Not All Heroes Wear Capes! Bee Carrozzini was Honored at New York City Center's Gala Opening Night of Bat Boy: The Musical

It was a classic tale of bat meets girl at New York City Center on Wednesday evening. Familiar faces from both theater and fashion gathered at the beloved performing arts venue on 55th Street, ready to catch a first look at this year's ‘Encores!’ series season opener: a revival of the 2001 cult hit Bat Boy: The Musical.

To kick off the run—dinner and a show. On opening night, a gala was hosted to honor and highlight producer Bee Carrozzini and her Tony Award-winning work. (Think: Parade and Appropriate, as well as Gutenberg! The Musical!.) Among those who came out to support on Bee's big night were Ben Platt, Jordan Roth, Whitney White, Andrew Rannells, Prabal Gurung, David Burtka, Amber Ruffin, and Anna Wintour, whom she called “her best friend and forever theater date.”

“I am so deeply moved to be honored by New York City Center; an institution that means so much to the city and to theater kids everywhere,” Carrozzini told the crowd gathered at Ziegfeld Ballroom for the celebratory event.

The urgency and importance of City Center’s mission—to offer attainable tickets priced at or below $40 at a time when Broadway prices are reaching eye-watering prices—was a particular focus of the evening. As is its commitment to reviving short-run musical theater deep cuts. That purpose is particularly evident when you consider Lincoln Center Theater’s current production of the stirring American epic Ragtime, which originally opened last year's ‘Encores!’ series.

“When I got tickets to Ragtime, I naively thought it would be a night of celebration…the perfect time to celebrate the American dream," Carrozzini recalled, of seeing the production at City Center on the eve of the 2024 presidential election. “It turned out to be a very different kind of evening, but it was a New York audience in a New York institution hearing a New York story. And as Josh Henry sent chills down everyone's spine, the audience cried together, held hands, and created community in real time.”

It is that sense of community found in the theater that has been a North Star for Carrozzini, from childhood right through her career. During her speech, she regaled the audience with tales of seeing Hairspray eight times as a teen and emotional memories of watching old Rogers and Hammerstein movies with her late father. She even took a stab at voice lessons, she revealed, which culminated in a rather lackluster performance of Where is Love? from the musical Oliver! (“It's a tough song….” was her mom's assessment at the time.)

Taking to the stage, Alex Timbers, the director of Bat Boy: The Musical, also praised the producer for her “vision, moxie, and instinctual sense of what will resonate with audiences.”

Timbers’s refreshed production—with some new songs and book changes from the original—had attendees buzzing on Wednesday evening. The campy story is based on a fabricated Weekly World News tabloid character; a half-human, half-bat foundling whose lurid, gaping expression was a mainstay peeking out from supermarket checkout shelves in the 1990s. With original music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, (whose credits since include Legally Blonde and Heathers), the tale follows Bat Boy’s discovery in a cave in a small-minded West Virginia town and his ensuing struggle to fit into a society that is both fascinated and repulsed by him. Played with delicious wit and warmth by Taylor Trensch, Bat Boy—or Edgar, as he is eventually named—wins the heart of his adoptive mother Meredith and sister Shelley. For Kerry Butler, who plays the matriarch, it's a full circle moment given that she was the original Shelley in 2001. The comedy-horror also stars Christopher Sieber, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Alex Newell—whose scene-stealing appearance as a glammed-up satyr brings down the house. The piece is a delightfully tawdry, if occasionally heartbreaking, romp around the limits of human empathy and contempt, with a healthy dose of blood sucking for good measure.

“It's basically Edward Scissorhands,” Timbers later told Vogue, invoking another misunderstood antihero. “Bat Boy is a cautionary tale about the fear of outsiders and the danger of demagogues. And I think it's a good time to be talking about those things,” he added. As for what Carrozzini is eyeing up next? She teased another uniquely American story, in the form of a possible Martha Stewart musical. Watch this space.