Nightlife: On Stage: Tabloid-loving crowd will cheer

A "bat boy" is a genetic mistake: human mother, bat father. If you're hoping I'll tell you how such a mistake can happen, stop reading now. To discover that fact, you'll have to go to ArtsWest and see the musical tragedy/farce/melodrama "Bat Boy." Librettists Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and songwriter Laurence O'Keefe supply all the chromosomal information you could want, complete with racy photographs of the moment of conception.

The ArtsWest sound system, apparently meant to amplify and clarify lyrics, is no help at all. The 11 cast members are all miked, which seems odd in a cozy 150-seat theater. The effect of the electronic tampering is a frustrating blur of words.

Fortunately, the "Bat Boy" situation, bizarre though it may be, is sufficiently simple that largely incomprehensible lyrics don't hamper understanding. The basic scenario is familiar folklore. The characters are a mix of sensational tabloid fodder and familiar sci-fi figures. The action takes place in a tiny West Virginia town. That means stereotypical rednecks. To this town comes an ambitious scientist. That means reckless experimentation. And that means a monster.

The monster is this bat boy. With the help of British Broadcasting Corp.'s English-language instruction tapes, however, the boy becomes a refined of fellow named of Edgar. But ...

Well, you can guess. Let me just add here that Edgar's bat genes are of the vampire variety.

As Edgar, Troy Wageman evolves briskly and maintains an ever-dramatic inner struggle between good manners and predatory instincts. Heather Hawkins as the scientist's wife, Edgar's caretaker, presents an intriguing picture of cheerful and largely controlled hysteria.

As Edgar's girlfriend, Krystle Armstrong offers an edifying case history. At first she is a bigoted, selfish small-town girl. But she learns to be tolerant, loving and extraordinarily generous. I wish I could tell you how generous. But that would spoil the fun for those of you who are thinking "This I gotta see."

"Bat Boy" is crude, both in terms of what is told and the way it's told. But it will definitely not disappoint thrill-seekers.

"Bat Boy" plays through Nov. 10 at ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave. S.W. Tickets are $32, $10 for under age 25; 206-938-0339 or artswest.org.

This 'Mushroom' is hard to digest

A banal way of dealing with misfortune is to think, or say, "It's not the end of the world." To which New York playwright Ken Urban replies, "Yes, it is." His play "Mushroom" is a strained, stylized reflection on death and loss.

Mark and Andrew are lovers. Mark dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Andrew is stricken. He shares his grief with Mark's former girlfriend, Laura. Laura and Andrew recall (twice) a dream Mark had described to them. In the dream, there was a mushroom cloud, the result of a nuclear explosion. Andrew and Laura stumbled around amid the dreamscape desolation.

Urban's labored 45-minute one act is fraught with contorted symbols. A molten tape cassette that Mark gave to Andrew becomes a sort of glue that holds them all together despite painful recriminations.

John Hartvigson is variously distraught and unhinged as Andrew. Lisa Hopp, as Laura, is a bit more detached. Even more detached is Scott Shoemaker as Mark's hovering ghost. Before dying, however, Mark could be far from detached -- as a flashback to a lover's quarrel with Andrew demonstrates.

Director Gary Zinter's production is polished enough. But Urban's play is anemic. It is little more than a low-stakes quest for a metaphor, a metaphor to express what is lost and what is retained when a lover dies.

"Mushroom," a Back Pocket Theatre production, playsthrough Oct. 20 at Odd Duck Studio, 1214 10th Ave. Tickets are $10; 206-617-3704.