By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DAYTON - Bat Boy, already a star of grocery store checkout line tabloid Weekly World News, goes legit with his own musical, straightforwardly titled Bat Boy: The Musical. It's getting its regional premiere at Human Race Theatre.

If you have missed Bat Boy's decade of headline-making adventures in the News, know that he was discovered in a cave in West Virginia and captured by scientists at a secret laboratory. Bat Boy, of course, manages to escape repeatedly and gets caught up with the famous and infamous.

Bat Boy: The Musical doesn't follow the tabloid's script, but it follows its spirit. In the musical, Bat Boy is discovered by some teens and taken in by the family of the local veterinarian.

The June Cleaveresque mom re-names Bat Boy Edgar, and in no time he learns English with a Brit accent, thanks to watching Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.

Of course, there is the teeny problem that Edgar, for all that he aches to be loved and fit in, can't wean himself off his diet of fresh blood.

Bat Boy, with book by Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, is clever rather than smart. Little Shop of Horrors is really smart, which gives it longevity. Bat Boy may be a weakling in the script department, but it's wacky enough to be an audience pleaser.

Part of Bat Boy's cleverness is Mr. Keefe's mad pastiche of a score. Hip-hop and pop rock spice a score and book, which shamelessly reference a zillion Broadway musicals (including Sweeney Todd). And it's not every show where you'll find a big chorus number about dying cows.

The Human Race production is just middling. Director Kevin Moore has a proper sense of fun, as does the setting, a sort of high-tech bat cave by David A. Centers. But Bat Boy would work even better if Mr. Moore asked his ensemble for more.

Patrick Garrigan acts a fine Bat Boy but could be more physical; there are many opportunities for loopy townspeople to be created by the supporting players, but they don't go for the big laughs.

They do sing the show terrifically under the musical direction of Sean Michael Flowers. The nutty-as-can-be choreography is by Sharon Leahy and Mr. Moore.

The production's best players are Leslie Becker, as kind Mrs. Parker, and Betsy DiLellio, as the spoiled Parker daughter (who thinks Bat Boy would make a fine pet but later decides to assign him a different role).

Bat Boy: The Musical, through Nov. 17, Human Race, the Loft Theatre, 126 N. Main St., Dayton. (937) 228-3630.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com