Yes. You read that title correctly. There is a musical adaptation of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and it will be coming to St. Paul come June, and you absolutely should go see it. I should know, I’ve seen it twice.
I saw The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical for the first time in New York in 2017 during its original Off Broadway run on its first ever preview night, and then I saw it this past December when their tour stopped in Chicago. Trust me when I say this musical was created by fans, for fans. To be fair, long time Percy Jackson fans are right to be skeptical — after all, haven’t we suffered enough at the hands of the movies that shall not be named?
Fear not! This musical has the Riordan stamp of approval. While he hasn’t seen it himself, he loves the fan response of it and can be seen frequently tweeting positive reviews and encouraging others to go see it, a stark tone difference from his DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT THE MOVIES attitude.
Tweet from Rick Riordan.
You can also find interviews from the musical’s creators (like this one) where they talk about how important keeping the heart of the story was to them.
On top of that, let me tell you about the @LTMusical twitter account and the fandom surrounding it. First off, they’re deeply relatable for any Percy Jackson fan, on top of just being hilarious and supportive:
Tweet from Lightning Thief Musical official twitter account @LTMusical.
In fact, relatable, hilarious, and supportive could be their bio.
Tweet from @LTMusical.
Given their origin — a musical about how “the things that make you different, are the very things that make you strong” (quote from their song Strong), they’re constantly advocating for all of their “demigods.” They’ve created a platform that supports all types of people with all beliefs and lifestyles and wholeheartedly rejects any bullying and takes active steps to keep it off of their platform.
In turn, this has created an incredibly close knit fandom, as shown in the twitter account @HHalfbloods. This is an account created for the sole purpose of gathering funds from generous “demigods” so that other, less fortunate fans can go see the show free of charge.
The account also recently went viral with the hashtag #TLTforNico which was created after one fan shared the story of a young LGBT youth she worked with in a youth center who identified with the character Nico Di Angelo in the original books (who came out as gay in The House of Hades). He was going through a rough time and the entire fandom, including the actual cast of the musical, sent a ton of support and love.
All in all, this is one of those shows that isn’t just fun, it’s also good in every sense and should be supported. I can promise it’s good for all ages — it even had my mom, who has never read a page of Percy Jackson, saying it might be one of her favorite musicals. So many more testimonials can be found on social media.
If you want to hear some of the songs, you can listen to the soundtrack with the original cast here (the Percy, Annabeth, Luke, and Clarisse actors are the same ones performing in the tour currently). You can purchase tickets for their June 18th-June 22nd run in St. Paul here.