Just like ‘Lizard Boy,’ we all have our dragons

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – We all have dragons.

We may keep them locked up in a closet, under a bed, or rooted deep in our subconscious. But sometimes they escape, and when they do, they can create chaos, mayhem and pain.

But what if your pain has been caused by an encounter with a real, live dragon, one breathing fire and threatening your life? And what if that encounter has been so painful that it has forced you to withdraw from life – except for one day each year?

That is the story of Trevor (Keiji Ishiguri) — aka Jason – in the SpeakEasy Stage Company production of Justin Huertas’s musical “Lizard Boy,” now onstage through Nov. 22 in the Calderwood Pavilion of the Boston Center for the Arts.

“Lizard Boy” is a wildly original, witty and clever work. As Kermit the Frog and The Incredible Hulk often reminded us, being green ain’t easy, and that goes double if you’re a young, gay, insecure young man who hides from the world because of the greenish shade of his skin. Bit by bit, we learn that Trevor was an elementary school student who found himself in the middle of an infamous dragon attack, leaving him covered with dragon blood that turned into lizard scales.

When we meet hm, 20 years later, he is a recluse who only leaves his home one day a year, called Monster Fest, when residents dress up and Trevor can just be just another beast wandering the streets.

Trevor, burned by a failed attempt at romance during the last Monster Fest, awakes with a start after dreaming of a Scary Blonde covered in blood who will later emerge as the mysterious rock star Siren (Chelsie Nectow), a fellow survivor of the dragon attack who has her own bag of secrets.

Trevor writes a profile on the Grindr app, saying he is “looking for now,” attracting the attention of a lonely twenty-something named Cary (Peter DiMaggio), who invites him over. What follows is an endearingly awkward attempt at quick sex that goes awry and Trevor goes to leave, but Cary lures him back with a song (“Cary’s Song”) and a relationship begins.

They chance upon a newspaper detailing an appearance by a singer called Siren at a club called The Crocodile, and Trevor recognizes her as the woman in his dreams. But Siren is both alluring and dangerous at the same time and has designs on Trevor’s future.

Eventually, there will be another fateful confrontation and Trevor will find a way to use the superpower he had always possessed.

The three actors perform all of the music in Huertas’s score. The playwright, a cellist by trade, made sure the instrument had its place among guitars, ukeleles and keyboards, and instruments such as the glockenspiel and guitar strings that provide sound effects.

Director Lyndsay Allyn Cox and music director Violet Wang keep the train running on time through 19 musical numbers in the 90-minute production, monitoring the seamless handoffs of instruments and the cast’s instant transitions from actor/singer to musician, all while staying in character.

In essence, Huertas, an award-winning Seattle-based actor and musician, wrote his own story, in script notes calling his musical “the ultimate intersection of my individual identities: a Seattle-set comic book superhero origin story about a Queer Person of Color who learns self-love, self-acceptance, and self-empowerment, all told by a three-person folk-rock band.”

Huertas lays himself bare in the process, He crafts a powerful tale of acceptance and joy in the midst of despair, and the SpeakEasy cast and designers are all in on his vision.

By the way, SpeakEasy had a very positive interaction in the past with another animal-themed musical. Beginning in October 2002, the troupe produced three separate successful runs of “Bat Boy, The Musical,” garnering SpeakEasy its first major awards and starring Miguel Cervantes, who went on to Broadway success in “Hamilton.”

Ans while Lizard Boy may not hang upside down, he is also a hero very much worth celebrating.

The SpeakEasy Stage Company production of “Lizard Boy.” Book, music and lyrics by Justin Huertas. Directed by Lindsay Allyn Cox, with musical direction by Violet Wang. In the Calderwood Pavilion of the Boston Center for the Arts through Nov. 24. SpeakEasyStage.com