• By STEVEN K. LANDRY
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Jul 29, 2010 - Page: 2BA

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LAFAYETTE — “Bat Boy: The Musical” begins today at Cite des Arts off Jefferson Street downtown at 109 Vine St.

The “drama with comic moments,” according to director Walter Brown, who oversaw the 24-member cast based on a 1989 play, starts at 7:30 p.m. each day through Saturday.

It continues each Thursday-Friday-Saturday through Aug. 14.

It’s a “strange” play, Brown said Wednesday, but the actors — ages 10 to 40 — play it fairly straightforward.

There are fangs involved, but it’s not necessarily a vampire production, Brown said. The Bat Boy is played by two people, both 19, because it’s a “very vocally demanding part,” he said. Eric Schneider and Phillip Smith will alternate.

It’s got humor, it’s got “mysterious cow disappearances,” and a script that fascinates.

“The two characters who play the Bat Boy go in totally different directions,” Brown said, “so if people see the show twice they’ll see two totally different shows. The plot stays the same, the ending stays the same — and the ending is not humorous — but the feel of the show is radically different.”

The play originated in Los Angeles.

“It’s a tricky show to do,” Brown said. “It’s set in a coal-mining town and the cattle are dying mysteriously … but when the Bat Boy is discovered in a cave by local teenagers everybody in town thinks that he’s a vampire and he’s attacking the cattle. And there’s a reason for that — he’s actually bitten one of the teens who found him.”

The back story explains everything, Brown said. “I can’t tell you the ending.”

In a rare move, Friday’s show is “pay-what-you-can night, from a nickel to 50 bucks — whatever they can pay,” Brown said. “Because of the economy, people might not be able to afford it, but they can Friday.”

Overall, the play contains “no bad language and no overt sex, but there is some discussion about young lovers who are related. But it plays more straightforward than it sounds. It’s not campy, like ‘Rocky Horror,’ so it really plays like an off-kilter ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ ”

Comedy permeates the play, he said, though it really is a drama, in the end. The music is light rock — “shading between blues and gospel and Neil Diamond. It’s all very melodious and ‘singable.’ ”