It’s always interesting when I’m asked to review a show I haven’t been the biggest fan of in the past. I always let the company know of my previous experience and if they still want my opinion I will try and be as fair as possible with the review. Often the company will help me see the material in a new way and at the very least see why it is popular or appealing to a particular audience. Such was my experience watching The Lightning Thief at The Empress. This is flawed material that the teens at The Empress Theatre were able to elevate into something creative and exciting.

I do still think the musical book (not the novel) for The Lightning Thief is a bit of a mess. Characters are introduced and then abandoned, others reappear out of nowhere, the same is true for plot-points. For most of the first act it seems like this is going to be a summer camp coming of age story, then it becomes a quest with muddled goal, confusing villains and stakes, and much more. I know it is based on the book (which I have read) as well as being based on mythology but the writers of the musical didn’t do a good job creating a coherent vision with character arcs that are interesting and make sense.

All that said, a company like The Empress can still do creative things with flawed material and that’s what they did here. Percy Jackson is played by Elias Silva, and I don’t think I’ve seen him before in local theater, but he’s terrific as our lead. He’s a talented actor who has to mine a lot of different emotions including grief, anger, shame, victory and more. Plus, he is up for the fight choreography throughout (which is another highlight of the production by Marc Reading.) The rest of the teens have a nice chemistry together with Parker Skeen as Grover, Beck Bassett as Luke, and Eloise Derr as Annabeth to name a few. I also really enjoyed Cheryl Cripps who has a lot of fun playing villainous roles of Mrs. Dodds/Medusa/Charon

Besides the teens, the standout of this production directed by Beth Bruner is the creative visual effects they use throughout. Given this is a story about a modern teen who ends up on a quest with the Greek gods there’s a lot of magic and monsters that has to be created on a very small budget. What Bruner and set (and lighting) designer David Bruner do is create shadow puppets and silhouettes to look like the various creatures and settings (for example, at one point The Gateway Arch is silhouetted on to the fabric backdrop and it becomes part of the story.) This not only works for the narrative (muddled as it might be) but it creates a cool mystical tone that kept surprising me as a viewer. It also looked like they had 3D printed items as part of Medusa’s gallery. This attention to detail is very impressive.

I also really enjoyed how immersive everything felt. There was even a scene where the character throws a necklace into the audience and it landed right in my lap and then on to the floor. They also did a good job of using both sides of the platform at The Empress (it’s an unusually shaped theater but sometimes they use the platforms more than others and this was a good example of that.)

Most importantly it seems like the teens were having a great time and growing as people and performers. This is something I will always support and celebrate. I know The Lightning Thief has a lot of fans as a musical- especially young fans. If you or someone in your family is one of those people I would particularly recommend seeing this production at The Empress. It’s creativity and the energy of the teens is definitely worth seeing. It is playing until August 8th and tickets can be purchased here.

The Lightning Thief has music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki with a book by Joe Tracz based on the novel of the same name by Rick Riordan. It was first premiered Off-Broadway in 2014 and on Broadway in 2019.

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