The musical “Bat Boy” opened Off Broadway in 2001 and ran a few months before it closed, a financial flop. Recently, the Encores! series put on a revival that somehow got one of those ubiquitous Critic’s Pick selections from the New York Times. It’s not a very good musical, but the story of a bat boy that had become front-page news in the World News tabloid has its fans. Those must include the book writers Amber Ruffin and Kevin Sciretta and songwriters Ruffin and David Schmoll who have collaborated to give us “Bigfoot!,” which opened Sunday at the New York City Center.
The not-so-big surprise with both shows is that Bat Boy and Bigfoot are actually lovable, not scary. Playing the title character at Encores!, Taylor Trensch was the only reason to see “Bat Boy,” and Grey Henson playing the title character at City Center is the major reason to see “Bigfoot!”
Henson’s creature speaks as if he had OD’d reading too many self-help books by Marianne Williamson. Living in the forest near a town populated with Bigfoot bigots, this huge hairy hunk wants nothing more than to sit down and have a nice conversation with someone other than his mother (Crystal Lucas-Perry), who visits him occasionally.
Danny Mefford’s direction of “Bigfoot!” has its method. One way in which Melford makes Henson’s Bigfoot so engaging and charming is by making every other actor on stage so loud and obnoxious. Whenever Henson is off stage, you wait for him to return so that your eardrums can take a rest.
The pastiche score for “Bigfoot!” is superior to Laurence O’Keefe’s pastiche score for “Bat Boy.” Ruffin and Schmoll have written at least one real keeper, the love duet “When You Come Around,” which is more about being friends than lovers for reasons that will not be disclosed here. Also, with material as twee as cute monsters, shorter is better. There, the 90-minute “Bigfoot!” easily beats the two-and-half-hour “Bat Boy.”
