MAGNA — I have long enjoyed Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, and I listen to the audiobook almost yearly. It is a series I am very familiar with, but I had yet to see a production of The Lightning Thief musical with music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki and a book by Joe Tracz. Tonight I had the opportunity to attend a production at the Empress Theatre, directed by Beth Brunner.
The Lightning Thief follows the story of Percy Jackson, a young teen who discovers he is a demigod. After learning his father is the Greek god Poseidon, he ends up of a quest to recover Zeus’s lightning bolt before a war breaks out among the gods. Along the way he makes friends with other demigods and faces multiple mythological monsters.
Elias Silva played Percy Jackson. Silva came in with great energy and kept that energy through the entire show. His vocals were strong and never faltered, even in high action numbers. Silva was well rounded in his abilities. He could put on the tough guy persona, but still showed a soft heart for his mother, Sally Jackson, who was played by Monique Derr. Silva and Derr had an easy chemistry that made for a comfortable and close mother-son relationship where both were protective of each other. Silva meshed well with Parker Skeen, playing Grover, and Eloise Derr, playing Annabeth. Silva didn’t hold back in his final scene of sword play. The fight choreography by Marc Reading was well thought out and made good use of the space, but it is was Silva’s commitment to the scene that really sold it, making it a favorite moment for me.
Lucy Baden, playing Clarisse, was visually a rocker, and had the voice to match. Baden’s vibrato really added strength to her riffs and blew me away. E. Derr joined for a duet, not as powerfully as Baden at first but then E. Derr hit a high note riff and really showed what Annabeth is made of. It was a delicious moment that added layers to Annabeth. Baden’s Clarisse costume, designed by costumer Braxton Moore and cast, was biker girl tough, matching her tough girl attitude to her clothes, while E. Derr as Annabeth was in a camp shirt, jean shorts, and had a knife tucked into each boot. Annabeth’s toughness was shown in more than in fighting words and rebellious clothes, it was in the way E. Derr carried herself.
Parker Skeen, playing Grover, and Beck Bassett, playing Luke, played their supporting parts very well. Both Skeen and Bassett shared a similar struggle with many songs being at the bottom of their ranges, reducing the power of the lower notes. It was unfortunate that the songs couldn’t be transcribed into a key that would have better showcased Skeen’s and Bassett’s voices at their full strength. However, they both pushed through and more than made up for it with their abilities to play their parts well.
Konnor Hafen played both Chiron and Hades. As Hades, Hafen was a little bit rockstar, a dash eccentric, with a good under-the-surface bubbling anger and scathing looks. He was apathetic at all the right moments, and intimating when he needed to be. As Chiron, Hafen played the centaur as Friesian horse, which are known for their high stepping actions. Hafen was great at embodying a nervous horse, such as when waiting to see Mr. D’s reaction to a stressful situation, but that moment seemed more about making Hafen mimic horse-like movements than making Chiron a sensible and strong advisor for Mr. D and Percy. I would have liked to have seen more of the steady war horse in Hafen’s portrayal as Chiron, the centaur over the training of demigods warriors, and less nervous prancing.
The musical adaption of this novel contains scenes that are difficult to recreate. It’s multifaceted with high action and multiple distinct locations as the young demigods race across the continent running from monsters and gods. If I had not already been very familiar with the story, I wouldn’t have been able to follow everything that was happening. For instance, right after intermission Percy, Annabeth, and Grover battle a fury on a bus which results in the bus exploding. Had they not mentioned the bus, I would never had realized they were on a bus. I did realize they were facing a monster, but it was hard to distinguish what monster and their location. Some design elements worked while others did not.
I loved the concept that lighting designer David Bruner and monster designer Corie Sorenson came up with of monster silhouettes inside the center stage Greek pillar. However, I struggled with the execution. The cylindrical surface and pleated fabric used to create the column distorted the monsters’ shadows, making them unclear. The Chimera, created through a shadow puppet was the most clearly identifiable monster, while the monsters portrayed by human performers were often confusing to figure out.
Choreography was by Kathryn Baker, with Annie Guest-Inkly as the assistant choreographer. There were two numbers where the choreography really stood out. The first was during “Drive” as heroes rode on the back of a motorcycle. I loved how they managed to capture the movement of the bike as it rose up and down hills and changed lanes. My favorite dance number was during “The Tree on the Hill.” The choreography told Thalia’s story better than the narration. It was a moment that could have stood on its own outside of the context of the whole musical, but fit perfectly into the energy of the show.
There were two moments in the staging that broke the illusion of the scene. The first was during the campers battle in the capture the flag sequence. There were two campers, one on each side of the stage, going through fighting movements without an opponent. It felt as if they were just fighting the air to make the scene symmetrical while everyone else had an opponent. The other moment was when Chiron sends Percy to speak with the Oracle in the attic. Instead of having Percy go to the platform over the main stage, where Chiron gestured, he remained on the main floor. It felt like a missed opportunity to use more level in the blocking, but this allowed the Oracle to appear as a silhouette on the central Greek column even though it was hard to distinguish. Which leads to the biggest by main struggle with this show. The Oracle’s prophecy is a huge hinge point in the story, but I could not see or understand the Oracle
The volume of the music, and often the performers’ mics, was so overpowering there was a lack of balance. In the opening song, the accompaniment covered up Percy’s solo lines, but was great during the ensemble parts. This also happened during Dionysus’s first solo. Other times, such as during “A Good Kid” with Percy and the “Good Kid Reprise’ with Luke, the ensemble’s vocals could not be heard. Later, the sound was so loud it was hard distinguishing what was actually sung during the D.O.A. scene. This production had some absolutely incredible vocalists, but the volume of the music and mics left me cringing and missing out on the talent. In such a small space it was just too much sound. If the sound can be better balanced and not so blaring, that would help the audience better follow the action and not distract from the talented soloists and ensemble.
The production has strong elements particularly with truly incredible vocalists and a strong energetic lead. The entire company from the cast and crew to house manager and concession stand workers, made sure the audience had a good experience. The Empress Theatre isn’t just there to put on a show because they love theatre, they are there to make sure it is a positive experience for all in attendance. I am always amazed at the amount of new talent they bring to the stage. If you love quaint and unique theatre spaces with young new talent, the Empress Theatre’s The Lightning Thief is definitely worth checking out, especially for those fans of the novel.
MORE INFO: The Lightning Thief plays Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Saturdays at 2 PM through August 8 at the Empress Theatre (9104 West Main St, Magna). Tickets are $20. For the most up-to-date schedule, performance details, and official ticketing, visit the Empress Theater website: https://www.empresstheatre.com/.
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