‘Lizard Boy’: Life Can Be Difficult When You’re Scaly, Green, and Queer

Like other contemporary, youth-centric musicals such as “Be More Chill,” Justin Huertas’s off-Broadway entry mixes fantastical elements with earnest appeals for sensitivity and inclusion, and the blend isn’t always a smooth one.

Billy Bustamante
Justin Huertas in 'Lizard Boy.' Billy Bustamante

It’s not easy being green, as Kermit the Frog first informed us, via the great Jim Henson, more than five decades ago on “Sesame Street.” Since then, musical theater has brought us another iconic character alienated in part by her lime-colored skin: Elphaba, the decidedly sympathetic variation on the Wicked Witch of the West who defies gravity, and animal cruelty, in “Wicked.”

The hero of the new musical “Lizard Boy” has, it could be argued, even bigger problems. As the result of a childhood accident that left him soaked in a dragon’s blood, Trevor — played in the show’s off-Broadway premiere by Justin Huertas, who also wrote the book, music, and lyrics — has not only developed the titular reptile’s sickly hue but has grown scales. Director Brandon Ivie and costume designer Erik Andor use no sophisticated tricks to convey this; per Mr. Huertas’s instructions in the script, the title character’s skin tone and texture are simply “suggested” by his clothing.

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