The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical review – striking and scrambled

For the uninitiated – and there can’t be too many these days – Percy Jackson is a kind of Harry Potter with Greek gods instead of wizards. He’s the creation of American author Rick Riordan, who invented the character for his son, partly to help him view his ADHD and dyslexia as superpowers.

This musical adaptation by Rob Rokicki (music and lyrics) and Joe Tracz (book) was first seen off-Broadway ten years ago, with an expanded version making its way to Broadway in 2019. Here it receives its professional UK premiere, complete with the eye-catching casting of Max Harwood in the title role.

It’s a distinctly mixed bag of a show. On one hand it oozes energy and peppiness, coming over like a high school musical with added mythology. But despite its likability there’s something rather bland about Rokicki’s pop-rock songs, which are hard to tell apart, and the convoluted plotting gets largely lost in the noise. If you’re not already au-fait with the series – fortunately I had my superfan ten-year-old daughter for company – I’d imagine you’ll find it pretty impregnable.

But despite the manifest flaws of the material, it’s all done with admirable commitment. Director-choreographer Lizzi Gee ensures the action moves at a lick and the ensemble is impressively well-drilled, evoking environments ranging from Camp Half-Blood, where Jackson first learns of his status as the son of Poseidon, to the Californian Hades where he finally tracks him down.

Set and costume designer Ryan Dawson Laight conjures up a range of imaginative scenarios, and there is some decent stagecraft on show (the creative team includes illusionist Richard Pinner), as a minotaur emerges from some cages, shadowy beasts pop up on umbrellas, and ghostly figures loom in an elevated portal. It’s all augmented by some high octane lighting from Charlie Morgan Jones, particularly in the climactic underworld scenes.

Harwood, who got his big break in the film version of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, has form portraying young people in search of themselves, and Percy Jackson proves a good fit. He successfully evokes the feeling of a misfit who, in his own words, is just trying to find his place (Greek gods make famously terrible parents). He’s well supported by Scott Folan and Jessica Lee as best friends Grover and Annabeth, Paisley Billings as his affectionate if unhinged mother, and other half-bloods Samantha Mbolekwa, Greg Barnett and Joaquin Pedro Valdes. There are also some enjoyable comic turns from Joe Allen, including a grumpy Dionysus.

It’s a shame none of them really get to showcase their vocal talents in a stand-out number. The country-flavoured “Drive” and show-closing “Bring on the Monsters” get the toes tapping, but otherwise Rokicki’s score struggles to take flight. The songs feel weighed down by exposition – see the opening number “The Day I Got Expelled”, which tries to cram entire chapters into three minutes – and overall the impression is of a show that is swamped by its source material. But if my daughter’s ecstatic response is anything to go by, this won’t dissuade the fanbase.