THEATER REVIEW:

Stage productions arise from many inspirations, but how many can you name that trace their genesis to a farcical tabloid like the Weekly World News, which is to real news what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are to actual journalism?

“Bat Child Found in Cave!” the front page headline read, and the creators of the musical “Bat Boy” (book authors Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, along with composer/lyricist Laurence O’Keefe) took it from there. The result is a blend of science fiction, horror, musical comedy and bizarre melodrama now on the stage of the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse.

“Bat Boy,” set in rural West Virginia, details the capture of the fanged and Spock-eared creature by local citizens and one family’s attempt to incorporate him/it into the community.

As directed by Michael Dale Brown, it’s frequently riveting and occasionally revolting.

Headlining the production is a bravura performance by Ryan Holihan in the title role of the conflicted young man who’s instinctively out for blood but whose conscience forbids carnage. Holihan develops his character, “Charly”-like, from a savage predator into a warm, intelligent human being stung by the community’s rejection of him.

The audience gets the picture of where the story is headed, toward a lesson in tolerance. Then comes Act Two, when the show’s requisite villain becomes a horrific destroyer of life (and we’re not talking about Bat Boy here). You might find a clue in the title of the number “All Hell Breaks Loose.”

The show centers on the family of a veterinarian chosen to guard the creature. Stephen Hulsey is particularly frightening, if a bit eye-rollingly over the top, as the vet, while Elizabeth A. Bouton and Montica Reeves excel as his wife and daughter.

Complications arise when Reeves’ character falls for the Bat Boy. Bouton breaks from her docile-mama mold to tear into the poignant “Three Bedroom House” number, while Reeves renders a touching performance in her overtures to the stranger (“Inside Your Heart”).

A huge ensemble lends strong vocal and character support with Cathy Petz making the firmest impact, doubling as the town mayor and a traveling evangelist. Kyle Myers also portrays a local yokel and, in drag, a grieving mother.

Despite its initial outward appearance, “Bat Boy” is complicated, particularly in its intentionally convoluted second act when character relationships are altered, some drastically. That these unconventional tactics work attests the talent of the playhouse cast.

“Bat Boy” will make audiences laugh and shudder, often simultaneously, in this ambitious and highly effective production. It’s a musical as bloody as “Sweeney Todd” and equally as entertaining.

WHAT: “Bat Boy”

WHERE: Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 2

COST: $18 to $20

CALL: (949) 650-5269

Don’t hang up ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’

Suppose you’re sitting in a sparsely crowded café and the cellphone of the fellow at the next table is ringing, but he doesn’t answer it. And say you go over to the table to be of assistance, and you discover that the phone’s owner has died.

Do you answer it? Better not, or you might be in for a universe of trouble. That’s the instant message of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” Sarah Ruhl’s latest offbeat exercise, now at South Coast Repertory.

Jean (an adorably captivating Margaret Welsh) chooses to answer — and that’s when the trouble begins. Once she’s made one connection, it’s like opium and she feels forced to answer each succeeding ring.

Ruhl’s script traverses a rather level path through its first act as we meet the victim’s family — chilly wife (Shannon Holt), nice-guy brother (Andrew Borba) and diva extraordinaire mother (Christina Pickles).

They invite vegetarian Jean to a dinner where the only meatless item on the menu is caramel corn.

A little kooky, perhaps, but it’s early Neil Simon compared to what awaits audiences in the second act. The deceased fellow (Lenny Von Dohlen) has his say — and it takes him about 20 minutes to say it — as Act II opens.

Turns out, the dead guy is a middleman in a lucrative organ-donation business and his sinister partner (Nike Doukas) intends on carrying on the trade whether Jean concurs or not.

This leads to another departure, which may or may not be on the level but it opens up an imaginative sort of purgatory that throws the play far into left field.

Ruhl, however, has kept a steady hand on her unsteady plot, and director Bart DeLorenzo takes care to keep the action semi-believable with the aid of a splendid ensemble of talents.

Welsh, the key player in this benign nightmare, has the ability to draw the audience into her plight no matter how ludicrous it becomes. And she interacts quite believably with the play’s immobile seventh character — the one in the title role — which keeps insinuating itself on the action.

Von Dohlen’s strident voice from the grave is a superb indictment of polite society. Holt is transformed from frigid widow to gabby bar buddy with the infusion of several alcoholic beverages, while Doukas attacks her fantasy role with a vengeance.

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is an intriguing exercise in malevolent fantasy, with a little romantic comedy.

WHAT: “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”

WHERE: South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

WHEN: 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7:45 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays until Oct. 12

COST: $28 to $62

CALL: (714) 708-5555

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.