Bat Boy began life as a figment of the imagination of somebody at an American tabloid, the Weekly World News, which claimed to have found a blood-sucking child with pointed ears and radar vision living underground in the West Virginia mountains.
As a premise for a musical, it's only marginally less bizarre than Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster: On Ice, and Bat Boy failed to take flight off-Broadway in the post-9/11 climate - an ironic fate for a satire on the American impulse to demonise anything untoward, particularly if it lives in a cave.
But as a piece of tabloid hysteria with tunes, the show hits plenty of contemporary nerves. Mark Wing-Davey's production is slick, sick and compelling, and features an astonishingly gymnastic performance from original cast member Deven May as the pointy-eared outcast. His portrayal of a feral, frightened creature is so convincing that it's slightly disappointing Bat Boy learns to read and write, and gains a high school diploma, over the course of a single number.
The dramaturgy goes a bit haywire in the second half as Bat Boy runs off to join a carnival of beasts in the forest and the writers Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming scurry around trying to explain the laboratory mishap that led to the mutant's birth. But the pace never flags, the ensemble playing is a joy and Laurence O'Keefe's stomping score has a sleazy Rocky Horror vibe that suggests a cult hit in the making.
· Until July 17. Box office: 0113-213 7700.
