Darlington Hippodrome – until Saturday 14 March 2026
3***
I went to see The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical fully aware that I am probably not the target audience, and I tried to keep that in mind throughout the performance. There was clearly a lot of enthusiasm behind the production, and the cast committed to it with real energy, but overall it was a show that never quite came together for me. While younger fans of the books may well get more out of it, I found the pacing, staging, and music left me feeling oddly disconnected from the story.
One of the main issues was the way the plot was structured on stage. The first half of the show spends a surprisingly long time covering the opening chapters of the book, setting up Percy’s world in great detail. In theory this should help the audience settle into the story, but it meant that by the time the interval arrived, it felt as though very little had actually happened. Unfortunately, the second half then seemed to go in completely the opposite direction, racing through the rest of the tale at speed. Important events that take whole chapters in the book were reduced to a few lines within songs, and some moments that should have felt dramatic or meaningful barely had time to land before the story moved on again. The result was a production that felt unbalanced, as though the first half lingered too long while the second half tried to squeeze in everything that was left.
The staging itself also felt a little strange at times. There were some inventive ideas, but the overall effect was occasionally confusing rather than imaginative. Scenes seemed to blend into one another without much sense of place, which didn’t help when the story was already moving so quickly in the second half. If you already know the book well, this might not be a problem, but for anyone less familiar with the details it could be hard to keep track of what was going on.
As for the music, it was lively enough in the moment, but none of the songs really stayed with me afterwards. For a musical, that felt like a significant drawback. There wasn’t a standout number that I found myself humming on the way home, nor any song that felt like an emotional high point of the show. The performers delivered the material with plenty of effort, but the tunes themselves were instantly forgettable, which made the whole production feel less memorable than it should have been.
To be fair, the audience reaction suggested that the show does connect with the people it is aimed at. There were plenty of laughs, and younger viewers in particular seemed to enjoy the humour and the references to the books. I can see this being a fun introduction to theatre for fans of Percy Jackson, and there is something to be said for the sheer enthusiasm on stage.
For me, though, the uneven pacing and forgettable score meant that it never quite found its rhythm. I’m glad I went, but it’s not a musical I would rush to see again.