E. Lynn Harris built something that publishing kept trying to ignore, and couldn’t. Starting with a self-published debut he sold out of the trunk of his car, Harris grew into 12 consecutive New York Times bestsellers and gave millions of readers their first mainstream glimpse of Black gay love.

Nearly two decades after his passing, his most iconic story is arriving on stage in a way that honors everything he built and pushes it somewhere entirely new.

Behind the Mask: Invisible Life (The Musical) will have its world premiere at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., opening November 30 and closing December 1, World AIDS Day, a date chosen deliberately to honor the novel’s unflinching portrayal of love, identity, and the human cost of silence.

Based on Harris’s groundbreaking 1991 debut novel, the musical follows Raymond Tyler Jr., a brilliant young attorney whose seemingly perfect life is upended when a forbidden romance with football star Kelvin Ellis forces him to confront his identity, his faith, and everything his family and society expect of him. Seeking a fresh start in New York City, Raymond finds love, chosen family, and the courage to live authentically, until Kelvin’s return and a shattering HIV revelation force him to choose between the mask and the truth.

The production marks one of the first musicals in the United States built with AI-driven visual design. Oscar Award-winning producer Carl Reed and his studio, Composition Media, are developing the production’s visual elements, blending animation, set design, and emerging creative tools to extend the storytelling beyond the stage. Reed was clear about the intention behind the approach.

“Our focus is always the story,” he said. “AI doesn’t replace creative vision — it amplifies it, giving experienced artists, animators, and professional production studios new ways to bring ideas to life and expand the boundaries of what’s possible.”

The production features an original R&B, Gospel, and House score by Motown and Grammy Award-winning legends Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The adaptation was written by Javon Johnson, whose credits include The Lincoln Lawyer and The Oval, who was handpicked by the legendary August Wilson as his protégé.

“It’s a profound milestone to bring Behind the Mask: Invisible Life (The Musical) to Howard Theatre on World AIDS Day,” said Proteus X, producer and co-writer. “We’re entering a new chapter for E. Lynn Harris’s narrative tapestry, where theater, television, and AI can come together in ways that honor his legacy while opening the door to new possibilities for Black storytelling. The mission isn’t simply to revisit what was created, but to imagine where E. Lynn Harris’s work can go next.”

The Howard Theatre premiere is only the beginning of a broader push to bring Harris’s literary universe to new audiences and formats. Proteus X and writer Deonté Staats, whose credits include Peacock’s Bel-Air, A LA Carte on ALLBLK, and co-writing the penultimate episode of Season 4 of The Chi, are developing Basketball Jones, Harris’s New York Times bestselling novel, as a one-hour prestige television drama.

The series follows Dray Jones, a future NBA lottery pick, and AJ Richardson, a team manager hiding behind an adopted name, as an unexpected bond forces them to navigate ambition, sexuality, race, and institutions determined to profit from their futures before they can define themselves. Brandon Anderson serves as creative producer on the series.

The Invisible Life trilogy is also currently being redeveloped for television, having previously been in development at HBO.

Behind the Mask: Invisible Life (The Musical) runs November 30 through December 1, 2026, at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.