Also this issue:

Metal Heads
Early pioneers in the art of engraving are on display at the Art Museum.
-Susan Hagen

Artsbeat

Science Friction
Bill Bryson on exploring science without putting his audience to sleep.
-Juliet Fletcher

The Bell and the Glass
-A.D. Amorosi

Color Forms
-Janet Anderson

ArtQuicks

Review: Nederlands Dans Theater II
-Janet Anderson

Gentlemen Volunteers
-Toby Zinman

May 14-20, 2003

artpicks

Bat Boy, the Musical

Steve Cohen

A strange little off-Broadway success from 2001, Bat Boy, The Musical, makes its Philadelphia debut this week at the Adrienne, staged by1812 Productions. The show's New York cast was mainly unknown. Here it stars local favorite Ben Dibble, who sees it as the biggest challenge of his career.

'There's surprising depth in this play,' says Dibble, 'a balance between comedy and real drama. Yes, it's a parody of monster movies, but it also has heart. There are very big, emotional feelings.'

Dibble played Jack (the beanstalk-climber) in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the Arden, and Hauptmann in that company's Baby Case. Most recently he was the romantic male lead in the Wilma's Big Love. Now Dibble will be hanging out, so to speak, and climbing walls as a half-bat, half-human creature who tries to find acceptance in society but unwittingly creates terror in his community. Bat Boy is a modern re-telling of the Misunderstood Monster archetype made famous in Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

'Jen Childs, our director, took us to the Philadelphia Zoo where we watched vampire bats drink blood. We're trying to incorporate what we saw into the boy's movements,' says the 24-year-old Dibble, a graduate of the University of the Arts.

The music and lyrics are by Laurence O'Keefe, who also wrote The Mice, the comic one-acter that was part of Harold Prince's production of 3hree. While both of these shows are rodent-related, Bat Boy has a harder-edged, more rock-influenced score. It also contains in-jokes and parodies of Broadway genres.

'We were extremely fortunate to secure the rights to Bat Boy,' says 1812's artistic director, Childs. 'The tongue-in-cheek humor and over-the-top characters are the perfect fit for us. Due to its off-Broadway success, however, securing the rights was competitive. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to produce it.'

Bat Boy, The Musical, May 16-June 15, $10- $30, The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-592-9560.