Bigfoot! A New Musical

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The latest show about intolerance and social outcasts is the delightful Bigfoot! A New Musical, now at New York City Center Stage I. Similar in plot to Bat Boy: The Musical but with a happy ending, if the book written by Amber Ruffin and Kevin Sciretta has much in common with sketchy comedy, it is most certainly because its writers come from that genre. The game cast is led by charming and cuddy Grey Henson as the hirsute seven foot title character with the rest of the hard-working cast playing many roles in the course of 90 minutes.

Intended as a satire, this cartoon-like comedy takes on corrupt elected officials, greedy developers, ecological catastrophes and the possibility of mob rule. The story takes place in the pathetic town of Muddirt, circa 1980 something, built between a chemical factory and a nuclear power plant so that their water is toxic. The backstory is that town advocate Francine Foot (Crystal Lucas-Perry) had sex with a carny next to the nuclear power plant and ended up with a giant son. Naming him Bigfoot, she has kept him hidden in the woods as the town is not ready to accept him. However, she has taught him to make himself useful fixing stuff just outside of town but without the townspeople seeing him.

In the meantime, their corrupt mayor (Alex Moffat) has made a deal for millions of dollars to turn the town into a water park to be called Splashtown at the expense of most of the existing stores and buildings. To keep the townspeople from looking into the deal, he has declared a “Hunt” to capture and kill until then the unseen Bigfoot who would squash the deal of making Splashtown attractive to tourists. First, he hires Joanne (Katerina McCrimmon), a world-famous hunter, to track Bigfoot down, but as luck would have it when they meet, he charms her so much that they become fast friends.

Next the mayor sends out the townspeople to kill what they don’t understand. Francine, who is ill with various respiratory diseases (as the water and air is bad for her) and is being treated by the local compassionate doctor (Jason Tam) who is in love with her, attempts to stop the groundbreaking on Splashtown.  At the end of Bigfoot! A New Musical all works out for the best with the mayor getting more than his comeuppance and Francine being rewarded for her staunch defense of freedom.

The book by Ruffin and Sciretta has its share of groaners but most of the comedy lands. As directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford, the show moves with the speed of lightning so that any weaknesses are gone before you know it. The score by David Schmoll and Ruffin is very pleasant with most of the songs at the same level. Unfortunately, the orchestrations by Schmoll for only three instruments and keyboard give them all a similar sound and would be improved by a bigger band. The best songs in the show are Bigfoot’s witty patter song “Day to Day” in which he explains how he longs for the mundane which other people already experience, Francine’s plaintive “Maybe,” a paean to her hopes for her son, and her powerful duet with the doctor, “My Love Burns.”

As Bigfoot, Henson is enormously endearing, on the one hand a great big adolescent, and on the other tremendously sophisticated except in experience. As his mother Francine, Lucas-Perry is a force of nature, quick with the acerbic retort and spilling over with good ideas to save democracy. Moffat has a meaty time with the mayor whose every impulse is to feather his own nest at the expense of everyone else to make up for the fact his father never loved him. McCrimmon makes Joanne a female heroine à la Wonder Woman and has many quick retorts as well. Tam’s energetic Doctor is as heroic as Francine but with a whole lot of fake medical terms which get the laughs. Possibly the most accomplished player is Jade Jones listed “As Cast” in many other roles from CEO to Townsperson to Newsperson, both male and female.

The production team is attuned to the fun of the show. Tim Mackabee’s sets are colorful in their flat picture book/cartoon-style while Ricky Reynoso outdoes himself with Bigfoot’s furry costume, a giant teddy bear wrapped around a man. J. Jared Janas and Cassie Williams are responsible for the appropriate wig, hair and makeup design for the entire cast of characters. Sun Hee Kil’s sound design is most obvious in the periodic wolf howls and eagle screeches coming from the woods. Props designer Helen Hylton has had to populate both a town and a forest lair and comes up with a fair number of surprises.

While the satire in Bigfoot! The Musical is not excessively pungent and the plot devices will be familiar to those who have seen Beauty and the Beast, Urinetown, Bat Boy: The Musical, The Toxic Avenger and others of this genre, the show is always entertaining and will send you out of the theater with a smile on your face. Very few musicals can guarantee that these days!

Bigfoot! A New Musical (extended through April 26, 2026)

Benson Drive Productions in association with Manhattan Theatre Club

New York City Center Stage I, 131 W. 55^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-581-1212 or visit http://www.BigfootTheMusical.com

Running time: 90 minutes without an intermission