Limelight

Broadway actor Keenan-Bolger (the Jack & Louisa series) celebrates the healing capabilities of theater in his lightly fantastical solo debut set in 1996. The life of Staten Island 16-year-old Danny Victorio is turned upside down when he and his mother are forced to flee his physically abusive father and move into the apartment once occupied by Danny’s late uncle. Hoping to relieve his mother of the financial strain of Catholic school tuition (and escape the bullying he experiences daily), Danny auditions for—and is accepted into—LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, thanks in part to gentle encouragement from his late uncle’s ghost. At school, he meets effervescent classmate Christian Geronimo, a dance student and drag queen in training who takes Danny under his wing. Soon Danny finds himself absorbed into a tight-knit friend group and realizes that, for the first time, he feels that he can finally explore his own identity and decide who he wants to be. Somber close third-person narration centers Danny’s raw emotions and rocky path toward self-actualization, along which he must navigate issues brought about by the AIDS epidemic and personal trauma. Sometimes-uneven characterization is buoyed by Danny and Christian’s stirring relationship and the vivid metropolitan setting. Danny is white; Christian is Filipino American. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)