My Variety Review: Musical 'The Lightning Thief' On Broadway
“It’s a lot to take in right now,” says Percy Jackson, the teen hero of “The Lightning Thief,” the kid-centric fantasy musical (based on the popular Y.A. novel) that’s now on Broadwayafter touring the country and playing an Off Broadway run.
You could say that’s a bit of an understatement from contemporary teen Percy (Chris McCarrell), who discovers he’s the spawn of a Greek god — literally. But he’s not exactly sure which god. And, oh, by the way, Zeus’s lightning bolt has been stolen and the gods are pissed because they think Percy took it and a battalion of monsters, minotaurs and furies are hot on his heels. But first he has to deal with some mean kids at summer camp.
The packed narrative may be child’s play for fans of Rick Riordan’s 2005 book — and there were plenty of enthusiasts in the audience on a recent night at the Longacre Theater, where the musical is having a limited run — but others will find the show and the bare-bones production simply myth-begotten.
The story is propelled by the clever premise that “the gods are real and they have kids and they have issues.” The eternal struggle between hapless youths and their all-powerful parents is given Olympian dimension here, as sung in a lyric in the campfire ditty: “All things couldn’t be worse/when your folks run the universe.”
The show joins the fast-growing genre of youth-angst musicals (“Dear Evan Hanson,” “Be More Chill”) that tap into that early Spielbergian vein of kids tormented by absent parents, learning disabilities or general geekiness. Percy suffers from all of the above, but copes thanks to a low-key, self-deprecating, super-nonchalant “whatever” spirit that can have its charms, even as it becomes a millennial cliche.
