Tonight, Seattle Repertory Theatre begins previews for Lizard Boy, the first musical it has commissioned and brought to the stage in at least 15 years—and perhaps ever, but the theater’s staff is preparing for its annual gala so it seemed unfair to insist they comb through 50 years’ worth of programming.
Either way, the mere existence of Lizard Boy is significant. Over the decades, the Rep had earned a reputation (deserved or otherwise—that’s a subject of barroom debate) for fustiness. But this season—which began with Jinkx Monsoon and Major Scales in The Vaudevillians and chugged along with its epic diptych of plays about LBJ—has been a lively reflection of Jerry Manning, the artistic director who suddenly passed away just a couple of months before the season he’d assembled had begun.
As Sarah Meals of the Seattle Rep put it, this season “really encompassed Jerry’s deepest passions: He was a total political junkie (hence his love for the LBJ project), and he was also deeply rooted in the LGBTQ community here, and as you may know was quite the gay activist in his younger days in New York. I think he had a special place in his heart to make that community feel more welcome at the Rep.”
You can read about the genesis of Lizard Boy in this week’s preview, but the fundamental story is about a longtime director and theater administrator (Manning) who’d recently become head of the Seattle Rep and took the opportunity to invest time and resources in younger theater-makers (Jinkx and Lizard Boy‘s Justin Huertas, among others).
This is what artists have been begging from our bigger cultural institutions for years. So, on this preview weekend, it’s worth pausing for a moment to thank Manning for doing just that—taking an interest in new talent and giving them a chance in the spotlight.
You can get your tickets here.
