WW Reviews

The Lightning Thief tells the story of Percy Jackson a teen living with his single mother. Unbeknownst to him, his dad is a Greek God and Percy is sent to a summer camp where other children of Gods attend. Percy is then sent on a quest and journeys across America to return the lightning bolt that has been stolen from Zeus.

The tone of this musical was jovial with every situation being treated as a joke, similar in style to the humour on Tumblr in the 2010s, this distracted from the emotional moments and meant that it was difficult to feel anything or get drawn into the story as it felt as though everything was a joke with no true meaning or importance.

Towards the beginning of the musical there is a major turning point in Percy’s life and this is glossed over with Percy seeming to get over his emotions very quickly. However, this event is then brought up every time the story needs to give Percy motivation which takes the emotion out of this moment and event as it feels as though this doesn’t matter to Percy and the event is only relevant to the plot rather than the characters.

The costumes were done well with limited resources the creative team had used extremely imaginative set and costume which blended to create the illusions necessary for the show. However, I was left a little confused by when this show is set – I presume the 2000s since Percy’s jeans were permanently on his hips. I knew I was officially old when I sat for the whole of the first act wishing Percy would pull his jeans up and hoping they never fell down.

The direction was also dramatic fitting into the jokey tone and using the limited stage space but Percy spends most of his time on the floor so much so he may as well never get up. Whenever he is shocked or is in a fight he falls and is backed onto the floor which begins to become repetitive extremely quickly.

Overall, the musical felt too jovial and didn’t seem to take it’s emotional moments seriously enough which led to the show feeling as if it was operating at surface level with no deeper emotional connection. It left me feeling as though nothing in the show mattered and therefore I never connected to the characters and worse than feeling upset or angry I just felt nothing.  

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is going on tour. You can find tickets here: https://percyjacksonmusical.com/uk-tour/

Photography by: Manuel Harlan

Performance:
Thursday 13th March 2025
19:30
The Other Palace

Cast: