"It's work, it's a job, but you have to keep a sense of humor about yourself and allow a sense of fun to enter into your performance. And try as hard as you can not to get typed, which they are so intent on doing. and it doesn't matter how much or how little you've done, either.

"It's very strange. I did 'Cats' for a long time - a total of two years on the road and on Broadway, and everyone thought of me as a dancer. I'm not. I can move and sell a number, but that's not what I do. Then, after 'Jeffrey,' which was the most charmed and creative experience I've had in the theater - all I could get to read for were little gay boy roles. And in 'Forbidden Broadway,' I did lots of take-offs on different Broadway shows and stars, but that doesn't make me a sketch comic. What I am is an actor who can do a lot of different things. The composer Maury Yeston once saw me in a show and called me 'a brunette Danny Kaye,' and said, 'Someone should write a show for this kid!' And his wife said, 'Maury, what do you do?'

"But I have reached a certain level of recognition. I mean, I have my own dressing room, they've got me on the Web site and the other day I discovered I have photo approval!"

Batt's family owned the Pontchartrain Beach amusement park, and growing up, Batt said, "I really wanted to go into that business. I loved it. I was convinced I was going to be the next Walt Disney. As a kid, I was always drawing up plans for attractions, building all kinds of rides with Legos. I mean, I was so into it. There was a guy who made great papier-mache things at the beach and I would hang around him. And when I was older, I ran some of the rides, like the Ragin' Cajun.

Then, in third grade, they stuck 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' into the Christmas pageant so I could have a number. I was Rudolph and I ended up standing on my head, kicking my legs in the air and the audience went crazy. Well, it was like a light went on in my - nose. I knew this was what I wanted to do."

He followed the usual route of talented performers in New Orleans - kid shows at NORD Theater, young leading man roles at Le Petit Theatre ("I Love My Wife," "The Robber Bridegroom") and Tulane Summer Lyric when he was in college there (playing Billy Flynn in "Chicago.")

"I went to New York right after graduating from Tulane," Batt said, "and believe it or not, my parents were all for it. I had done a performance of 'Godspell' as a benefit for Le Petit. It was when they dedicated the lobby to Helen Hayes and Miss Hayes was there for it. And my parents met her after the show and my father told her they were trying to discourage my theatrical ambitions and she said, 'Oh, no! You should encourage him, he's very good.' It gave my mother a story to tell for the rest of her life."

Batt takes credit for his mother Gayle Batt's involvement at Le Petit, where she's been a longtime supporter and has served on the board. "I volunteer my mother all the time," he said, "and when they were looking for 'an older woman who could tap-dance' for '70 Girls 70,' I said, 'My mother can do that! She was a dance major!'"

Batt has also been represented on the Le Petit stage as a producer, mounting a rapturously received professional production of "Forever Plaid" at the St. Peter Street playhouse four years ago.

"But producing is an all-consuming business," says Batt. "Still, I'd love to do it again," He's also developing "Spy Girls," a musical he's written, which he describes as "shallow and ridiculous - 'Josie and the Pussycats' meets James Bond, super models who are super-spies; they wear fabulous clothes and throw up their dinners."

Still, it's not all roses.

"Do you know," he said, "I waited my entire life to be on the cover of an original cast CD and when it happened, it was 'Forbidden Broadway' and they used a shot of the 'Lion King' take-off, where I had a pot and Mickey Mouse on my head, and Coke cans tied all over me. I said, 'Oh, my God, my life's ambition and no one's going to recognize me!'"

It's a problem he's not likely to have much longer. - by David Cuthbert, Staff Writer

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