'Rashomon' as a musical? He sees it.

It's not every musical that can trace its origins to a screening of a classic Japanese movie at a Kenmore Square revival house a quarter century ago. Then again, "See What I Wanna See" isn't just any musical.

"See," which runs at the Lyric Stage Company through Feb. 23, is a Michael John LaChiusa musical, which has almost become its own category in contemporary American theater. The dictionary entry would read: " 'Michael John LaChiusa musical,' n., a daring, unpredictable, genre-challenging stage work with songs, its source often highly literary; see also 'Stephen Sondheim musical.' "

LaChiusa (pronounced la-KYOOS-ah) is like Sondheim in writing both music and lyrics. He also often writes his librettos or collaborates on them. A two-time Obie winner and five-time Tony nominee, he's perhaps best known for "The Wild Party." The 2000 Broadway production starred Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. SpeakEasy Stage Company produced it locally in 2002.

Source material for his musicals includes Euripedes (for "Marie Christine "), Garcia Lorca (for "Bernarda Alba" ), and Garcia Marquez (for "Chronicle of a Death Foretold "). So Oscar Hammerstein II he ain't, though LaChiusa did grow up in a household where the cast album of "South Pacific " had a prominent place on the family turntable.

"What it comes down to is, does something sing to me?" LaChiusa, 44, said in a recent telephone interview from his Manhattan apartment. "As long as that's there, there comes this real excitement. It's not, 'Oh, I'm going to push the envelope.' "

LaChiusa may not be consciously pushing the envelope, said Stephen Terrell , who's directing the Lyric Stage production of "See." Nonetheless, "he is breaking a lot of rules of musical theater."

It's no coincidence , perhaps, that LaChiusa's musicals have usually been staged in New York by non commercial companies, such as the Public Theater and Lincoln Center. "If the venue is Broadway-esque commerical theater," LaChiusa said, "it demands a different approach to what you're going to put on stage. I generally work in a not-for- profit venue and can afford to be more experimental."

Asked if there's a comparable figure working today, Terrell didn't cite a composer. He named David Mamet.

"There is this sort of compulsive need LaChiusa seems to have not to give you an easy answer. That's true of Mamet, too; think of 'Glengarry Glen Ross ' or 'Oleanna. ' LaChiusa also is really tricky about not giving you that person you identify with immediately, that you follow and is your anchor through the show. He seems to do that in every show. He doesn't give you that warm, fuzzy tour guide."

Tour guides are antithetical to "See," which is wholly about the audience making its own decisions. The show comes from yet another impressive literary source , Ryunosuke Akutagawa . The Japanese short story writer is best known in the West for his "In the Grove, " which inspired Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon."

"Rashomon" is famed for its rendering of subjective viewpoints as it recounts a rape in medieval Japan. For "See What I Wanna See" (note the significance of the full title), LaChiusa has transformed the story into a murderous love triangle in a noirish New York shortly after "Rashomon" opened there, June 1951.

The second act, "Gloryday, " comes from another Akutagawa story, "The Dragon. " Set in post-9/11 New York, "Gloryday" presents another variation on the subjectivity of truth. A priest who has lost his faith announces Christ will appear in Central Park. Does He -- or doesn't He?

Bookending the two acts is "Kesa and Morita, " a tale of adulterous lovers drawn from another Akutagawa story. It's a narrative architecture LaChiusa likened to Japanese screen paintings. There's nothing Asian, though, about the highly propulsive, jazz-inflected score.

First staged at Williamstown in summer 2004, "See" had its New York premiere in fall 2005 at the Public Theater . There's since been a British production, and a Korean one is in the works.

It all started at the now-defunct Kenmore Square Moviehouse when, as a 17-year-old freshman at Graham Junior College (also now defunct), LaChiusa saw "Rashomon."

"I thought, what a remarkable movie, right? So I went to the library and got the source of the story and read it and thought, 'Oh my, this is really great.' Then I read some more of [Akutagawa's] short stories. That's when the seed was planted."

The seed of LaChiusa writing musicals had been planted some years earlier -- in fourth grade, in fact, when his teacher told him that's what he should do when he grew up.

"If you knew Mrs. Hammer, you wouldn't doubt her," LaChiusa said with a laugh. "I got my Christmas card from her this year, 'You have a Merry Christmas, or else!' I grew up near Buffalo, in Chautauqua, N.Y., where people worked as dancers and musicians and writers, so it didn't seem so far-fetched to work as a composer. It seemed like such a good job, like fireman or police officer."

When LaChiusa graduated from high school, he didn't want to go to a conservatory or drama school since each limited his options. Some friends were at college in Boston, so he headed east on I-90 and ended up at Graham.

"I only spent about a year there," LaChiusa recalled. "Basically, the reason was to get away from my small town. Academically, I watched TV all day then wrote about it. Really. It was great. To support myself, I played [piano] for ballet classes at Emerson, music directed a few shows, did some summer stock, worked as an accompanist.

"All of Boston has changed. I love what they've done to the theaters. I was up there when Emerson gave me an award [in 2005]. Boy, that theater, the Majestic, is unbelievably beautiful."

LaChiusa moved to New York the summer he turned 18. "It's so funny," he said. "Can you imagine coming to New York in 1980 and all you have is $250? I just can't imagine young people doing that today. But it was New York in the '80s. Everyone was fleeing the city at that point. You just had to make a stake for yourself. But I was young and flexible.

"What existed by the time I got to New York was a fresh off-Broadway scene: Joe Papp's Public Theater, Andre Bishop's Playwrights Horizon , underground theater in the East Village. I just jumped into the off- and off- off- Broadway movement. It wasn't Broadway, but it was definitely theater."

LaChiusa cited Maury Yeston ("Nine" ) and William Finn ("Falsettos" ) as "great mentors to me," along with a wide range of older Broadway figures, such as John Kander, Sheldon Harnick , Jerry Bock , and Harold Prince . Still, the figure whose example looms largest over LaChiusa's work -- in its eclecticism, ambition, and risk-taking -- is another musical - theater luminary.

"Stephen Sondheim has been very generous to me over the years," LaChiusa said. "My generation is sometimes accused of imitating him. I think there's a lack of imagination in those who make that accusation. It's a compliment to be compared to him. Emulation is the word, not imitation. You're always striving to be the best, to do better and better work. To always bring to the table something more.

"For myself, the boundaries [of musical theater] are limitless. They have to be. You've got to be limitless when it comes to that; otherwise, you're a hack. . . . If you don't go into anything and try to be ambitious with it, what's the purpose? People can coast by, but that's just not in the cards for me to do."

Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.