I am at a slight disadvantage since I was certainly not the target audience for this show. I am a single middle-aged male with no children. I do however love a good musical, which was the reason for my wanting to see this.
The storyline, as far as I could see, revolves around an American teenager called Percy Jackson who lives with his mother and step father, but is always finding himself in trouble or strange and bad things keep happening to him which he cannot explain, other than that they must have been dreams. He has however, been expelled from more schools than you can shake a stick at, and his mother is beginning to despair. She is also though holding a secret about his parentage, which comes to light eventually. He is a half-blood. This means that he has one human parent, but his other parent (in this case his father) is a Greek God. (Poseidon). The book, and therefore the musical make for an excellent way to introduce youngsters to Greek classical mythology.
The entire cast - including a small number of chorus performers - were all excellent and certainly gave much to this show. Afficionados of the book would obviously have connected to the caricatures better than I did, but it was clear that they were trying to be as true to the book as possible in their characterisations. The show was youthful and full of energy, and certainly created the wow factor for their tweenie followers.
The set was confusing though. Consisting of a very metallic and industrial U-shaped space with a large 'window' to the rear, didn't to my mind at least, fit into any of the locations used in this musical. It might have been a recognised location from the book, I don't know, but it didn't work in this context and that, together with the very dour and monochrome costumes, made for a rather uninteresting 'look'.
The music was rock and folk based and was lyrical and upbeat, progressing the storyline nicely. My only real objection was that the volume was set far too high. Optimal aural enjoyment was had for me with the wearing of earplugs. The LX design was also a little distracting. Too many times did lights blind our vision and shine out into the audience. Once or twice at the most would have been effective, but this was overkill.
A very upbeat and family-friendly musical which will undoubtedly appeal to its target audience. Overall an enjoyable experience, with some sympathetic, talented, and watchable actors/ actresses.
Show dates at HOME from Wed 11 - Sat 21 February 2026
For cast details see https://homemcr.org/whats-on/the-lightning-thief-the-percy-jackson-musical-b59t
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
On - 21.2.26
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