Seattle's Child

Your guide to a kid-friendly city

‘Lightning Thief’ bolts into Seattle in April; act quickly if your kids want to see it

If the musical, opening April 23 at the 5th Avenue Theatre, is anywhere near as popular as the bestselling YA novel, tickets will be hard to come by.

 

It’s hard enough being a teenager — and then the Greek gods have to go and ruin everything!

Percy Jackson and his tale of teen angst and adventure is now on the stage, in musical form in “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” bringing to life the whole cast of characters from the best-selling young adult novel (and book series and feature film) about the son of Poseidon.

It’s headed to Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre April 23-28, so you’d better move like swift-footed Achilles to get tickets if your child is interested. The high-energy, youthful cast has been garnering good reviews as they tour the United States, and the play has been nominated for three Drama Desk Awards, including best musical.

At the movies last December, we saw that it’s awfully hard to be Aquaman, son of Atlantis’ queen, but imagine if your dad were Poseidon, the god of the whole entire ocean? And you found yourself having to battle actual gods and monsters? Think lots of teen angst, as Percy’s singing half-deity pals at Camp Half-Blood complain, “Oh, things couldn’t be worse / When your parents run the universe.” (Think the “Breakfast Club” cast with actual powers and singing and dancing talent, too. And, this time, instead of facing down the principal, it’s the minotaur.)

Jalynn Steele, who plays Percy’s mom (among other roles in the show), had some clear insight and a modern take on her maternal role.

“She always sort of wants to protect him at every cost, but sort of keep him keep him understanding that his faults are the greatest basic quality about him,” said Steele. “To celebrate the fault in those things that make you different actually make you a stronger person.”

As for playing the mom who reproduced with a god, she made sure to stay close to the Rick Riordan best-seller.

“One of the biggest things for me, I wanted to make sure to stay true to the books because I know that fandom is large,” said Steele, laughing. “There’s a lot of fans out there and a lot of kids growing up on the book and the material, so I definitely wanted to take pieces of who she was in the book.”

The play is recommended for school-age kids, preferably at least age 8, due to stage combat with knives and swords — and monsters (See the video for a preview of the scary-looking minotaur).

 

 

 

About the Author

Jillian O’Connor