BAT BOY: The Musical at NYCC Encores!

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 10/27/25 at 3:48pm

Fangs out!  BAT BOY : THE MUSICAL begins previews Wednesday, October 27th at New York City Center ENCORES!

https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2025-2026/bat-boy-the-musical/

A downtown sensation when it first premiered, Bat Boy: The Musicalquickly became a cult classic, thanks to its unforgettable score and bold storytelling. Now, over 20 years later, Bat Boy returns to NYC for the first time in a limited 2-week run with a star-studded cast that you’d be bloody foolish to miss.  
 
Tony nominee Taylor Trensch (Floyd Collins) stars as Edgar, a half-human, half-bat teen who is found in a cave and taken in by the Parker family: Tony nominee Christopher Sieber (Death Becomes Her) as Dr. Parker, Gabi Carrubba (Just In Time) as Shelley, and Kerry Butler (Heathers The Musical) as Meredith. Butler triumphantly returns to Bat Boy after originating the role of Shelley in the 2001 Off-Broadway production. 

Director Alex Timbers (Just In Time, Moulin Rouge!) brings his Tony-winning storytelling to the iconic pop-rock score by Tony nominee Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde: The Musical, Heathers The Musical) with several brand-new songs and expanded orchestrations.  

Perfectly timed for the Halloween season, this joyfully twisted tale invites audiences to laugh, cry, and cheer for the bat-boy who just wants to belong.  

 "a jaggedly imaginative mix of skewering and self-puncturing humor" - NYTimes

Updated On: 10/27/25 at 03:48 PM

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 10/27/25 at 3:49pm

BAT BOY merch

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 10/27/25 at 4:56pm

this is another Encores show that is hoping to transfer based on buzz, but sales are sloooooow

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/27/25 at 5:32pm

I wonder if this will reflect any of the London revisions--I hope not, I want to hear "Inside Your Heart"! I love this show but it will be interesting to see if the comedy in this holds up better than (or is revived more successfully than) URINETOWN. I thought of it as the one successful LITTLE SHOP imitator or heir, and that's mostly held up beautifully. 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 10/27/25 at 5:44pm

There are a few new songs - one for Shelley? 

they have video performing MINE ALL MINE.  So INSIDE YOUR HEART is gone, I’d bet 

Updated On: 10/28/25 at 05:44 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/28/25 at 3:00pm

Oh that makes me so very sad. 

[CarmenDeBris]

Posted: 10/28/25 at 3:51pm

I hope they didn't change it too much. It was pretty tight was it was I thought. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/28/25 at 4:30pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "this is another Encores show that is hoping to transfer based on buzz, but sales are sloooooow"

Yea the sales look awful. And the marketing is good and robust. I think it’s the first time in years that an Encores show has put the Access Club seats in the Mezz. Ambitious to think they could fill 14 performances.

Unless there’s some surprise big-big star lined up for the titular role, I can’t see any road to success for it on Broadway, despite having ATG money behind it. Off-Broadway doesn’t seem like the right fit, due to the cast size and expanded orchestra.

Updated On: 10/28/25 at 04:30 PM

[Melissa25]

Posted: 10/28/25 at 5:06pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling: Yea the sales look awful. And the marketing is good and robust. I think it’s the first time in years that an Encores show has put the Access Club seats in the Mezz. Ambitious to think they could fill 14 performances.

It is also the first time that I have seen them FINALLY discount center orchestra.  

[JSquared2]

Posted: 10/28/25 at 5:17pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "BoringBoredBoard40 said: "this is another Encores show that is hoping to transfer based on buzz, but sales are sloooooow"

Yea the sales look awful. And the marketing is good and robust. I think it’s the first time in years thatan Encores showhas put the Access Club seats in the Mezz. Ambitious to think they could fill 14 performances.

Unless there’s some surprise big-big star lined up for the titular role, I can’t see any road to success for it on Broadway, despite having ATG money behind it. Off-Broadway doesn’t seem like the right fit, due to the cast size and expanded orchestra."

 

This isn't an Encores show -- this is their annual Gala/fundraiser -- like GYPSY, LITTLE SHOP, SUNDAY IN THE PARK, RAGTIME, etc.  No idea why they chose it for that prestigious slot?

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 11:09am

It's on TKTS for tonight's 6PM Gala performance - 50% off - the ticket is listed as being $55.00.

[tomorrowBIGLITES]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 11:29am

I feel like this show should go the way Death Becomes Her did with marketing- TikTok. Come off like the fun hilarious show you gotta see.

My only qualm with this show is sometimes you feel stuck in the living room a lot in Act One.

Great Act Two.

[theatergoer3]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 8:47pm

That was a delight. Maybe my favorite since Titanic last summer. Great cast. Butler would get a Tony nomination if this transferred.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 9:40pm

I frequently had fun tonight and especially loved seeing Kerry Butler in the mother role but thought many of the revisions were very strange, especially involving the townspeople. Enough fun to go back to later if I can manage it! The principal cast was pretty much all fantastic. The sound mix was really rough, it got better over the course of the night but the band (not onstage) sounded muffled and I couldn't make out any of the lyrics to the opening number, which seemed to be different. But first show, hopefully that will improve. Not all of it ages gracefully, not all the new stuff makes sense, but I think it's a lot more successful than their URINETOWN. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 9:45pm

Also Alex Newell and her number got the biggest reaction from the audience (especially those seated up in the gods). 

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 11:50pm

Inside Your Heart is great and that new song sounds like a second rate Heathers track. Haven’t loved what I’ve heard of the rewrites so far…

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 12:01am

It's not just that "Inside Your Heart" is a superior song snd extremely well-known to what existing audience there is, it just feels so much more specific to the show and situation it's placed in. Odd for sure,

 

I don't think it's overstating things to say that this choice cast a bit of an odd shadow on the (generally very enjoyable) night for a crowd as theater nerd-heavy as first show at a City Center concert. I heard people confused about it on the way out. 

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 6:23am

It was very enjoyable.  All the leads were great.  Sound was terrible, i figured it was because I was in the “gods” section but alas, I got earphone for the second act and it didn’t really help.  Maybe they’ll work on that as shows progress?  

Taylor was wonderful as Edgar.  Staging was great although they didn’t really utilize the upper tops of the set it would’ve seem that with all that space they would have put more action up there, seemed kinda of a waste to build that and not use it.

Highly suggest getting the earphone even though it might sound muffled. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 8:13am

Sound mix is tough to get right when you’ve only got a day or two of tech and limited dress rehearsals. I’m sure it will improve. 

[tomorrowBIGLITES]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 8:21am

I will not miss “Inside Your Heart”

It’s sing songy. 

[TalksAboutBruno]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 9:00am

All this talk about Inside Your Heart when they also cut Dance With Me and Another Dead Cow. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 9:13am

I did not miss "Dance With Me, Darling" and thought it was one point where the revision might have been a little bit stronger. (It was tbh always my skip track.) But yes, Act 1 is definitely more changed and whatever they were attempting to do with the townspeople just did not communicate last night. Maybe the lyrics I couldn't make out made a big difference, maybe there's a feeling about the limited usefulness of portraying people as flatly ignorant hicks in the Trump era, but I really don't know what they were going for. The new very intense, sort of ritualistic song sung around the full-sized cow puppet (oh, god, that puppet!) was at least a huge swing, which I'll give them credit for when revisals can mostly feel like a watering down. 

[tomorrowBIGLITES]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 9:42am

I love Another Dead Cow. That’s too bad.

[quizking101]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 10:06am

Scarywarhol said: "Also Alex Newell and her number got the biggest reaction from the audience (especially those seated up in the gods)."

*feigns surprise*

[dexter3]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 10:22am

The show is overall fun and wacky as hell with some definite bops. It also feels like the "promising first musical" of a writing team that has evolved by leaps and bounds since it premiered, decades ago. If you think of it through that lense, it's an absolutely success. But by today's standards, it's seriously WTF and far too long, and tonally inconsisstent. It just isn't really firing on all cylinders, especially as it attempts to wrap things up.

 

I'm not sure what message they're trying to hone in on with this version. There are a lot of things it could say, but at the moment it's unclear. 

 

The performances are all stellar. Everyone is interesting and having a great time, and Kerry Butler is on a different LEVEL. Like, she's always been stellar but she's ascended to icon status in this performance. 

 

I bet a 90 min, lightning fast, even-more-campy version of the show could really pop nowadays, though. The show is at it's best when it's really embracing the camp of it al.

Updated On: 10/30/25 at 10:22 AM