Batty musical

IS IT a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? The answer to all those is "No". The mysterious flying object in the skies over Yorkshire is Bat Boy who, as the name suggests, is half-bat and half-boy. He's the hero of an American musical that gathered critical and public acclaim in New York in early 2001, winning two best musical awards, but is only now making an appearance on this side of the Atlantic.

American actor Deven May is making the move with the show, although he points out that even he had to audition for this British production. He first became involved in Bat Boy The Musical in Los Angeles back in 1997 and has been playing the role on and off ever since. A total of two-and-a-half years altogether in the role is his estimate. A choreographer friend said he'd be ideal for the role, although May was a bit put out at the suggestion.

"I wanted to do Oklahoma not Bat Boy. Then I picked up the script, identified with him, fell in love with the show right away and had to do it," he recalls. He won best lead actor in a musical and best New York debut, as well as two further nominations, for his high-flying performance. The success proved short-lived in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the city. "The production was going really well and then 9/11 happened," he says. "We were only 20 blocks away from the Towers and really suffered with audiences. Not enough people were coming and we shut down in the December."

His new leading lady, English actress and singer Emma Williams, is new to the show - and, when we meet one lunchtime, seems remarkably perky despite having had only two hours sleep the previous night. It had been her last night shooting the first in the new ITV Miss Marple series of Agatha Christie whodunits The Body In The Library.

She'd been filming until the early hours in a quarry in Maidenhead. That, and the fact she plays a dance hall hostess, was all she's allowed to say about the project.

Bat Boy is new but musicals aren't for the Halifax-born performer. She was the original Truly Scrumptious in the stage version of the flying car show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium. She spent 15 months there from the age of 18. After making a film during her first year of A-levels, she decided to take a gap year and pursue a career in performing rather than languages (she's fluent in French, German and Latin, understands Spanish, Italian, bits of Russian and Welsh). So she put her place - one of only 20 on offer in the whole country - on a medieval language course on hold. After signing up with an agent (on 9/11, ironically) she began auditioning and was signed within ten days to do Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Bat Boy The Musical is a very different experience, not least in the smaller size of the production. The Leeds production has a modest sized cast while Chitty involved 44 performers, ten dogs and 17 children a night. And, of course, a car that flies - most of the time. After a month of trouble-free previews, it broke down and cause the performance to be cancelled. Another time, she and the rest of the passengers were stranded up in the air at the end of the first act. They had to climb down a windmill, part of the stage scenery, to safety - at which point she realised she wasn't fond of heights.

"I went to the Chitty audition for the experience. I didn't expect to get the role. It doesn't happen that way, particularly someone who's 18. I was so young and nave. I don't think I realised at the time how much hard work it was going to be," she says.

Both performers can claim family connections with showbusiness. May's grandmother was one of the last dancers in the Ziegfeld Follies, while Williams' godmother was one of the Bluebell Girls, a dancer who later appeared with Billy Smart's Circus.

Both emphasise that nobody should go into the entertainment industry unless they really want to because it's not a stable career. Audition-wise, says May, unless you're famous the odds are 40-1 against you getting a part. Williams points out that, despite her Chitty Chitty Bang Bang experience, last year was a tough one work-wise. "I was doing jobs that lost me money every time," she says. May agrees, saying: "It's getting harder and harder to make a career on stage, and make a living."

Bat Boy The Musical promises to keep both of them employed in coming months. There are hopes, plans even, for a London West End run after Leeds. May is keeping quiet about the prospect, merely pointing out that he has a work permit for a year. "It looks very positive," he says guardedly.

* Bat Boy The Musical runs at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until July 17. Box Office: (0113) 213 7700.

Published: 24/06//2004