keefe’s score is equally varied, incorporating rock, pop, gospel influences, and traditional musical theater. Numbers including “A Home for You,” “Comfort and Joy,” and “Inside Your Heart” reveal a more sincere side of the story, while songs such as “Three Bedroom House” and “Children, Children” demonstrate just how far the writers are willing to take the material.

Music director Ty Tuttle leads the musical component of the production, joined by Cindy Egger on guitar, Kassie Ferrero on bass, and Charlie Betzelberger on drums.

The score deserves particular attention because the songs do much of the work in keeping the show’s competing personalities together. What could easily become an extended comedy sketch instead has the structure and musical ambition of a fully developed production.

The supporting ensemble also has a considerable amount to manage.

Ben Auxier, Christopher Barksdale, Laurie Box, Mary-Kate Griffin, Lucas Lowry, Aidan Sarmiento, Emily Shackelford, and Douglass Walker take on the many personalities inhabiting the fictional community of Hope Falls.

With actors playing multiple characters, the ensemble is essential to establishing the town’s identity. These residents are not simply background characters. Their suspicions, insecurities, and willingness to turn against someone they do not understand drive much of the show’s conflict.

Having attended dozens of productions in New York City’s Theater District, I don’t make comparisons to Broadway lightly. Yet, sitting in the audience at Music Theater Heritage, there were moments when I genuinely felt as though I had been transported straight back to New York. The caliber of talent assembled for BAT BOY is simply exceptional. The vocal performances, comedic timing, and commitment to the material are worthy of a Broadway stage. What impressed me most was that this wasn’t limited to a handful of leading performers. The entire company delivered at a level that reminded me of some of the finest theater I’ve experienced in New York. Kansas City has an extraordinary theater community, and productions like this are a reminder that audiences don’t need a ticket to Manhattan to experience world-class musical theater.

The production’s visual design is also well suited to the material. Lindsay Mummert’s industrial-style scenic environment uses elevated platforms and railings, while Dante Lawrence’s lighting helps create a world that can shift from colorful comedy to something considerably more sinister. The use of shadows and projected imagery is especially fitting for a story in which fear and appearances play such an important role.

There is also something particularly appropriate about experiencing BAT BOY in an intimate theater.

The story depends on the audience accepting its absurdity while remaining close enough to the characters to recognize the very human issues underneath it. A musical this unusual benefits from that kind of proximity.

That does not mean every aspect of the writing works equally well.

The second act becomes increasingly complicated, introducing revelations and dramatic turns that occasionally threaten to overwhelm the simpler, more compelling story at its center. BAT BOY is a musical that seems determined to make one more outrageous choice whenever the opportunity presents itself.

For some audiences, that may be part of its appeal. Others may find themselves wishing the show occasionally exercised a little restraint.

Still, there is a reason this unconventional musical continues to find audiences nearly three decades after its premiere.

Beneath the pointed ears, dark comedy, and increasingly outrageous plot is a story that remains relevant.

Communities are often quick to fear people they do not understand. Difference becomes something to correct, conceal, or reject. BAT BOY takes those familiar human tendencies and exaggerates them until their absurdity becomes impossible to ignore.

The musical is also a reminder that acceptance is considerably easier to celebrate in theory than to practice when confronted with something genuinely unfamiliar.

What makes BAT BOY interesting is that it does not simply ask audiences to sympathize with Edgar. It also asks them to examine the people who insist that he is the problem.

For Kansas City theatergoers looking for something beyond the usual Halloween entertainment, BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL offers an unusual alternative. It is funny, frequently outrageous, occasionally disturbing, and considerably more thoughtful than its title might suggest.

But above all, this production is a testament to the talent working in Kansas City theater. Music Theater Heritage has assembled a company capable of delivering a performance that belongs in the same conversation as the productions filling New York’s Theater District.

You may come expecting a musical about a boy with wings and fangs.

You might leave thinking a little more about everyone else.

BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL runs October 8 through November 1, 2026, at Music Theater Heritage’s MainStage Theater, located on the third floor of Crown Center at 2450 Grand Boulevard, Suite 301, Kansas City, Missouri.

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