Theatre Royal Windsor – until Saturday 23rd August 2025
Reviewed by Liberty Noke
4****
“The Lighting Thief” is a musical based on the book “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan. It features main character Percy Jackson (Vasco Emauz) who has been expelled from 6 schools and believes he is a loser because of his ADHD and Dyslexia. This all comes to make sense when he discovers that he is the son of Poseidon.
The show opens with Percy on a school trip learning about the Greek Gods. One of his schoolteachers reveals herself to be a fury and attacks Percy leading to another expulsion. Percy goes home to his mother who begins to explain the truth, but they are attacked by a minotaur. The minotaur is depicted on stage incredible. 2 members of the ensemble held giant horns while others held a nose and eyes creating a giant, menacing presence on the stage. They moved as one, swerving around the stage to attack. Percy escapes to camp half-blood with his friend Grover but his mother is killed by the minotaur.
The staging is reminiscent of underground pipes which may be relevant to Percy’s parentage but did seem a little strange as it never seemed to match the setting of the story and it was hard to depict a change in scenery.
At camp half blood we learn about the demigods and meet daughter of Athena, Annabeth (Kayna Montecillo), daughter of Ares, Clarise (Ellie-Grace Cousins) and Son of Hermes, Luke Paolo Micallef).
The costumes in this production are impressive Grover’s (Chair O’Neill) goat legs look realistic as did Chiron’s (Niall Sheehy) horse legs. The gods can be difficult to depict on stage, but I really enjoyed the modern costumes for them. The demigods wore muted colours, baggy jeans and hoodies. I liked that they felt like real teenagers.
The musical numbers were impressive, I was dubious about this story being turned into a musical, having enjoyed the book so much as a child, but it wasn’t at all cringey, the songs were well written and the cast had incredible, powerhouse vocals. Everyone danced with high energy, so each number was well received by the audience. Simone Robinson was particularly impressive as Charon. Another highlight was Aidan Cutler who was hilarious as Mr D.
“The Lightning Thief” is a high energy adventure musical that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It was great to see so many people of all ages in the theatre on a weeknight. With incredible performances, and songs that will be stuck in your head for weeks this is a production not to be missed if you are a fan of adventure and Greek mythology.