Review: Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, The Other Palace

Review: Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, The Other Palace

Playing out like an American Harry Potter, teenager Percy (Max Harwood) has a fairly appalling home life due to his sexist, idiotic stepfather.  But soon everything changes. There’s no owl mail in this however, as it begins with an attack by a well-known monster from Greek mythology, and one dead mother later, Percy discovers the truth concerning his real father being a God. Oh, and also how his best friend Grover (Scott Folan) is a Satyr and comes complete with hairy goat legs and hooves in a costume which really looks like an extra fifty quid should have been spent on it.

If the murder of his mother (Paisley Billings) seems somewhat casually described above, that’s because it gets the same treatment on stage, with Percy only briefly devastated. Soon he’s quite happily led by Grover to a mysterious summer camp and, a-la Hogwarts, it’s is filled with a bunch of other kids who have magical powers thanks to having a Greek God as a parent. Yet pretty much everyone present hates the God half of their parentage, largely as they’ve all been abandoned by the various deities.

Fittingly this has launched just as panto season kicks off, and it could easily have been one if the audience had been encouraged to boo the villain or shout out “He’s behind you” from time to time. If feels quite like “Scooby Doo The Musical” as Percy takes on a quest to prevent a war between the Gods, and there’s a lot of madcap running around, attacks from a couple of monsters which never really feel dangerous or threatening, while also featuring what must be Medusa’s swiftest ever defeat.

Problematically the musical isn’t quite sure what it wants to be. There’s a lot of comedy here yet it sometimes feels poorly placed, especially the sequence where Percy’s mother is killed, then a minute or two later he’s at summer camp and listening to The God Of Wine (Joe Allen) sing a comic number about what a terrible day it is and how much he hates kids. It clearly wishes to contain a certain level of emotional heft, as Grover feels responsible for the death of another child, and an ensemble number sees the kids sing about the trauma of being abandoned. Yet these sequences are few and fleeting, and it’s never long before there’s a joke or three, or an unconvincing bit of sword play to scare off a villain.

It’s frustrating as there are certain parts of the play which work very effectively. The opening song’s delightfully catchy, and Percy’s discovery of his heritage is bizarre yet entertaining. In the second half there’s a killer track in “Lost!”, and I was very fond of a good few of the pop rock songs which contain amusing or outright bizarre lyrics. The cast are all strong, the simple set is used effectively to create a number of different locations, and there’s some impressive staging of fantastical sequences too.

Ultimately I can’t suggest that this is a must see production due to the high ticket prices, and though this is a fun romp with some cute songs and a script which has a good few amusing lines, it doesn’t feel quite ready for a big stage like The Other Palace. A few more drafts are needed to add the depth that it clearly desires, and in its current state I can only hesitantly recommend it to big fans of the franchise or if you have money to burn.

Book by: Joe Tracz
Music and Lyrics by: Rob Rokicki
Directed & Choreography by: Lizzi Gee
Set & Costume Design by: Ryan Dawson Laight
Lighting Design by: Charlie Morgan Jones
Sound Design by: Dominic Bilkey
Video Design by: Duncan McLean

Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief is playing at The Other Palace until 5th March 2025. Further information and tickets can be found here.