Bookwriter Joe Tracz is a huge Percy Jackson fan, and when he got the job to adapt The Lightning Thief, he had dinner with Rick Riordan and his family. “He’s so funny,” says Tracz, “just seeing him and his son trading jokes back and forth, it was like: ‘Oh, you’re like grown-up Percy!’” Tracz says he and his collaborator, songwriter Rob Rokicki, worked tirelessly to find the right tone for the musical. “They’re big action adventure stories,” he explains, “but they have such a sense of humor and heart to them.”
Rokicki says he wanted to write a varied rock score to reflect the central characters’ personalities: “Percy’s really angsty, so I was going to write on electric guitar. Annabeth’s really smart, so it was very note-y piano stuff. Grover’s a sweetheart and a little bit of a hippie, so I would do an acoustic guitar kind of thing.” (It should be explained that Annabeth is the daughter of Athena and Grover is satyr – half human, half goat.) And when the three protagonists go to the underworld, which is set in an LA record company, Rokicki’s music takes on a Motown vibe.
Creating this wild, epic ride, without the sort of CGI/green screen effects available to film makers, required director Stephen Brackett to come up with ingenious staging solutions to tell a story which features not only gods, but mythological monsters. The set has a kind of rock concert vibe, with scaffolding, most of the actors play multiple roles, with multiple costume changes, and the stage magic is frequently visible to the audience. Keep your eyes peeled for what can happen with a leaf blower and a roll of toilet paper. “We embrace that you’re actually seeing what it takes to make an effect in front of an audience,” explains Brackett.
When the show began touring for off-Broadway performances in 2017, it attracted not just super fans of the book but musical theater lovers of every age. “We were getting the millennials and families who read the books,” says producer Barbara Pasternack, “and we were getting adults who read fantasy and the comic con crowd, but we were also seeing audiences who had yet to discover Percy Jackson. These people were coming to experience an exciting rock musical and we definitely delivered.”
Tracz says the creative team was always aware of the book’s admirers, many of whom were disappointed with the film adaptations; “We knew that we had to create something that honored what people loved with the books,” he says, “and also surprised them.” During the off-Broadway run, videos of some of the songs began to go viral on YouTube. And when the cast recording was released, “It bumped Hamilton and it went onto the Billboard charts and it bumped Bruno Mars and Beyoncé,” Pasternack relates.
For the creative team, the themes in The Lightning Thief have broad appeal; “How do you take action in your life?,” says director Stephen Brackett. “How do you advocate for the world that you want to live in? And what are you willing to sacrifice to make that world?” And, Brackett adds, “I think that’s a story that needs to be told.”
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical will be arriving at Detroit's Fisher Theatre for performances between February 26 and March 9, 2019. Tickets for The Lightning Thief start at $49 (includes facility and parking fees) and are now on sale. Tickets can be purchased online at www.broadwayindetroit.com or www.ticketmaster.com, as well as by phone at 800-982-2787. Showtimes are:
Monday, March 4 performance at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday – Saturday evening performances at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday evening performance at 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 7 matinee at 1:00 p.m.
Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday matinee at 1:00 p.m.
Special open captioned performance on Monday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m.
To find out more about THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL visit the show's website, www.lightningthiefmusical.com, or its social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram. Make sure to follow A Geek Daddy on social media too! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
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