BWW Reviews: Benjamin Scheuer Will Charm You in His Coming-of-Age Musical THE LION, at Portland Center Stage

There is something very special happening at Portland Center Stage right now. While the mainstage is preparing to receive Grimm stars Sasha Roiz and Silas Weir Mitchell in the upcoming THREE DAYS OF RAIN, Benjamin Scheuer is performing his one-man original coming-of-age musical THE LION in the Ellyn Bye Studio. The show is funny and emotional, the music is great, and Scheuer is ridiculously charming.

THE LION grew out of a few songs Scheuer wrote with his band Escapist Papers for the album The Bridge. In 2013, he hooked up with director Sean Daniels to develop the show into a full-length musical, which premiered last year at the Manhattan Theatre Club and then debuted on London's West End. Just recently, it was announced that the show won a 2015 Theater World Award. Following the Portland production, THE LION will head off on a national tour.

The musical is the story of Scheuer's early life -- his boyhood and adolescence, problems with his father, his relationships with his brothers and mother, falling in love. The focus is the music, with just enough speaking to give it context. The set is a living room, and between that and Scheuer's artless delivery, the whole thing has the feel of just hanging, listening to a friend talk and play his music.

The show is simple and unpretentious, and utterly captivating.

The music is all original, played by Scheuer on six guitars placed around the stage. Scheuer owes his love of music to his father, who when Scheuer was young made him a cookie-tin banjo (which of course is the subject of a song) and taught him the G chord. As he says in the show, he's never looked back.

The title refers to a song Scheuer's father sang to him and his brothers when they were young. Scheuer lost his father when he was a teenager and for many years had unresolved feelings of anger toward this man who was viewed by (almost) all who knew him as a benevolent lion. Scheuer's music was his way of working out those feelings and of dealing with some other circumstances that most of us hope never to have to go through.

Scheuer is an incredibly talented songwriter and guitarist and, with his big smile and tousled hair, wildly charismatic. It's impossible not to fall in love him and this wonderful show.

THE LION runs through June 14. For tickets, visit www.pcs.org.

Photo Credit: Patrick Weishampel

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