This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performance of storylines and everything in between.

[0:08] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the City Center Encores's production of Bat Boy the Musical.

[0:12] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you.

[0:17] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:21] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:24] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:24] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode.

[0:27] Richie Grasso: But before we start the conversation about Bat Boy the Musical, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:33] Jeff Malone: Welcome everyone to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie.

[0:35] Richie Grasso: Today we're discussing Bat Boy the Musical.

[0:38] Jeff Malone: A half-human, half-bat teen played by Tony nominee Taylor Trensch turns a small town upside down in this horror comedy with a pulsing pop rock score by Tony nominated Lawrence O'Keefe of Legally Blonde the Musical.

[0:50] Richie Grasso: This darkly comic yet deeply heartfelt musical is helmed by Tony winning director Alex Timbers.

[0:55] Jeff Malone: It's a story about the universal need for belonging and love that's timed perfectly for the Halloween season.

[1:01] Richie Grasso: Inspired by a popular tabloid article from the 1990s, this bloodsucker's ball of a musical, says the New Yorker, quickly achieved a cult classic status when it premiered off Broadway in 2001.

[1:12] Jeff Malone: Originally orchestrated by Tony winner Alex Lackamore, this production shines new light on this beloved score with expanded orchestrations.

[1:19] Richie Grasso: After being discovered in a cave, Bat Boy is taken in by Meredith Parker, played by Kerry Butler, who also played Shelly in the original Off-Broadway production, and her reluctant family.

[1:28] Jeff Malone: Bat Boy, also known as Edgar, wants nothing more than to be accepted by the West Virginia community and works hard to appeal to their Christian charity.

[1:35] Richie Grasso: But will his insatiable bloodlust be his undoing?

[1:39] Jeff Malone: Or will the bloodlust of a town searching for an easy escape beat him to the punch?

[1:44] Richie Grasso: Alrighty. So theater hot take for Bat Boy the Musical.

[1:48] Richie Grasso: My hot take here is that Kerry Butler is mother.

[1:52] Richie Grasso: Period. End of my hot take.

[1:55] Jeff Malone: We love Kerry Butler.

[1:56] Richie Grasso: I've loved Kerry Butler forever. She's one of the best parts of this show.

[1:58] Richie Grasso: And I will say this was one of the better Encores shows that I've seen.

[2:03] Richie Grasso: It's really well polished.

[2:03] Richie Grasso: It's an avant-garde kind of cult classic show that has never really had a Broadway run, but was successful off Broadway and has this following and has done a lot.

[2:14] Richie Grasso: And I just feel like this revival Encores production of it brought humor and great musical theater moments to the stage in a really smart way.

[2:24] Jeff Malone: Alright, so let's get into our overall thoughts on the story, plot, concept, theme, score.

[2:30] Richie Grasso: Um, I was gonna say, similar to Little Shop of Horrors, when you're inspired by like an old 1950s horror movie and you make this big like campy musical out of it.

[2:39] Richie Grasso: Similarly, it's like Bat Boy saw this like tabloid media article about this like silly story of like, what if there was this half boy, half bat, and made it into this like campy cult following musical.

[2:50] Richie Grasso: And the music wrote on this like pop rock score, and it was set in this like small quintessential town where there's like mother and father and daughter and like the pastor and like everyone in the town.

[3:00] Richie Grasso: And they take the stereotypical, like trope elements of storytelling like quintessential town, and you bring this like hilarious spin on it, where there's this mix of like sexual innuendo mixed with like just breaking the fourth wall, like, hey audience, you're in on this with us kind of a moment too.

[3:17] Richie Grasso: And I think it's like one of those stories that you, if you don't know it, you're like, oh, wait, that and obviously, spoiler alert here, like, oh wait, that's actually their son.

[3:25] Richie Grasso: And he was a vet, and he had all these like injections and potions, and then that happened, and then it just like the way they told it throughout was so smart.

[3:33] Richie Grasso: And then they went to like the woodland creatures, and it was like the cow and like all these like funny, funny moments.

[3:39] Richie Grasso: It totally works as a show.

[3:41] Jeff Malone: So the concept of this may sound like Bat Boy. What are you talking about?

[3:45] Jeff Malone: But it kind of fits this like, uh, let your hair down kind of a musical theater feel, you know.

[3:51] Richie Grasso: It's funny because whenever I used to hear Bat Boy, I used to think of like, oh, is this like about Batman?

[3:56] Jeff Malone: Yeah, like it was never, you know, my idea that it was not about that.

[4:02] Richie Grasso: So learning about this show and then actually going to see it, you know, I loved, loved, loved this musical overall.

[4:09] Richie Grasso: I find that the inspiration of taking an old tabloid and kind of creating a story around it is so creative in so many different ways, and writing really great, fun, you know, music that is full of kind of bops and humor, and is I think also very much inspired by something like Little Shop of Horrors, where it's like that campy horror that works on a Broadway stage.

[4:35] Jeff Malone: You know, I think you have a lot of the, you know, musical theater elements that really work in a piece like this, like having the ensemble, having the jokes, having the great set, having, you know, um, a funny storyline to follow just works in a piece like totally, and I think that when you put some pretty big stars in it and you put a great director like Alex Timbers at the helm, you set it around spooky Halloween season, like it just kind of checks, when we always say checking boxes, this checks boxes in a good way from a production standpoint.

[5:06] Richie Grasso: I was really impressed with our gala too, yeah, which is really cool.

[5:12] Richie Grasso: You know, there is also a big theme in a musical like this, and the musical is a metaphor for prejudice and intolerance, exploring the outsider experience and the universal need for acceptance.

[5:22] Jeff Malone: I also love that it does have this whole like root of a message, it's not just like throw something up for pure entertainment.

[5:31] Richie Grasso: Right, the show is entertaining itself, but that it also is like wanting to feel wanted in an area that you are not wanting.

[5:39] Richie Grasso: And when you're innocent, but then the others in the town are trying to remove you or trying to, you know, block your innocence, and everyone believes the veterinarian dad of the town because of that, you know.

[5:52] Jeff Malone: Then it's like who do you trust? Who do you believe? What are we afraid of when someone's abnormal or different? Like there's all those elements there that we teach children and people of the world to be accepting of people and things like that, right?

[6:04] Richie Grasso: Right. And where do you feel like, you know, Lawrence O'Keeffe's score, like with the music and lyrics stand in his other work?

[6:11] Jeff Malone: Well, Legally Blonde to me is just so great from a pop rock score perspective.

[6:16] Jeff Malone: It's one of my favorite movie to musical adaptations.

[6:18] Jeff Malone: I think he did it really well with Bat Boy too.

[6:20] Jeff Malone: He is very impressive.

[6:21] Jeff Malone: He hasn't done too much on Broadway besides those things.

[6:24] Jeff Malone: I believe Heathers as well was another piece he did.

[6:27] Richie Grasso: So he does these like great off-the-beaten-path kind of shows, and I think it'd be so cool to see more of his work.

[6:33] Jeff Malone: He writes catchy pop rock, turn of the century, early 2000s kind of songs.

[6:38] Jeff Malone: I can sing you so many songs from this and Heathers and Legally Blonde and those shows, and I think he does that well.

[6:45] Richie Grasso: He's very good at what he does.

[6:46] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I think from a pop rock score, like writer, I would put him up there that like he's still writing a musical theater pop score, though.

[6:56] Jeff Malone: It's not like what we've been getting as of recent that we complain a lot about.

[7:00] Jeff Malone: This is like fully orchestrated sound that I think, you know, we crave for, especially in modern musical theater.

[7:08] Richie Grasso: So I think like this stands out along with Heathers and along with Legally Blonde that, you know, you're not really kind of frowning on a score like this.

[7:16] Richie Grasso: You're like, oh no, it's written, it drives plot, it's fun, it's boppy, and I think like a lot of, you know, writers want to kind of have their scores sound similar to something like what he's writing.

[7:29] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[7:30] Jeff Malone: Um, you definitely hear though themes that are starting to become reoccurring throughout his works.

[7:38] Richie Grasso: Um, which I think at this point I'm just gonna say makes you an amazing musical theater writer if you have a theme that you know how to use.

[7:46] Jeff Malone: Well, Alan Menken certainly does that a lot, you know, I think Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber does it.

[7:51] Richie Grasso: Yeah, there's sometimes not exact replication, but in the same key or style or motivated.

[7:56] Richie Grasso: It's like a lot of it feels like at one point I think I was singing, um, Legally Blonde, maybe in this at the show, because I was like, oh wait, that sounds exactly the same.

[8:08] Jeff Malone: But um, it's also cool that you know, obviously, you know, this didn't have a Broadway run.

[8:12] Jeff Malone: And sometimes there's the City Center Encores that they've had the, they don't always just do something that was on Broadway.

[8:21] Jeff Malone: Here was something that was commercial mainstream off Broadway.

[8:24] Richie Grasso: And then we could talk a little bit later about this, but like, does this transfer to Broadway? Could it? Does it work as a Broadway show? We can talk about that later, but I think that it was nice that for a gala to start off with the new artistic director in the City Center Encores season as well, um, was a smart move for their first show.

[8:39] Jeff Malone: Right. And I think with a show like this, where do you think like cult following really kind of stems from?

[8:44] Richie Grasso: Because that word gets thrown around like the cult following of this.

[8:49] Richie Grasso: And I do know, like, especially even at this show, you know, we could talk about our experience there, but like there is a big following with a show like Bat Boy.

[8:58] Richie Grasso: And you know, it did play off Broadway, it was 2001.

[9:01] Richie Grasso: It played at the Union Square Theater.

[9:03] Richie Grasso: And kind of like hearing that says, like, okay, well, great.

[9:07] Richie Grasso: This show was there, it had a moment, and uh, it goes on to be performed by regional theater and high schools and whatnot.

[9:15] Jeff Malone: And now, like City Center is doing this, but like, does this deserve kind of like that Broadway run now?

[9:22] Richie Grasso: Like a show like this, especially from the writing standpoint.

[9:25] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I mean, I think the quirky oddball feel of the piece gets it that cult following too.

[9:32] Richie Grasso: When you look at something like Little Shop and this, and when something's a little more avant-garde, when something's talking about a piece that's not about like a family room drama or like a political statement piece.

[9:42] Richie Grasso: We're talking about something that like a plant eating people in Little Shop or like a half boy, half bat, these things that are quirky and silly and fun can also have a rooted message, and I think that's what gets a following.

[9:53] Richie Grasso: It's like I really like this silly side of it, but I also like the serious side of it too.

[9:57] Jeff Malone: Right, you know, so alright.

[9:58] Richie Grasso: Alright, let's take a quick break, and when we get back, we'll get into the actor performances, direction, and design of this production of Bat Boy.

[10:08] Jeff Malone: Okay, and we're back.

[10:09] Richie Grasso: So let's start off with the direction.

[10:11] Richie Grasso: It's directed by Alex Timbers here at City Center.

[10:14] Richie Grasso: I always say, like, I feel like Alex Timbers does no wrong.

[10:17] Richie Grasso: Every time I see one of his pieces, I think we're either immersed in a world, we're always immersed in a world that we need to be in.

[10:24] Richie Grasso: He knows how to bring an actor into that, whether it's in the round or it's a it's uh, inclusive audience piece, like Here Lies Love, or like we're in the round, like just in time, or here we are in a traditional proscenium setting.

[10:34] Richie Grasso: He's a smart director, he knows how to bring you into that world, he knows how to make you feel comfortable in the text and in the piece that we're working with.

[10:42] Jeff Malone: You don't feel far removed from it, and he does that right away at the beginning with an ensemble number or something that's going to kind of bring you right in.

[10:49] Richie Grasso: When he did, I believe Rocky when they built the arena in this audience, like he, it was just he knows what he's doing and he's very smart.

[10:56] Richie Grasso: And he keeps the piece moving.

[10:58] Richie Grasso: We're moving the piece along.

[10:59] Richie Grasso: We're not sagging or lagging any sort of energy.

[11:02] Richie Grasso: There's an energy throughout.

[11:04] Richie Grasso: He knows how to move a next piece.

[11:06] Richie Grasso: In this production in particular, there were like pieces being brought on and off and lighting it.

[11:10] Richie Grasso: We were just moving through really nice.

[11:12] Jeff Malone: I liked that.

[11:12] Richie Grasso: You know, I think that's definitely a hard thing to do with City Center because they don't really have a lot of automation that happens within their shows.

[11:21] Jeff Malone: So, yes, to see all of these pieces kind of come in and out and it's directed nice in that way where it's like not as distracting.

[11:29] Richie Grasso: Sometimes it is, but it's not like completely.

[11:31] Richie Grasso: But I do watch that to see like what is he doing, like getting the couch on and off.

[11:37] Richie Grasso: Is it working? Does he have your eye going somewhere else where an actor might be at that time and you're watching a scene, so you're not fully watching what's happening on the stage.

[11:45] Richie Grasso: I do think he has a seamless way of executing that, which is great.

[11:50] Richie Grasso: Um, I really have not been disappointed in much that he's done.

[11:56] Jeff Malone: So yeah, I think I'm always excited to see when he's attached to a project.

[12:02] Richie Grasso: And when I'm looking at the design choices here, I'm looking at this, I'm saying I like the unit set.

[12:06] Richie Grasso: I think it was lit really well.

[12:07] Richie Grasso: I liked the cave aspect of it that like this whole town was kind of in the cave that we're talking about.

[12:12] Richie Grasso: That was really smart.

[12:13] Jeff Malone: It was lit so well.

[12:15] Richie Grasso: Um, I will say one slight thing.

[12:17] Richie Grasso: I feel like every time we see an Encore show, the orchestra is on stage and visible.

[12:22] Jeff Malone: And usually to me, and this is just a personal decision, that's the point, is that the character that is also speaking here is the orchestra, and we're reminded that this is live and that we're reviving an old piece.

[12:35] Richie Grasso: And by adding new orchestrations and freshening up your orchestrations, but then to not have them visually featured to me was slightly disappointing.

[12:43] Jeff Malone: They brought a video screen in at the end, they showed them in a side room.

[12:46] Richie Grasso: I wouldn't have cared if they were just in silhouette in the back, like as the silhouette of the village and or of sorts in the back.

[12:52] Richie Grasso: To me, I think of it like you've all worked so hard to freshen these orchestrations up and then to hide them off stage.

[12:59] Jeff Malone: I understand maybe if you wanted to do that for a Broadway run, but for Encores, when we put that orchestra onto when we saw that wonderful town orchestra, oh that ragtime orchestra, they're up there.

[13:09] Richie Grasso: There's just something to be seeing them.

[13:11] Richie Grasso: You almost expect it, and maybe that was just something that wasn't agreed upon or discussed with this.

[13:17] Richie Grasso: That was one my slight critique with this is I would have liked to have seen them.

[13:20] Jeff Malone: Right. And that's not to say that the orchestra is not always a character in the play or the musical, but at Encores, the orchestra really does feel like the next character in a musical.

[13:33] Jeff Malone: So, right, I agree with you. You know, it does really make sense to have them on stage. I think that was the first thing when we walked in, you were like, I can't wait to see how they incorporate the orchestra in this piece, and then we never really saw it.

[13:44] Richie Grasso: Yeah, so uh other than them coming down at the end on the screen, right? But so yeah, I mean I definitely does change the kind of like perception there, but I I you know I still enjoy hearing it.

[13:56] Jeff Malone: Yeah, no, of course, and they were there and they were heard. And then speaking of the projection, also, one thing going back to the direction for a second that I really liked was that screen with the puppets on it, showing the like, well, this is what happened when we had the baby, and the baby would like when you go back into a flashback and a caricatury show like this. I thought that was a really smart way to show the shadow puppetry, then having to just like reenact it or just tell the audience it was cool, too.

[14:17] Richie Grasso: And now let's get into some of the cast here. So, like right off the bat, we're gonna start with Miss Kerry Butler here because I'm sorry. Uh Mother, as I said in my hot take, she is amazing. She's really great, she's always working, she's getting some great roles. Uh, I saw her as the original Audrey in the original Broadway run of Little Shop of Horrors, uh, not the uh off Broadway, of course, with Ellen Greene, but she was Audrey, she was great in that as she's from Hairspray, she's done Come From Away, she's done Beetlejuice, she's done so many big shows, and I think this was just when she plays that like silly mother, it's just so funny with her one-liners and the way she delivers it. She really does deliver comedy really well.

[14:57] Jeff Malone: I I think she's very funny. Um, it's you have to be quick and witty, you know. And I also think to come full circle from like playing Shelly Parker off when it was off Broadway in the original run in 2001 to now playing the mother in this, must feel like very fun and different for her. Um, so I loved that. And I also really enjoyed Taylor Trensch's uh portrayal of the bat boy in this. I, you know, that's a hard role, hard role. You changed from the beginning to the end to so much physical and vocal changes. I mean, and he's like barefoot up there running around like a bat boy, like jumping on things, and then to be this like polished British kind of that's the humor of it, but he transforms so well, he's so talented.

[15:40] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I think he's great. He has a great voice as well. So, you know, he's really really great. It's also great to see like Chris Seber up there as Dr. Parker. Like he's just working all the time, and and I'm he kind of carries that like evil villain dad role so well.

[15:53] Jeff Malone: Yeah, um, but when we talk about I'm so sorry, Alex Newell as the godparent. Sorry, you know, if you walk on and you it's a seven-minute moment that you are just eating up everything. The vocal, the the look, the the point of the song. It's just like a feature moment that they were just so great. And I was just very impressed.

[16:10] Richie Grasso: Yeah. And they hit every note.

[16:14] Jeff Malone: Yeah. Literally and figuratively.

[16:17] Richie Grasso: Yeah, really, really impressive. Belt my face off. Please. Thank you.

[16:23] Jeff Malone: Yeah. I enjoyed Gabby Kuraba's uh role as Chile.

[16:28] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she was great. And Andrew Duran as Rick Taylor and Marissa Jarrett Winokur as Mrs. Taylor. You know, it was great to see her on stage.

[16:35] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I'm like, there's the Tony Award-winning I'm so sorry original Tracy Turnblad up there, and like she's playing like this like mom, like where all her kids die in the show, and she's like the angry mom in the town. She was great.

[16:49] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Um, and yeah, like you said, even Andrew Duran was still working really strong. He's so great. What a great cast. I always think Encores cast so well.

[16:58] Jeff Malone: I truly, I think that is the coolest thing for an actor to go do an encore show for a few weeks. And like you're gonna put this whole show on in just a few short weeks, and it's only gonna run one or two weekends. But like when we see the cast coming up this season with Billy Porter with Lakaige, we have Andrea Martin coming up, we have some people that I'm like, okay, like, oh, it's just so impressive. Jasmine, Amy Rogers is gonna be in the Wild Party. I mean, you have like big names like within you know the last year or two that are uh becoming part of Encores. I love seeing that.

[17:29] Richie Grasso: I think, you know, as an actor, I wonder if when they are signing on to a show, though, that they have this idea of like, hey, you know, that show might transfer. Maybe they think that.

[17:44] Jeff Malone: Right. If they want to, if they get offered it and they want to go in it, because if it does, hopefully they they get the ask to go out to the Broadway room, which sometimes makes sense. And things as of recent, you know, we've looked through what Encores has put out in the past. And like as of recent, there, I think there has been at least one show from every season that has now transferred to Broadway, Fragtime being the most recent one that is now playing at Lincoln Center.

[18:08] Richie Grasso: Yeah. So I think, you know, there's definitely hope, probably, from the actress when they sign on to doing something like a show like this.

[18:16] Jeff Malone: Totally. So all right. Let's take another quick break. And when we get back, we're gonna move into our own experience at the show and what we think is next for this production.

[18:25] Richie Grasso: Amazing.

[18:27] Jeff Malone: Okay, and we're back. So kind of starting things off from where we were talking about before, what we think is next for a production like this. I think like I think Bat Boy has every kind of like right bone for like a Little Shop style uh cult following. And I think like that's what should be studied a bit more with a show like Bat Boy is like, how did Little Shop get so big? And you know, they were off Broadway, they have the film, they did the Broadway run, and now they have literally been sitting off Broadway for X amount of years now, since I think 2019.

[19:04] Richie Grasso: Yeah, and and I think that's why I almost feel like Bat Boy could go sit at a new world stages or a commercial off Broadway space and run for a while. It could also do Broadway, but like when you see Heathers running successfully off Broadway, we're about to see Spelling Bee run off Broadway. We have Little Shop running for years off Broadway in Midtown in commercial mainstream locations. I think that could totally happen. It could also do a limited run Broadway thing too. Maybe with this cast, maybe they really want to bring it to Broadway and say they did it on Broadway. That's why I always say, like Heathers never had the Broadway run. And really, the Broadway versus off Broadway thing just comes down to to me anyway, like just Tony Awards. Like, do you get Tony Award nominations or not? But you're not eligible for when you're off Broadway. So I could see this transferring, it'd be cool.

[19:42] Jeff Malone: I don't know. I mean it's one of those things though, like with Heathers, it's a great example that like the show is so known now. The show is so done now, also by high schools, and does it need the Broadway run? Does it need it?

[19:57] Richie Grasso: Right. You know, I don't think it would be considered as a new musical anymore. So it would be revival at this point when it goes on to Broadway. And uh with something like Bat Boy, I I say, does it need the Broadway run? Maybe because it's not as big as something like Heathers. Um and Little Shop already had its Broadway run, so like to um play off Broadway now and just sit there. It's like that show has really made its name for itself. And I don't think Bat Boy quite has like kind of grown beyond the quick cult following um that it has right now. So it's like, does a film happen for uh um a show like this? Could or uh it could it and could it be done super campy like Little Shop, right? You know, with the right people, or does it go fast track to Broadway?

I mean, if you look at this season, I don't know what Bat Boy would be considered um in the Tony season. Do you think it would fall in like revival or would it could be revival, yeah? And I don't know, like I said, if it even goes to Broadway or not. I I wouldn't be surprised if it goes to Broadway or goes off Broadway or neither. I mean, I really could see could see it going anywhere, but the audience was really loving it. They were laughing hysterically. The updated book and score and and the cutting and pacing they did to clean it up is definitely worked. The audience is eating it up.

[21:16] Jeff Malone: Um, and I think it just goes to show with City Center. I mean, we have a new artistic director at City Center now. I think this is a good way to start the season. City Center brings a lot of theater people together. You always see familiar faces at this. We see so many actors and people because it's only running the one or two weekends. So it's like you really got to get in to see it in one of the few performances that they have.

[21:36] Richie Grasso: So it's like the whole community comes together for it.

[21:38] Jeff Malone: Right. Which we always love that experience when we go to City Center. Like I love being in that space because you it's always like, who's here?

[21:46] Richie Grasso: Yeah. They're here. And they always do that one thing where they like, by, I think it's by the union contract, they have to have a minimum one song where they hold a binder to prove that they weren't forced to like memorize the whole script and as it being a full production, and it's more of like a concert style, you know, things like that. So they come out with those binders in the beginning, and I feel like at every show, like they come out with the binders and then they go by the first song. It's kind of been this like unofficial rule with directors like, well, put the binders in the opening song, or like whenever we have like a choral standing song where they're singing in a choir or something, and then just get rid of them the rest of the show.

The actors usually want to get them out of their hands anyway. But uh, you have to incorporate the binder in some way. You know, with Once Upon a Mattress, they had them all look like they were like storybooks in the beginning, right, yep, yep. Uh just all those moments. It's definitely fun to watch those things.

[22:30] Jeff Malone: Um, where do you kind of see musicals like this kind of either like new ones getting created or um shows like this continuing to live on within the theater space?

[22:47] Richie Grasso: I think there's a mix of response to that. I feel like when you have good subject matter that works with people, that it's not just a film to stage adaptation, or you have an original concept like this, I think it's a great smart idea. The you're in towns of the world, these uh abstract kind of ideas of shows, they don't always last too too long, but they're good in that way. And to look when you then when you look at something O'Mary, that's so abstract too, but it's based on real people and historical figures, and that's just so commercial now compared to what it was when we saw it. That I do feel like I'm always a fan of like writers go out and write these new quirky things. Is there an article you're reading?

Like, or is there a documentary you're watching? Is there something you're saying, like, oh, that could work. I feel as if that there's a place for all of these pieces, as quirky as they are, as serious as they are, with a piece like Queen of Versailles, when you're talking about these two people saying they're gonna build the largest mansion like in America, and then they lose their money. Like that, oh, that could be a plot for a stage show. So I always think writers should keep writing what they know, what they like, what they feel like they can really bring, and they can all have messages in their own way. So I hope we see more things like this. I love a show like this because I think it lends itself to something as a bigger topic within the industry. You you're taking a weekly world news cover story, and you're giving that a full story.

[24:10] Jeff Malone: Right. There's no expectation of either me or you on what that story is.

[24:17] Richie Grasso: Right, or like, did they get it right? Did they get it wrong? They didn't do it the right way because it's just an idea. It's just the silly idea of like a bat-boy, half-bat media tabloid thing, right? And running with it like it really happens.

[24:28] Jeff Malone: Right. So to take that and to write music to it and to write a story to it and like really give you something new, I find to be what's really missing in a lot of what's getting created on the stage for Broadway now. I mean so many things we're just seeing direct translations from either film or cast album or whatnot to Broadway stage, and it seems like we have high expectations of those pieces because we already know what the story is.

[25:00] Richie Grasso: Right. So when you you take something like this, you're like, oh, okay, this is cool. This is creative, you know. It's even something with like behind me, Cats. Cats had the stories, but it wasn't like there were expectations of what the actual book and music was going to be for Cats. But then when you see something like a historical piece, like Evita, or like, and you have to, oh, this is someone's life, so has to be correct and accurate, and you have to and someone said, Well, she didn't do that, or she did that, then it becomes so different.

[25:25] Jeff Malone: Right. Versus just the idea of a piece.

[25:28] Richie Grasso: Right. So I think you know, I think it it's cool to think about. And I think that's where the inspiration should lie in like creators and writers right now is like what is something different that like there's no expectation of me of what this is actually going to be, you know.

[25:44] Jeff Malone: Right. Right. Well, regardless, I think it'll be cool to see this piece done in whether it's on Broadway, off Broadway, or if more high schools and regionals do it. It's still done a lot in the regional way too, which is exciting.

[25:54] Richie Grasso: So my gosh, just about out of time. What are your final thoughts on Bat Boy at City Center Encores?

[25:59] Jeff Malone: Um, this was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, you're not able to go see it anymore because it's done by the time that this podcast comes out. But if you do get to see it, we hope you enjoyed it and hopefully maybe it'll announce the next steps for people to see it. Who knows? If it goes off Broadway or Broadway, we'll see, right?

[26:14] Richie Grasso: Yes, but we had a great time seeing this. We love going to City Center. We're so excited for this upcoming season with uh the three remaining shows that they have.

[26:22] Jeff Malone: Exactly. Yeah, we love City Center Encores, which is high spirits, it's Wild Party and it's yeah, some great shows.

[26:30] Richie Grasso: So it's fine.

[26:31] Jeff Malone: Yes, final thoughts were Bat Boy is fun. It's a great show, and we love City Center Encores, and we love getting there as much as we can.

[26:39] Richie Grasso: Good stuff. Well, that does wrap up our discussion for this episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into Bat Boy the Musical. Remember, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast.

[26:50] Jeff Malone: And drop us a comment on Spotify and let us know your thoughts on Bat Boy the Musical. Please also leave us a review. Your reviews mean so much to us. And remember to subscribe to our channel for all past and future episodes. Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[27:02] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[27:04] Jeff Malone: Bye.