{"id":692,"date":"2019-01-25T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=692"},"modified":"2019-01-25T11:41:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T18:41:15","slug":"the-lightning-thief-the-percy-jackson-musical-the-electrifying-off-broadway-musical-heads-out-on-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2019\/the-lightning-thief-the-percy-jackson-musical-the-electrifying-off-broadway-musical-heads-out-on-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical &#8211; The Electrifying Off-Broadway Musical Heads Out On Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/b\/bf\/The_Lightning_Thief_The_Percy_Jackson_Musical_poster.jpg\/220px-The_Lightning_Thief_The_Percy_Jackson_Musical_poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"260\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical &#8211; The Electrifying Off-Broadway Musical Heads Out On Tour. Lightning\nstruck Off-Broadway theater Lucille Lortel&#8217;s stage in the form of <em>The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson\nMusical<\/em> in early 2017. The updated hit musical garnered three Drama Desk\nAward nominations including Outstanding Musical and now brings its action,\nmagic and music to a theater near you on a mammoth US tour beginning last fall.\nBased on the cult-classic Young Adult novel by acclaimed fantasy author Rick\nRiordan (which also spawned a feature film), the production may be aimed at a\nyounger audience, but its self-aware humour, ubpeat pop rock score and\nsatisfying special effects make it perfect for older mortals too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life is\ntough enough when you&#8217;re going though puberty, but Percy Jackson&#8217;s not only\nfacing teendom with ADHD and dyslexia, he&#8217;s just discovered he&#8217;s a demi-god,\nson of the God Of the Sea Poseidon. In this epic coming of age tale, Greek\nmyths are very much real! When Jackson&#8217;s human mom is kidnapped and the\nlightning bolt of Zeus is stolen by malevolent forces, the wonderkid and his\nnewfound friends go on a quest to set the world to rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KIDS FIRST! Adult Juror Juanita Seon Leary comments, \u201cI am a\nfan of musicals and this production is an excellent adaptation. It takes place\nin present day, starting out in Camp Half-Blood in Long Island, NY and moves to\nseveral places as it develops.\u201d See her full review below. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical<br>\nJuanita Seon Leary, KIDS FIRST! Adult Juror&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hyLnt3t2IzU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Lightning Thief:\nThe Percy Jackson Musical<\/em> opened at the Merriam Theater on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 and I was\nthrilled with the production. This musical is based on the books written by Joe\nTracz and adapted by Rick Riordan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a fan of musicals and this production is an excellent\nadaptation. It takes place in present day, starting out in Camp Half-Blood in\nLong Island, NY and moves to several places as it develops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story follows a young man, Percy Jackson (Chris\nMcCarrell), who finds out that he is half human and half god.&nbsp; He struggles with being expelled from six schools\nin one year. Percy feels as if he cannot do anything right. After he learns\nthat his father is Posiedon, one\nof the&nbsp;Twelve Olympians&nbsp;in&nbsp;ancient Greek\nreligion&nbsp;and&nbsp;mythology, god of the Sea and other waters and of\nearthquakes and horses, Percy sets out to right a wrong caused by a war between\nthe gods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I enjoyed watching Percy Jackson as he joins the other\nhalf-bloods (children with one human parent and the other a god) in their\nquest. It was exhilarating to watch the cast of young actors work together to\nto prove that Percy did not steal the lightning bolt.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my favorite scenes is when Percy and his friends\nAnnabeth (Kristin Stokes) Grover (Jorrell Javier) set out on their quest and,\nwhile traveling on a bus that is bombed by the gods to deter them, confetti of\ngold strips of paper fly out into the audience. I received several bursts of\nconfetti which was fun and exciting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the cast members are excellent singers, dances and\nactors<em>.<\/em> The sets and stage props are\nmagnificent and well-constructed. This show has messages of friendship, never\ngiving up and appreciating your life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Lightning\nThief:The Percy Jackson Musical<\/em> is now playing at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, PA\nThrough Sunday, January 27, 2019. I recommend it is for ages 8 to 18, as well\nas adults and give it <em>5<\/em> out of 5\nstars. For a complete list of dates and locations through July, 2019 go to: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightningthiefmusical.com\/#home\">http:\/\/www.lightningthiefmusical.com\/ &#8211; home<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: CAST AND CREATIVE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>CAST<\/strong><br>Chris McCarrell as Percy Jackson<br>Kirstin Stokes as Annabeth<br>Sarah Beth Pfeifer as Clarice<br>James Hayden Rodriguez as Luke<br>Jorrel Javier as Grover and Mr. D<br>Ryan Knowles as Chiron <br>Jalynn Steel as Sally<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Understudies<\/strong><br>Izzy Figueroa<br>Sam Leicht<br>T. Shyvonne Stewart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>CREATIVE<\/strong><br>Book by Joe Tracz<br>Music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki<br>Directed by Stephen Brackett<br>Choreography by Patrick McCollum<br>Set design by Lee Savage<br>Costume design by Sydney Maresca <br>Sound design by Ryan Rumery<br>Lighting design by David Lander<br>Fight direction by Rod Kinter<br>Orchestrations by Wiley Deweese and Rob Rikicki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lightning struck Off-Broadway theater Lucille Lortel&#8217;s stage in the form of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical in early 2017. The updated hit musical garnered three Drama Desk Award nominations including Outstanding Musical and now brings its action, magic and music to a theater near you on a mammoth US tour beginning last fall. Based on the cult-classic Young Adult novel by acclaimed fantasy author Rick Riordan (which also spawned a feature film), the production may be aimed at a younger audience, but its self-aware humour, ubpeat pop rock score and satisfying special effects make it perfect for older mortals too.<br \/>\nLife is tough enough when you&#8217;re going though puberty, but Percy Jackson&#8217;s not only facing teendom with ADHD and dyslexia, he&#8217;s just discovered he&#8217;s a demi-god, son of the God Of the Sea Poseidon. In this epic coming of age tale, Greek myths are very much real! When Jackson&#8217;s human mom is kidnapped and the lightning bolt of Zeus is stolen by malevolent forces, the wonderkid and his newfound friends go on a quest to set the world to rights.<br \/>\nKIDS FIRST! Adult Juror Juanita Seon Leary comments, \u201cI am a fan of musicals and this production is an excellent adaptation. It takes place in present day, starting out in Camp Half-Blood in Long Island, NY and moves to several places as it develops.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}