Meet LJ Benet, the Breakout Star of The Lost Boys on Broadway

Age: 29

Hometown: Porter Ranch, Los Angeles

Current role: LJ Benet stars as Michael Emerson in The Lost Boys, A New Musical on Broadway.

Previous roles: Benet broke into the entertainment industry as a child actor, with a recurring role on the Disney Channel series Dog With a Blog and appearances on television shows including Wizards of Waverly Place, The Mentalist and Bones. Last summer, he performed alongside Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl.

Courageous Beginnings
Benet began his life onstage as the Cowardly Lion in an elementary school production of The Wizard of Oz. “It was double cast. I had the first act. Someone else had the second act. It was a whole thing,” he says. Having caught the bug, Benet began performing in community theater, eventually landing the role of Jojo in a production of Seussical at The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. "I missed an entrance one time because I was texting somebody backstage and the director had to come up to me like, 'Hey, this is professional. We really need to get our entrances,'" Benet recalls. "I was like, 'Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. Everything's going to be great. I promise I won't do that again.'"

Grandpa’s Verdict
Making his Broadway debut in The Lost Boys is a particularly impressive feat, considering how hotly anticipated this production is. For Benet, a milestone of this nature brings to mind the sentiments of his late grandfather. “My grandpa, when he was literally on his deathbed, told my mom, ‘He's going to do something one day.’ My mom told me that at a really young age and I didn't know what it meant at the time. I look at where I'm at now and I'm at the Palace Theatre, which is where he used to sell programs back in the day.” As he advances in his career, Benet uses his grandfather's premonition as a form of encouragement. It's "that thing in the back of my head [saying], 'Hey, you got something. You're going to do something.'"

A Phantom Influence
The Lost Boys is based on the 1987 vampire flick directed by Joel Schumacher, who also helmed the 2004 big screen adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. As it happens, that particular film had a profound impact on Benet. “[Watching] Patrick Wilson and Gerard Butler, I looked at them and I was like, ‘They look so cool. I really want to do that.’ I could sing when I was little, so I was like, ‘I think I could do that. I want to be The Phantom on Broadway.’ And now Patrick Wilson is my executive producer on The Lost Boys. It's kind of crazy.”

Rescue Me
The new musical's original score is composed by The Rescues, an L.A.-based rock group. Benet, a singer-songwriter himself, says that working on the show has expanded his perspective on musical storytelling. "The dynamic between the book and the music and the direction is really specific. Each melody you sing is so specific to the story that's being told," he explains of the musical's track list. "I think for me, with my own music, I'm kind of free. Nothing's ever the same, it's what I'm feeling in that moment. With The Rescues, how particular and intentional they are with everything, I've really had to work hard to honor that.”

All in the Family
Broadway.com vlogger Benjamin Pajak plays Benet’s younger brother Sam Emerson in The Lost Boys. Benet confirms that the brotherly love between the pair extends beyond the stage. “Benjamin is the best person ever. We're having a push-up contest right now. He wants to get jacked. Dude's going to be ripped.” For the record, Benet says that Pajak is "a thousand percent" winning the competition. However, not everything is entirely harmonious between the two performers. “He's a Bucs fan and I'm a Patriots fan, so we go back and forth on who Tom Brady actually belongs to,” Benet notes. Pajak’s onstage family also includes Tony nominee Shoshana Bean, who plays Michael’s recently-divorced mother, Lucy. “From day one, she's been instilling all the wisdom from her career. I think the biggest thing I'm learning from her is how kind she is 100 percent of the time, and how she's so supportive of everyone 24/7,” Benet shares. “It's a long ride and rehearsals can be crazy, tech can be crazy, but I think the more you care about other people—more than you care about yourselves—during that time is really important. And she's leading by example with a lot of that.”

Wicked Examples
In addition to Bean, Benet also cites Erivo as a guiding light in theatrical leadership, having performed in the ensemble when she took on the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl this past August. "She honored everyone on stage. Every night she would find every single person and look them in the eye as a way of just like, ‘We're here together. We're doing this together.’ And there was never a moment where it felt like she was off. She was always on," Benet shares, reflecting on "being able to watch her do that, as well as Adam Lambert, who would just come in every day like there was no tomorrow."

The Meaning of Michael 
"To play Michael is kind of a dream," Benet says. "The character is unique in a sense, especially from the film, because you don't get a lot of what's going on behind his eyes. I mean, you get a little bit of his story. He comes from a difficult upbringing. His dad was kind of a borderline alcoholic, a little bit abusive, so he had to deal with that. You get bits and pieces of it, but I think what our show has done a really good job of is bringing that story out for Michael.” Though his familial experience differs from the character he portrays, Benet has found emotionally potent similarities by turning inward. “I think his desperation to feel like he belongs to something, I very much relate to. Performing at a young age, you develop this need for attention and affirmation. So I feel that a lot in Michael, this want for someone to choose me for me; not necessarily for who I could be for you in the moment, but just who I am when no one's watching.”

To Thine Own Self Be True
In spite of his leading man status, Benet remains level-headed about his accomplishments. “Two years ago I was working as a handyman in L.A., so in two years if I'm doing that again, great. I honestly just want to be where I could serve. I think right now that's here and I'm just really grateful to be in that position.” He stresses that this kind of attitude is necessary if you want to stay afloat in the entertainment industry. “I would say to those kids who have that dream of being an actor or being on Broadway one day that you don't need to perform for anybody but yourself. There's no amount of affirmation you're going to get that's going to fill everything [inside]. That's going to come from you and how much you genuinely love it.” This is a lesson that Benet learned when he took a break from acting at 18. “I was a child actor growing up, because it wasn't me anymore. I figured out who I was without it.” Having found his way back to the performing arts on his own terms, Benet advises, “Don't let your identity be your performance. Let it be who you are at your core. Let it be your character. Let it be how you serve the people around you and how you love the people around you and let that fuel why you want to be a performer in the first place."

Like a Prayer
Benet relays that his favorite part of performing The Lost Boys musical is “If We Make It Through the Night,” a rousing group number that speaks to the core themes of the story. “It’s almost like a benediction, kind of a prayer in a way of we're not who we were yesterday and we're not going to be perfect, but we're going to take each step day by day and moment by moment, and we're going to be in it together this time. We don't need to try and do it by ourselves. I love that just for me personally. I think for our cast, the journey that we're on right now, it's a beautiful end of sentence to everything we're doing.”

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