PICTURED: JULIAN DECKER AND ROBERT SCOTT SMITH.
JULIAN: Hi, my name is Julian Decker and I am playing Batboy in Batboy the Musical.
ROBERT SCOTT: Hi, I'm Robert Scott Smith and I'm playing Dr. Parker in Batboy the Musical.
JULIAN: So, Rob Scott, what would you say Bat Boy the Musical is about?
ROBERT SCOTT: That's a great question, Julian. I don't know, I'm kidding. It's a play about a half boy, half bat that's discovered in Hope Falls, Virginia, and brings a lot of chaos into a small town where a lot of folks are struggling with their life, their identity, their relationships. And I think Bat Boy brings out something deep within each person within the play that is self-reflective of things that they might be afraid of, things that they might misunderstand, and it's a great story about watching how each individual interacts with that and what they do to either embrace it, push it away, or just unlock or figure it out and discover like, who's this little bat boy and where does he come from? I'd say for me, right now, that's what I'm feeling the show is about.
JULIAN: Yeah, I think essentially what you're talking about is ‘the other,’ right?
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah.
JULIAN: When we, in society and in life, when ‘the other’ is present, it's confusing to us and our everyday human instinct. And for me, it's about recognizing that ‘the other’ is okay, embracing that, and all of the quirkiness that might come from said half-man half-bat human.
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah, it's a really interesting character. Oh, so let's talk a little bit about Bat Boy himself. How would you describe Bat Boy?
JULIAN: I think he's a survivor. I think, you know, he has only known his world, which was in a cave and now all of the sudden is brought out into the limelight of reality and life. And we're watching this individual that literally is learning from the ground up. He is... You know, we talk about the BBC tapes, right? And so you have all of these folks in the show that authentically are living their lives, and he doesn't know how to speak. He doesn't know how to talk. And the only way he learns how to exist is by observing and watching. Funnily enough, something I did most of my life. He learns by the example that is set for him, which, I think, the naivete that he possesses sometimes takes over, and he doesn't realize that he has gotten himself in a situation that might not be beneficial for him on his journey of learning how to exist. What about you? Who is Bat Boy to you? Do you have a different idea of him now versus when you played him 20 years ago?
ROBERT SCOTT: You know, that's a really great question and something I've somewhat avoided reflecting on because I feel for me, this is a brand new experience with the show. So I'm purposefully trying to look at it with eyes of where I am now versus the memory of the production, you know, 20 some years ago. So for me, I'm discovering a completely different relationship and understanding of what Bat Boy is. And for me, there's something really interesting about this idea that Bat Boy comes from a very tragic event. Whether it's real or not, and it doesn't really matter, but what came of that event was Bat Boy. And if you think of it maybe more figuratively, that something was created in a moment of conflict and then that was repressed, forgotten, pushed away. But it wasn't completely destroyed because it was still lingering within, and a few years later, Bat Boy comes back into Dr. Parker's life as something that feels more repressed, something that wasn't healed. So for me, it's kind of becoming a little more abstract than the literal sense of like, “What is Bat Boy?” It feels like, from my perspective now as Dr. Parker, I'm really living in this unresolved harm, unresolved trauma, which is very relatable to me as a human in my life and the experiences that I've had that I can relate to. And it's like, well, what am I gonna do now? What route am I gonna take and how am I gonna kind of resolve this conflict? And that's where I'm living.
JULIAN: And so in terms of it being 20 years later, do you feel as though the show fits in society's norm right now? Like is it really relevant?
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah.
JULIAN: Like it was back [then?]
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah, yeah. I mean it feels, it feels like yesterday. It doesn't feel like a long time ago, but I think surprisingly enough I feel like the climate of the world, you know, in 2003 there's some similar political things happening now that were happening then. I mean, we've come a long way in 20-some years, and we feel as though, you know, there's a lot of fire and brimstone and pitchforks happening right now, but I feel that that's something that happened, you know, even 20-some years ago. So I feel like we're landing in a similar pocket, where I think the world, the country is trying to figure out its identity and who we are. So I feel like this is the perfect time to look at something like this. Like there's a great line where the town folk, they're scared. Like something has come in, something is happening, they don't know what's happening, so they're gonna believe anything that comes along.
JULIAN: Mmm.
ROBERT SCOTT: Because it's gonna fall into their narrative. It's like, “Oh yeah, that's what's happening. It's that,” without any knowledge or understanding of what's really going on. And I feel that's happening now. And I'm excited to see how the audience will explore this and experience this show today.
JULIAN: Agreed.
ROBERT SCOTT: Oh, I have something! There's one thing I do want to share. I brought something. Now it's been a minute so it might-
JULIAN: Is it your teeth?
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah. So just for the faint of heart like it might look a little like “oh…” but I've had this ever since- because I've just like I have to keep this like token-
JULIAN: Yeah of course.
ROBERT SCOTT: This is the case that it was in, sat on my dressing room, Bat Boy teeth, right? So I would like to share them with you. You do not need to touch them. This is what I had to wear. Now this looks a little- you know, it's aged, but I just would like to share that it was like a full-on mouthguard with teeth.
JULIAN: I'm obsessed.
ROBERT SCOTT: I will not be putting these in, but I just was like, this is what I had to deal with. I just wanted to share.
JULIAN: And so they molded your mouth and then like a dentist-?
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah, they just like, they're like pieces of wax. They just kind of build the teeth onto the piece. It's like a lovely mouth guard. And not only did I have the teeth in here, but I had my ears!
JULIAN: (laughs)
ROBERT SCOTT: Can you believe that?
JULIAN: Wild.
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah, yeah. It was like, you know, something I've just kept. I just wanted to share them.
JULIAN: I love it. It's so much a part of the character, right?
ROBERT SCOTT: Oh, I think, I think that for me, when the teeth came everything shifted.
JULIAN: Yeah.
ROBERT SCOTT: One, it was a, it was a challenge as an actor to work around the teeth, but-
JULIAN: For sure.
ROBERT SCOTT: For me, that's what I went, oh, there's the character. And I had to work a little extra harder. and it actually helped me vocally, because I had where the placement landed and having to work around that.
JULIAN: That's one thing that I have really noticed, which is when you have these fangs, right, they sit here, and so in order to shape things, words, vowels in my mouth, I have to centralize where I'm placing it so if all else fails it's right in between the two fangs. It's interesting how just the slight adjustment of putting fake teeth in your mouth can change everything about being a vocalist.
ROBERT SCOTT: It's like Marlon Brando just shoving cotton in his mouth. I think it was Marlon Brando.
JULIAN: It was Marlon!
ROBERT SCOTT: Was it Godfather when he was playing that character?
JULIAN: It was, yes.
ROBERT SCOTT: I mean that stuff's real. We might want to make fun of the idea of this method, but some of those techniques actually help develop and create characters.
JULIAN: Yeah, people are like, “Well, does it hurt?” No, it doesn't hurt actually. It just is foreign. Yeah. You know, to like to put your body through a physical journey that is like not walking on two feet.
ROBERT SCOTT: Yeah.
JULIAN: It’s definitely a challenge.
ROBERT SCOTT: Thanks for letting me share.
JULIAN: I love that, thank you.
ROBERT SCOTT: What drew you to this production or what had you saying yes to the opportunity to play Bat Boy?
JULIAN: So I reached out to our fearless director, Eric Sciotto, whom I've known for many, many years. We have not been able to work together before. And when I saw that he was directing Bat Boy, I sort of went on this journey internally of being like, I've only played outcasts in my career. And I had this thought process with myself where I was like, why don't you go on this journey of just trying to achieve playing every outcast that exists. And the only recollection I have of Bat Boy in general is my friend Ryan Vasquez playing it at University of Michigan in college. That's the extent of my knowledge. And I said to Eric, I was like, “I think I need to take this one on. And I need to take it on in a safe place, a safe rehearsal environment,” if that makes sense? And he was like, “Let's see what we can do.” And here we are.
ROBERT SCOTT: That's great. So we're just a week and a half into rehearsals, and what are you enjoying most about the process?
JULIAN: I think the number one thing that I'm enjoying the most is how authentic everyone is. And what I mean by that is, I feel as though we step onto the platform that is the stage that we’re rehearsing on and it doesn't feel like, as an actor, specifically, let's talk about you and I and our interactions, I feel like I'm with Rob Scott, the actor, right? I don't feel as though I'm not being taken care of as a scene partner. Which, sometimes, ego comes into play and folks don’t realize they’re not being an authentic scene partner. So authenticity here, in Salt Lake, is what I'm connecting the most with. And it allows me to not go into my actor-brain and be insecure, if that makes sense?
INTERVIEWER: What makes Batboy so unique? Because it has such a different sound than the musical theater canon. What makes it so different from other musicals?
ROBERT SCOTT: Do you want to talk about that?
JULIAN: I think I do. I think it lives in this middle ground, in terms of the music, yet we are exploring so many different genres, which only is a testament to the writers and the brilliance of the arranger. Yeah, Alex Lacamoire did this piece. But he was a no-name at that time.
JULIAN: I love having conversations like this and diving deeply into the world that we're exploring as artists. Which means that is why you should come see Bat Boy at SLAC.
BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL RUNS FROM APRIL 9 TO MAY 5, 2025. Tickets and more information about our production of Bat Boy: The Musical are available right here.
