Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (RCA) (2 / 5) Ever since Little Shop of Horrors, Off-Broadway has spawned lots of campy musical sci-fi spoofs. Bat Boy is one of the better ones, though that’s not saying much. The book, by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, about the discovery of an alleged “bat child” is a convoluted tale of small-town viciousness, family secrets, and incest, all played for marginal laughs. Still, the wildly uneven score by newcomer Laurence O’Keefe is worth your attention. Interestingly, the most ambitious passages are the most successful. The comic”Show You a Thing or Two”is a mini-masterpiece in which the bat boy, renamed Edgar, is transformed into an Anglophile whiz kid; anyone who can work Ruby Ridge, Cole Porter, and The Remains of the Day into a lyric is OK by me. Also nifty is the first-act closer, “Comfort and Joy,” which advances the plot with speed and wit. And the ballad “Let Me Walk Among You” weds a touching melody to hilariously deadpan lyrics. So how can O’Keefe have also written junky numbers like “Another Dead Cow,” in which the townspeople wonder who killed their livestock, or the tasteless “Children, Children,” an inter-species sex orgy? Similarly, the orchestrations by O’Keefe and Alex Lacamoire range from clever to crass. In the title role, Deven May has a powerful voice and a light comic touch. There’s also skillful work from Kaitlin Hopkins as Edgar’s adoptive mother — her “Three-Bedroom House” brings down the house — and from Kerry Butler as his innocent love interest. Steel yourself for the worst of the score and prepare to enjoy the best.  — David Barbour

New York City Center Cast, 2025 (Ghostlight/Yellow Sound Label) (2.5 / 5) This recording of a revised version of Bat Boy offers a significantly starrier cast than the original. It’s fun to have Kerry Butler mature into the maternal role originally played by Kaitlin Hopkins, and Christopher Sieber is a significant upgrade as her scheming spouse. In the role of the daughter, Gabi Carrubba gives what can fairly be called a school-of-Kerry-Butler performance. Taylor Trensch is a tad disappointing as the feral bat boy, but he amuses mightily following his Pygmalion makeover. Also running around are Andrew Durand, John-Michael Lyles, Jacob Ming-Trent (taking the lead in the gospel rouser “A Joyful Noise”), Alex Newell (in “Children, Children”), and Marissa Jaret Winokur. The altered score features several replacements and a different running order. “Fly With Me,” featuring Sieber, is a significant improvement over “Dance with Me Darling.” “Show You a Thing or Two” has been updated with new references, including The Lord of the Rings, Tupac, Biggie, and Dr. Zhivago. In further cheerful news, “Another Dead Cow” has been deleted, and “Three-Bedroom House” remains a knockout. The orchestrations, by O’Keefe and Ben Green, are a tad classier than the originals. Better performed and produced overall, this is the wiser choice of the two recordings, but this show still hinges on a single wildly overextended joke, and the score remains a bewildering mashup of style and trash. — D.B.