By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Sunday 5 January 2025, runs through 31 August 2025 RUNTIME: 125 minutes (including 20-minute interval)

The best thing about this coming-of-age story riffing on Greek mythology is the way it encourages difference to be viewed as a superpower.

• Read on for reasons including how this musical is a triumph of world building rather let down by its songs

The Lightning Thief is a musical with a book by Joe Tracz (Be More Chill, Shaftesbury Theatre) based on a 2005 novel by Rick Riordan that began as a bedtime story he was challenged to tell by his son Haley who had ADHD and dyslexia.

It’s the tale of Percy Jackson who faces similar challenges and is believed to be a demigod, or half blood, meaning 1 of his parents is believed to be a God and the other mortal.

Like The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button we reviewed recently it has a strong connection to the sea with Percy eventually discovering his father is Poseidon, the God of water, and isn’t afraid of throwing early tragedy into the mix as Percy blames himself for his mother’s death.

Percy finds himself in Camp Half-Blood with youngsters like him and is mentored by Luke, son of Hermes, played by Joaquin Pedro Valdes who has excelled recently in a string of different roles – including The Baker’s Wife and Pacific Overtures both at the Menier – and does so again here in a variety of parts.

Percy is challenged to go on a quest to find Zeus’ missing lightning bolt and avert war between the gods with his best friend Grover, a protective goat-like satyr played by Scott Folan who was also a geek in Chill, and fiery Annabeth, daughter of Athena, who wants to prove herself.

It’s a tribute to the worldbuilding of the novel and Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series that there is a great deal for an audience much larger than the young adult market to get their teeth into here.

Unfortunately the music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki don’t quite live up to the promise of the written material although some may find the riffing on a rock style of My Chemical Romance, Busted and McFly works for them.

Certainly the show we attended was sold-out with a predominantly young audience clearly already familiar with both the story and score of what they were seeing.

Max Harwood (film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) plays Percy and brings the necessary level of outsider angst and vocal ability to a part essential for a show’s success although we felt it was Valdes’ Luke who deserves a tilt at a leading West End role soon.

It’s also staged inventively with a number of particularly impressive visual illusions which serve the fantasy nature of the story well.

The Percy Jackson novels have also spawned successful films and TV series which perhaps explain how this new musical can be booking through August rather than any particular songs we would want to highlight here.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Other Palace Tickets
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