Broadway World review
By Taryn Oesch
July 27, 2016
http://www.broadwayworld.com/raleigh/article/BWW-Review-Local-Theatres-Prepare-the-Next-Generation-20160727
Local Theatres Prepare the Next Generation
They say experience is a great teacher, and this truism is perhaps nowhere as apparent as theatre.
Raleigh Little Theatre is known in part for its youth programs, and PlayMakers Repertory Company, while being a professional theatre company at a university, also works hard to educate the next generation of the theatre.
Raleigh Little Theatre's Teens On Stage (TOS) is an intensive, six-week summer theatre program for ages 13 to 18. Students attended conservatory classes that included movement, acting, voice, and improvisation and finished the program with eleven performances of Bat Boy, The Musical.
I attended one of these performances last week and found much to impress. Bat Boy is a bizarre musical based on a story in the Weekly World News, the tabloid known for its strange, often paranormal cover stories. Three teenagers find a half-boy, half-bat creature in a cave near their town of Hope Falls, West Virginia. The veterinarian's wife, MerEdith Parker, and her daughter, Shelley, teach the boy to act "normal" (although that normalcy shows itself as a "My Fair Lady" crossed with "Flowers for Algernon" genius). The Bat Boy tries to fit in, but the townspeople ultimately turn on him - and then there's a twist that definitely shocked me.
There were some lovely voices in the cast, including Parker Perry as Bat Boy, Aubrey Clyburn as MerEdith Parker, and Eden Bartholomew as Shelley, but it was hard to hear their voices due to the overpowering musicians. Clyburn's Act 1 solo, "A Home for You," was, for me, the highlight of the production.
Where you really saw the cast's skill, though, was in the comedy. The teens really seemed to understand Bat Boy's delightful mix of horror and humor, and I laughed a lot. The show quickly moves from gore to one-liners to tragedy to satire, but I never felt whiplash - just enjoyment.
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