Phoebe, her family, and her community fight to understand what happened, and to make sense of why someone might want to extinguish the beautiful absolute brightness that was Leonard Pelkey. He sees people not as they are, but as they hope to be. When he comes to live with Phoebe’s family, he upsets the delicate balance of their lives.

Leonard is an orphan, a cousin who Phoebe never knew she had.

But everything changes when Leonard arrives. She helps her mom out with her hair salon, she goes to school, and she envies her perfect older sister. Phoebe’s life in Neptune, New Jersey, is somewhat unremarkable. Note: The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey contains adult language.Welcome to my stop on the Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne blog tour! Check out my review, visit the other stops on the tour, and make sure to enter the giveaway to win a copy of Absolute Brightness!įrom Academy Award-winning writer, actor, and activist in the LGBTQ community comes a groundbreaking story about love, prejudice, and being yourself. Lecesne is a writer of wit and keen observational skills, who here unfolds a dark tale that shimmers with the needling suspense you associate with the best police procedurals.' The New York Times raved that The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey '.leave you beaming with joy.a superlative solo show.Mr.

This whodunit brims with humor and heart and delivers a deeply important message about love, prejudice, and being yourself. The entire town changes forever because of Leonard Pelkey - a character originally from James Lecesne's young adult book Absolute Brightness that inspired the play. This poetic piece of audio leads listeners down an important path towards understanding and acceptance. Along the way, questions about the teen's sexuality force members of the community to confront their own biases and beliefs. A luminous force of nature whose magic is only truly felt once he is gone, Leonard becomes an unexpected inspiration as the town's citizens question how they live, who they love, and what they leave behind.īrash detective Chuck DeSantis seeks out answers as to why Leonard is missing. James portrays every character in a small Jersey Shore town as he unravels the story of Leonard Pelkey, a tenaciously optimistic and flamboyant 14-year-old boy who has gone missing. This live performance of a powerful police procedural comes to life through the artistry of James Lecesne and is accompanied by the original music of Duncan Sheik. Writer of the Academy award-winning short Trevor, founder of The Trevor Project (a 24-hour nationwide crisis hotline for LGBTQIA+ youth), and stage and screen actor, James Lecesne performs his hit off-Broadway play, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey.