"It's 'cuz I'm just a boy who looks like a lizard!"
Lizard Boy is a rock musical that premiered at the Diversionary Theater in 2015, created by and starring Justin Huertas. Twenty years ago, Trevor Reyes was in an accident that turned his skin into green lizard scales. After being rejected for years and abandoned by the one person he thought actually loved him for who he was, he went into hiding in his apartment. That was a year ago. But now, he's getting sick of being alone all the time with noone to talk to but the drawings on his wall. So, he decides to download Grindr to find the man he once thought he loved. And thus, our story begins...— Trevor
Inspired by the creator's experience as a Filipino American and his coming out story, Lizard Boy follows main character Trevor through one crazy night as he's forced to confront his insecurities related to his skin. The show received generally positive reviews, being called "smartly written, wonderfully acted and wittily directed" by San Diego LGBT News. The show also had a short run Off-Broadway in 2016 and is currently a featured musical at the 2020 NAMT Festival (https://namt.org/festivals/2020/
).
This musical provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Possibly Siren, she's shown drinking whiskey to deal with the horror of what she knows is coming and Trevor is actually able to find her during the final battle by smelling the alcohol on her breath.
- All Musicals Are Adaptations: Subverted, this is an original story (though it's based on the creator's experiences).
- Apologetic Attacker: Cary when Siren forces him to attack Trevor.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Siren is blonde, Trevor has dark brown/black hair, and Cary has light brownish reddish hair.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Basically required for any musical, characters sing directly at the audience multiple times.
- Break-Up Song: I Might Stay, where Cary tries to make Trevor see the root of his problems but Trevor leaves anyways.
- Bury Your Gays: Subverted. Cary actually comes back to life right after Trevor finishes his goodbye song.
- Cabin Fever: The driving factor that makes Trevor want to leave his apartment.
- Call-Forward: Siren's introduction song Terrible Ride contains a lot of veiled references to the eventual reveal of her failed quest to try and defeat the dragons.
- Character Development: Trevor eventually realizes that his problems are not all exclusively based on his scales, and learns to take accountability for things when they are his fault.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Trevor, the one with the lizard scales, wears all green. Siren, the "villain," wears mostly red.
- Comically Missing the Point: Cary equivalates his messed up nose after an accident as a kid to Trevor's lizard scales in an attempt to empathize. It does not work.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Siren's plan to take down the dragons. She thinks that if she can gather all of the children from the playground accident together, they might be able to stand a chance. And if they don't want to help? Well...
- Distracted by the Sexy: Siren transforms herself into Cary (the main love interest) in order to get close enough to attack Trevor during the climactic fight.
- The Eleven O'Clock Number: The title song, Lizard Boy.
- Endearingly Dorky: Trevor, with his love of comic books and tendency to make out-of-date references at inopportune moments. Also Cary, who seems to have no qualms about opening the door to a stranger with no pants on.
- Fan Disservice: Cary dressed as a sexy baby. The sentence speaks for itself, really.
- Foreshadowing: Throughout the show, Trevor complains about back pains and writes it off as needing a new mattress when he's actually growing wings, apparently.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Made fun of. When Trevor discovers his powers he takes off his glasses to see if his vision is fixed. It is not.
- The Ghost: Trevor's ex fling, who ditched him after a one-night-stand is alluded to throughout. He's actually the driving reason behind Trevor getting on Grindr in the first place.
- Hypocrite: Trevor's main issue is that he blames others for not liking his scales, when really he's the one who locked himself inside for a year out of fear that people would see them.
- Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Trevor is antisocial, hates the way he looks, and mostly just spends his time drawing and writing music. Siren is angry, confident, and driven.
- It's All About Me: Trevor is convinced that all of his problems aren't of his own doing, but because of other people judging his scales.
- "I Want" Song: Things I Want
- Lyrical Dissonance: Most notably in Recess, where lyrics about children being traumatized and scarred for life are accompanied by upbeat ukulele chords and kazoo music."Recess made your skin a different hue." (kazoo interlude)
- No-Sell: Trevor is thoroughly unimpressed by Siren's pleas for him to help fight the dragons, thinking that she's crazy.
- Opposites Attract: The shy, songwriting, socially inept Trevor falls for the outgoing, confident, and cheerful Cary.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Cary's texts during Sculpture Park are a lot more direct and rude than his earlier ones, and he doesn't end them with the ";)" he normally overuses. This tips off Trevor that something is up and he isn't the one texting him.
- The Power of Love: Cary is literally brought back to life because of a kiss. When Trevor kisses him, he gets a little bit of blood in his mouth. This causes him to develop dragon healing abilities just like Trevor.
- The Reveal: Siren was there when Trevor got his scales, and she got hit with the blood too.
- Sanity Slippage Song: The very end of Myth to Live By shows Siren finally snap and decide to murder Trevor.
- The Something Song: "The Woah Song"
- Tongue-Tied: Trevor has a lot of difficulty articulating his feelings after Cary kisses him for the first time.
- Triumphant Reprise: Lizard Boy (the title song, not the show itself) could be seen as this to Trevor's Song.
- Villain Song: Terrible Ride could be considered this, though Siren's villainy is more up in the air.
- Violence is the Only Option: As soon as Siren discovers the truth about the dragons' return, she tries to convince the rest of the children from the playground accident to help her. When they refuse, she kills them in cold blood.
- Would Hit a Girl: Considering the two are in a battle for the fate of the world, Trevor does attack Siren.
