Nice article in the February 17, 2005 issue of eye Weekly on Bat Boy the Musical.

The article does a nice job of profiling the new impresario, Morris Berchard, who is funding this mid-size musical, to the tune of $500K...he's certainly done a good job of building advertising awareness with a significant bus shelter campaign.

With theater in Toronto a definitely iffie proposition in Toronto over the last two years, it's nice to see new producers jumping into the fray. Especially in the under-served mid-sized musical department. From the article:

Bat Boy the Musical was inspired by stories that appeared in the early '90s in the tabloid Weekly World News. To this day, the paper's former managing editor claims the stories of a hybrid child were true, although it must be noted that the tabloid owns the Bat Boy trademark and has taken royalties from productions off Broadway, in London's West End and across the US.

Bat Boy the Musical is being marketed as a universal story of an outsider trying to fit in. That's what appealed to producer Morris Berchard, who's spending close to $500,000 of his own money to bring it to the Toronto stage. Just like Schramek and several of the sort-of-familiar character actors who comprise the cast of 10, Berchard sees Bat Boy the Musical as his bid for wider acceptance.

"Right now, I'm a little bit like Bat Boy. I'm an outsider trying to get in," says Berchard, a youthful looking 49, assessing his relationship to Toronto's theatre community. Winnipeg-born Berchard always dreamed of being an actor, but his parents advised him to seek greater financial security. So he took his psychology and sociology degrees to a fledgling Toronto firm in the early '80s and helped turn it into Canada's biggest purveyor of employee assistance programs. Berchard is vice-chairman of WarrenShepell, a company that no longer requires his day-to-day attention, leaving him vulnerable to the theatre bug.

He became transfixed by Bat Boy the Musical last spring, after he attended a reading by the original off-Broadway cast. The show was a cult-hit in New York, and Berchard was considering an investment in the London run. "It just blew me away," he says, and he ended up bringing it to Toronto with the creators' blessings. "They took a bit of a chance, because I'd never produced anything in Toronto before."

Perhaps not, but Berchard is getting top-notch advice from Donald Farber, a veteran entertainment lawyer in New York. The show's associate producer is Marlene Smith, the seasoned Toronto producer known for bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats to town in the 1980s. As well, Berchard isn't cutting corners.

"He didn't cheap out, you know?" says Schramek, who notes the quality of the tech equipment, props and costumes. "What a wonderful thing for an impresario to come out of the woodwork. This guy who loves theatre has the potential to produce stuff and isn't afraid to go quality."

While it's not strictly an Equity production, Berchard has signed Equity contracts with the actors. Doing otherwise has been a sore point for the non-union Blue Man Group production that's going into the refurbished New Yorker Theatre. "After we all got our contracts," says Schramek, "Morris invited us over for a meet-and-greet. No producer I've ever worked with has just said, 'Come over to my place. I'll cater a night.'"

Berchard is the last to deny that he gets a thrill mixing with theatre people and watching their eyes light up when, for example, they first saw the elaborate set on the theatre stage. "They were so delighted to be working on the show, being on the stage," says Berchard. "It was a magical moment for me."

The producer has plans to bring other New York properties to Toronto, concentrating on the mid-sized 400- to 500-seat houses. Schramek also sees a lot of potential in that range, as well as in the style of new musical that Bat Boy typifies.