Fil-Am composer-librettist has musicals on both coasts

Filipino American composer-librettist Justin Huertas has been steadfastly and meaningfully incorporating his Filipino American heritage into some of his works.. INSTAGRAM

SEATTLE — Prolific Filipino American theater composer and librettist Justin Huertas is orchestrating a symphony of his works this year for audiences coast to coast.

This May, his musical “Lydia and the Troll” is scheduled to run at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

In June, Huertas will star in the New York premiere of his musical “Lizard Boy” by Prospect Theater Company.

“The Mortification of Fovea Munson,” whose music he composed and wrote the lyrics for, just finished its run at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Huertas’ other credits include “Howl’s Moving Castle” with Book-it Repertory Theatre and “The Lamplighter” with 5th Avenue Theatre.

He has been steadfastly and meaningfully incorporating his Filipino American heritage into some of his works. His “The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion” is a pop-rock musical about a Filipino American family whose matriarch is a wrestler of octopi from the Pacific Ocean and his “We’ve Battled Monsters Before” with ArtsWest is loosely adapted from the 16th century Filipino epic poem Ibong Adarna.

He also clearly has a love for his hometown, setting “Lizard Boy,” “The Last World Octopus …” and “We’ve Battled Monsters Before” in Seattle, “the Emerald City,” filling them with specific neighborhoods and local landmarks.

Troll

In his latest work, co-created Ameenah Kaplan, Huertas has crafted another love letter to the city. This time taking inspiration from the Fremont Troll, also known as the Troll Under the Bridge.

The 18-foot public sculpture in the Fremont neighborhood clutches an actual Volkswagen Beetle and was created by four local artists in the 1990s.

Huertas creates an origin myth for the troll in “Lydia and the Troll.” In the musical, singer-songwriter Lydia feels held back by her creative block and her toxic relationship to her boyfriend. A mysterious stranger offers her the chance to change her life and she may end up sacrificing more than she ever imagined.

In a previous interview with Encorespotlight.com, Huertas explained that Lydia becomes cursed and spends the rest of the story trying to reverse the situation. The musical will involve puppets and shadow play.

Lizard Boy

“Lizard Boy” is described as a “comic book adventure and coming-of-age love story.” In the musical, Trevor, a young man with green scaly skin, goes on a first date that spirals into a mythic and transformative journey as he confronts villains, monsters and, ultimately, himself.

The musical has appeared at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won six 2021 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, including Best Entire Production. The show was originally commissioned, developed by and received its world premiere at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Lizard Boy has been called “ingenious” (San Francisco Chronicle), “phenomenal” (San Jose News), “ferocious and funny” (Seattle Times) and “wildly original” (The Guardian).

The original cast recording, which is available online, has been streamed over three million times on Spotify.

“Lydia and the Troll” runs May 5-June 4 in Seattle. “Lizard Boy” runs June 1-July 1 in New York. Visit Linktr.ee/justinhuertas.