In recent years, the Shaftesbury Theatre has done a fine trade in musicals that have been so bad they were good. Into this elite cult group that includes Lautrec and Napoleon arrives, from off-Broadway via the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the riotous carnival of camp and kitsch that is Bat Boy: The Musical.
We know we are in for something special from the opening line of dialogue ("Dude, this is a major vertical"); first line of song ("In a cave many miles to the south/Lives a boy with fangs in his mouth"); and introductory chorus ("Love me, Bat Boy/ Touch me, Bat Boy").
What else could have been expected from a show based on an article in a schlock American tabloid, which told of the discovery of a half-boy, half-bat child in the hills of West Virginia?
For a few minutes at the beginning of Mark Wing-Davey's hilarious production, when Bat Boy is hooded and bound Abu Ghraib-style and taken to the home of the local vet, it seems as though book writers Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming have a serious point to make about the acceptance of outsiders in closed American hearts and minds.
Nothing of the sort: what they and lyricist Laurence O'Keefe choose to do instead is present Greystoke meets The Waltons via My Fair Lady, B-movie style.
Deven May's impressive Bat Boy, all overbite and Spock ears, flourishes under the tutelage of all-American mom and vet's wife Meredith Parker (excellent Rebecca Vere), progressing from rudimentary vowel sounds to high-school diploma in just one song.
However, the local hicks, played with bewigged crossdressing verve by the overamplified small company, will not be satisfied. In the evening's sublime high point of absurdity, BB and the Parkers' toothsome daughter Shelley (Emma Williams) escape to a wood where the god Pan - on stilts, naturally - presides over an orgy. There Shelley proceeds to offer Bat Boy first her heart, then her veins.
Williams, the original Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, triumphs musically in a night of eclectic styles. Hip-hop segues into the big gospel number A Joyful Noise, via the golden age of MGM musicals. The hero signs off with Apology to a Cow, after he has sated his blood lust once more.
This probably won't hang around for long, so book now for quite the most batty experience the West End has offered in many a long day.
Until 30 October. Information: 020 7379 5399.
Bat Boy The Musical
