Bat Boy (2025)

Story and Book by Keythe Farley & Brian Flemming
Music & Lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe
Based on a True Story in the Weekly World News
Oct. 2-25, 2025
Show Webpage
Production Photos

THE CAST
Edgar the Bat Boy – Rafael DaCosta
Meredith Parker – Brittany Kohl
Dr. Thomas Parker – Ian McCreary
Shelley Parker – Marlee Wenski
Sheriff Reynolds – Stephen Thompson
Ron/Mayor Maggie/Clem – Bee Mecey
Deputy Bud/Daisy/Pan – Zack Huels
Mrs. Taylor/Rev. Hightower/Roy – Ronmal Mottley
Rick/Lorraine/Dillon – Zachary Thompson
Ruthie/Ned/Impassioned Soloist – Chelsie Johnston


THE NEW LINE BAND
Conductor/Keyboards – Jason Eschhofen
Guitar – Adam Rugo
Percussion – Joe Winters
Bass – Xander Gerdes


THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Directors – Scott Miller, Chris Moore
Music Director – Jason Eschhofen
Stage Manager – Rachel DeNoyer
Technical Director – Nathan Mecey
Sound Designer – Ryan Day
Costume Designer – Becca Rose Bessette
Scenic Designer – Dr. Rob Lippert
Lighting Designer – Bradley Rohlf
Master Carpenter – John Davidson
Intimacy Coordinator – Achie Bee
Props Master – Erin Goodenough
Specialty Props Designer – Patricia Edmonds
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

REVIEWS

“Directors Scott Miller and Chris Moore lean into the camp and give their cast license to milk every bit of the ridiculous weirdness from the story. Their lively direction and the cast’s animated all-in portrayals make for absurdly bizarre storytelling about a societal misfit. The co-directors’ exaggerated, over-the-top staging is delightfully self-aware, and the cast is in on the joke. No one takes the narrative too seriously, but all are seriously immersed in amusingly extreme characterizations. . . Directors Miller and Moore empowered the entire company to throw themselves into excessively dramatic, flamboyant, tacky, and genuinely funny portrayals – and that they did. Bat Boy knows what it is trying to be. While not a literary work of art or musically eloquent, it's a horror camp fest with heart. It is a darkly humorous and satirical look at an outcast who desperately wants to belong to a society that wants to ostracize him. New Line Theatre’s production of Bat Boy The Musical is a fun diversion this Halloween Season." –James Lindhorst, St. Louis Arts Scene

“Laurence O’Keefe’s savory mix of a score for Bat Boy goes from the opening anthem-like 'Hold Me, Bat Boy' to the witty lyrics of the hopeful 'Let Me Walk Among You,' with a mix of pop and rock, light and dark, serious and tongue-in-cheek along the way. . . with much that is moving and little that is mocking, a better balance than in any other production of this musical that I have seen. For that I also thank the Directors Scott Miller and Chris Moore and Music Director Jason Eschhofen.” – Bob Wilcox, Two on the Aisle

“Under the direction of Scott Miller and Chris Moore New Line has put a lot of energy into this production, which features striking production elements and a strong, enthusiastic cast of local performers. . . The overall darkly comic energy is handled with entertaining enthusiasm. This is a show that has a lot of laughs and a few cringey horror moments, but also a palpable message warning against the dangers of judging people based on appearance and preconceived notions. It’s alternately creepy, haunting, offbeat, and deliberately sensationalist, with some crass humor and suggestive themes. Bat Boy strikes just the right tone for this time of year, and it’s a good start to a new season for New Line.” – Michelle Kenyon, Snoop’s Theatre Thoughts

“New Line Theatre opens its 34th season with an energetic rendition of a musical it’s presented twice before in 2003 and 2006. A new cast brings a fresh perspective to the show while realizing its musically diverse cautionary tale. . . New Line founder and artistic director Scott Miller and his co-director, Chris Moore revisit the company’s earlier success with this weird but engaging tale, featuring a variety of musical motifs. The cast fully invests in their characters, bringing out both the physical comedy and touching drama. . . Bat Boy is a fun show for the Halloween season, especially when produced by a director who knows and understands the material as well as Miller. You’ll be humming 'Hold Me, Bat Boy' on your way out of the theater.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“Underneath the comedy, and despite the tabloid sensationalism about the lead character, Bat Boy, written by Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, offers a lesson in acceptance and kindness. While it’s highly improbable that anyone in the audience has or will ever see someone who is mostly human but part bat, we are likely to encounter are people who look strikingly different than us. It is often too easy to dismiss or disparage people who don’t fit society’s cookie-cutter norms when we should be more like Mrs. Parker and show kindness, not judge people harshly simply because of their looks. That’s a lesson we can all take to heart and New Line Theatre delivers the message with surprising heart as well as good humor. The musical is a lot of fun and a surefire hit that will appeal to mature audiences, especially those who enjoy their musicals with a little blood and a touch of horror story suspense.” – Tina Farmer, Mound City Messenger

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

We humans are uniquely talented at assigning blame. I’ve been reading a book called Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Others by Charlie Campbell. He starts his book, “In the beginning there was blame. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent, and we’ve been hard at it ever since.”

Just think about all the people who are routinely blamed, throughout history and still today, for virtually everything. We blame foreigners, Jews, Muslims, Christians, the press, Congress, women, witches, gay and trans people, the Top 1%, Satan, the poor, people of color, Democrats, Republicans, fascists, Antifa, China, Russia, communists, socialists, “woke” people, homeless people, people with disabilities, kids, Trump, Biden, the Clintons; and not so long ago, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans, the Japanese; and then there’s the infamous Hollywood Blacklist of the Fifties, and the world’s most famous scapegoat, Jesus.

In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in the U.S. Congress designated as “suspicious” 438 American newspapers, 280 American labor unions, and the Boy Scouts of America. Not even kidding.

One of Bat Boy’s writers, Keythe Farley, recommended to me a book called Depth Psychology and a New Ethic by Erich Neumann. The author identifies the three types of people that society tends to blame: those who are different or Other (immigrants, people of color, gay and trans people, Muslims), those who seem weaker (‘welfare mothers,’ ‘wimps,’ people with disabilities, homeless people), and those who we see as Better Than Us (religious people, do-gooders, “woke” people, rich people, smart people, experts, the ‘elite’).

Farley wrote to me, “Notably, Edgar the Bat Boy is all three: a sweet, sensitive, freak of nature, with a fierce intellect and a nasty bite.”

We see all our worst human impulses on display in this rock thriller. The journalist Charles MacKay published the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds in 1889, and in it he wrote, “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

Bat Boy may not be exactly true but it sure heaves a shit-ton of truth at us, and it’s our unexpected recognition of that truth within this high silliness that makes us laugh so hard. But don’t be fooled. This is a very funny show but a very serious story.

This is about us. Right here. Right now.