Los Altos Stage Company to Present BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL

Los Altos Stage Company's 20th season comes to a close with the off-Broadway hit musical that the New Yorker called "a giggly cult hit", Bat Boy: The Musical, with book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe. Bat Boy: The Musical opens May 27 (preview performance on May 26) and runs through June 25, 2016 at the Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos.

Based on a story in The Weekly World News, Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical comedy/horror show about a half boy/half bat creature who is discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. The local sheriff brings Bat Boy to the home of the town veterinarian, Dr. Parker, where he is eventually accepted as a member of the family and taught to act like a "normal" boy by the veterinarian's wife and teenage daughter. With a beat-driven rock score that pays homage to the rock musicals of the late '60s and early '70s, Bat Boy: The Musical provides a compelling theatrical metaphor for the dangers of prejudice, intolerance, and provincialism.

Bat Boy: The Musical had its world premiere at the Actors' Gang Theatre in Los Angeles in 1997 and has since been produced around the world. It is the recipient of the 2001 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, a Richard Rodgers Development Award, the Richard Rodgers Production Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical.

The LASC production of Bat Boy: The Musical is directed by Ian Leonard, a local actor, director, and teacher who has staged productions at Children's Musical Theater San Jose, Theatre in the Mountains, and schools throughout the Bay Area. It features a talented ensemble of Bus Barn Theater veterans, as well as new faces, including: Melissa Baxter, Doug Brook, Sarah Bylsma, Sofia Gonzalvez, Sharon Lita, Tarif Pappu, Joey Pisacane, Terrance Lee Saffold, Jr., David Scott, and Jen Wheatonfox.

Performances are Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 pm and Sunday matinees at 3 pm. Ticket prices range from $18 (student) to $36. Opening Night tickets, including a reception with the artists, are also $36. Tickets are available online at www.losaltosstage.org or by calling the Box Office at 650-941-0551.

Los Altos Stage Company is a quintessential American neighborhood playhouse, serving Los Altos and the greater South Bay area, and paying tribute to the full canon of American musicals, comedies, and dramas. This 20-year-old theater company strives to bring together a diversity of theater enthusiasts, practitioners, and supporters to create, explore and celebrate the rich tapestry of American culture and experience through live theater. Los Altos Stage Company produces five to six shows annually at its intimate 99-seat theater located on the Los Altos Civic Center campus.

Photo by Richard Mayer