[THIS IS THE 1997 BAT BOY SITE. CLICK HERE FOR THE CURRENT ONE.]   Freak.   Menace.   Abomination.   These are the labels that haunt the creature we have come to know as Bat Boy. Documented extensively by the Weekly World News, the Bat Child is known to most simply as a dangerous accident of nature. Mother Nature was not kind to Bat Boy, to be sure, but is he truly dangerous? Did he really attack that little girl in Florida? If so, was it without provocation? Was his 13-state reign of terror simply a vicious animal's idea of fun--or was it, perhaps, the result of an unspeakable horror inflicted upon him in the laboratory from which he fled?   And why does the FBI--a branch of the federal government--take such a particular interest in Bat Boy? These questions and others are the subject of BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL, the product of an historic alliance between the Weekly World News and three obscure authors from Los Angeles. The authors hope that by combining the brave journalism of the Weekly World News with the power of song, this unprecedented production will get us one step closer to solving the riddle that is Bat Boy. Perhaps we will find in Bat Boy neither a freak, nor a menace, nor an abomination. Perhaps, if we look closely enough and without the protection of our prejudice, we will see more than pointy ears and razor-sharp teeth. Perhaps we will find that the Bat Child is a more familiar animal than he first appears. Perhaps we will see in Bat Boy not what is wrong with Bat Boy--but what is wrong with ourselves. Exploring such complex and controversial terrain will not be easy, but the Weekly World News has never shied away from the truth, and neither shall BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL, opening in March at the Union Square Theater in New York City.     slumdance.com  Bat Boy's image is © American Media Operations, Inc. His name is a ® trademark of American Media Operations, Inc. He's used here by permission.