The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical ★★★ The Other Palace | Nov 22, 2024 - Mar 2, 2025


It is easy to understand why Rick Riordan's story is so popular with pre-teens. Percy is a twelve-year-old with dyslexia and ADHD who doesn't have many friends, and he has been kicked out of several schools. Then, unexpectedly, he discovers that he is actually the son of a Greek God. He attends a summer camp where he meets other half-blood kids like himself, and he ends up going on a quest that puts him in conflict with Hades and some of the other characters from Greek mythology. This is a delightfully empowering tale full of weird and wonderful characters, while also being a neat introduction to the world of ancient myths. However, this musical version has a serious challenge in trying to live up to the power of young imaginations, and it only partially succeeds. This is a show that cries out for some serious magic, and unfortunately most of the effects seem rather low-budget. Percy's pen that becomes a sword is fun, but the Minotaur is simply neither very scary, nor very Minotaur-like. Rob Rokicki's music and lyrics are rather generic rock-musical fare, and they were not helped by the fact that they were over-projected in Act I to the point that it seemed like the cast were yelling all the time. While we are not looking for a lot of subtlety in the characterisation here, Percy's almost instantaneous recovery from the news of his mother's death seems both unrealistic, and a missed opportunity for some introspection. In fact, all of the characters lacked much nuance and the show's recounting of incidents seemed rather perfunctory. Without previous knowledge or emotional investment, it was easy to become confused and to lose interest. Max Harwood is a credible Percy, and he manages to bring a nice bravado to his outsider character who is revealed as a demigod and then becomes a hero. As Grover, Percy's satyr sidekick, Scott Folan does a nice comic turn, and Jessica Lee as the sassy and cerebral Annabeth displays one of the show's more polished voices. For us, this production came across as a work-in-progress, but the children in the audience, who were familiar with the original story, seemed to really enjoy this musical version of Riordan's contemporary quest myth.

Rated: ★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Manuel Harlan

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Map & Location: 12 Palace St, London SW1E 5JA, UK

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