Musical Madness championship: Can a Shakespearean tag-team stop Bat Boy?
And then there were two. Well, three.
What began weeks ago with 37 musicals in 36 slots is now — after more than 62,000 votes cast — down to a face-off between two Shakespeare-based shows and one show ripped from the tabloid Weekly World News headlines.
The championship in our Musical Madness bracket tournament pits the tag team of "Love's Labour's Lost" and "Twelfth Night" (presented at New Rochelle High School and Clarkstown North High School, respectively), against "Bat Boy" at Pelham Memorial High School.
To reach the final, “Love’s Labour’s”/“Twelfth Night” took out some of the canon's heaviest hitters. It beat “The Addams Family” in the play-in tournament to win the No. 8 seed, then bested “Into the Woods,” “Anastasia” and “The Little Mermaid” to last week's semifinal. There, it topped "9 to 5," by a tally of 977 votes to 676.
"Bat Boy," a quirky, off-beat musical about a half-boy-half-bat discovered in a West Virginia cave, had an equally arduous trip to the final. It took out “Grease!” in the play-in game and then went on to beat “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Cinderella” and “The Wedding Singer” to reach the semifinal matchup. There, it toppled "Matilda," 451 votes to 229.
Which gets us to this week's finale. Voting is open till 8 p.m. Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Musical Madness championship: 'Bat Boy' vs. William Shakespeare
