INTERVIEW: Justin Huertas on finding those hidden superpowers
Photo: Lizard Boy stars, from left, William A. Williams, Justin Huertas and Kiki deLohr. Photo courtesy of Kevin Berne / Provided by Jorgensen PR with permission.
The journey that Justin Huertas has been on with his musical Lizard Boy has stretched many years and even several countries. The indie-rock show, which features book, music and lyrics by Huertas, tells the story of Trevor, a young man with green scaly skin, according to press notes. At first, he feels shame over his lizard features, but he soon realizes he has an awesome superpower at his disposal, and he’s ready to confront any villains or monsters that get in the way.
Lizard Boy, which stars Huertas, Kiki deLohr and William A. Williams, began its life at Seattle Repertory Theatre and has played around the United States, plus engagements in England and Scotland. Now the musical, directed by Brandon Ivie, comes to Theatre Row in Midtown Manhattan, courtesy of the Prospect Theater Company, which will stage the show from June 1 to July 1
“It was a commission here at Seattle Rep,” Huertas said in a recent phone interview. “I was commissioned to write it in 2012, and over the course of time, it started as a solo show about my life and then very quickly became fictionalized. And I gave myself lizard skin and changed the name of the lead character to Trevor, and then we premiered it as Lizard Boy in 2015 here in Seattle. Since then, we’ve bounced around a little bit. We went to San Diego at Diversionary Theatre. We went to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. We took it to Manchester last summer and Edinburgh Fringe, and through all of that time, Cara [Reichel, producing artistic director] at Prospect Theater Company had been watching our journey and waiting for the right time to offer us this spot. She really was waiting for the perfect time and the perfect venue to bring us to, so once she secured Theatre Row, she was like, ‘Hey guys, please come. Do your show here in New York.’ And we said yes immediately.”
Eight years ago, when Lizard Boy world premiered at Seattle Rep, Huertas knew that the musical should eventually make its way to New York City and the off-Broadway scene. He didn’t know it would take quite so long, but along the way, audiences have been responding positively to the show. The story that Huertas and company are telling is an important tale to tell, one that fits perfectly with the Pride events occurring in New York City throughout the month of June.
“Lizard Boy is a coming-of-age queer romantic comedy comic-book adventure told by a three-person folk rock band, so you’re going to see some romance, a lot of comedy and some really familiar comic-book, superhero elements,” he said. “But the fun of it is that there’s only three people on stage, and all of the music comes from us. We are the instrumentalists. We are your rock band who are telling you the story, so there’s something really intimate. As epic as the story gets — I mean we deal with the potential end of the world in our story — it is a very, very intimate narrative. I’m hoping that it’s something that people can come to and see themselves in, but also bop along to and listen to the soundtrack on the way home.”
When Huertas was commissioned to write Lizard Boy by Seattle Rep, he was brand new to writing professionally for the theater. The artistic director of Seattle Rep at the time, the late Jerry Manning, knew Huertas as an actor and saw him play cello at a musical theater concert.
“And truly he was like, ‘You’re an actor who plays cello. You should have a show where you play cello in it.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever that means, I’m down.’ And so he commissioned me to write basically a diary where I could write something every day, jot down ideas, and that’s where the idea that this might be a solo show about my life came from,” said Huertas, who does, in fact, play cello in the show. “And sometimes I would get prompts for my journal entries, and one of the prompts was, ‘Write your coming-out story in case that info might be a fun and useful thing for the show that we’re building.’ And my coming-out story is so boring because I truly said to my friends and family, ‘I’m ga…’ And then everyone was like, ‘Yeah, we know, we know, we know.’ So I thought that I could spice up the story by putting my love of comic books into it.”
The next steps in the creation process gave the character of Trevor, who is performed by Huertas, green lizard skin and superpowers.
“I was a very new writer, so I didn’t know at the time that I happened to subconsciously choose lizard skin because what I actually was writing about was my experience growing up as Filipino American, as a brown kid in white Seattle, in white spaces, and feeling othered and feeling like I was so different and I had to try and blend in or hide certain parts of myself,” he said. “So using lizard skin to explore that kind of theme just gave way to this epic journey where this guy, Trevor, kind of discovers that this thing that he was ashamed of might actually be his superpower.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Lizard Boy, with book, music and lyrics by Justin Huertas, begins performances Thursday, June 1 at Theatre Row. The production, directed by Brandon Ivie, comes to New York City courtesy of Prospect Theater Company. Click here for more information and tickets.
