The Lightning Thief–The Percy Jackson Musical On Stage at the Reedley Opera House

Oct 2, 2024 | 2024 Articles, Terrance V. Mc Arthur, Theatre

The Gods of Olympus! Titans! Monsters! Centaurs! Medusa! Furies! Hades! Minotaurs! Ares! Stolen Lightning! Charon! Satyrs!

It’s not a quiz for Greek Mythology 101. It’s The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, a lively journey through a modern-day world where ancient gods (and their part-mortal children) and monsters battle for survival, a River City Theatre Company production now playing at the Reedley Opera House through October 13.

After J. K. Rowling and Harry Pottermania proved that kids could follow an adventurous series of books, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians stories showed that young readers could also handle Greek mythology. Rob Rokicki wrote songs, and Joe Tracz wrote the script, for a musical that started as an hour-long Off-Broadway show, enjoyed a limited Broadway run, and has spread across the land.

Cast of RCTC’s production of “The Lightening Thief”

Percy Jackson (Erin Day), kicked out of his sixth school, goes camping with his mother, Sally (Andrea Cerda), when they are attacked by a bull-headed monster—a Minotaur (Brenda Deason). Sally dies, but Percy kills the beast. He wakes up at Camp Half-blood, a training camp for the children of mortal-and-God parents, run by Mr. D—Dionysus—(Stevie Barnett) helped by Chiron (Malcolm Light), a centaur who had been watching Percy as a wheelchair-bound Latin teacher. His school chum, Grover (Jason Bionda), is really a goat-footed centaur, and Percy is really Perseus, son of a Greek God. Once his powers and his true father are revealed, Percy, Grover, and daughter-of-Athena Annabeth (Jaida Jolene) are sent on a quest to recover Zeus’s stolen bolt of lightning. They are sent off on a cross-country trip, where they come across a Murderer’s Row of mythological baddies—Furies (Wen Wetpy), the God of War (Jackson Boriack), a Gorgon (Robert Simpkins), the God of the Underworld (Nicholas Simpkins), and Charon (Florence Molano), along with a Las Vegas casino with a secret, and a direction-giving squirrel (Emily Medina-Delgado). All the way, Percy is haunted by a prophecy of the Oracle (also Molano), a warning of failure.

Cast of RCTC’s Production of “The Lightning Thief”

An enthusiastic crowd of mostly-young people brings the characters to life. Day is perky, bouncy, and sarcastic as a boy who doesn’t understand why his life is so rotten. His hero’s journey is propelled by hope he can rescue his mother from the land of the dead.

Bionda sports a nice pair of horns as a goat-boy haunted by a past failure. Often acting morose, he proves to have a nice voice on his big number. Jolene plays Annabeth as a Hermione-Granger-type (if this was a Harry Potter story), brainy but overlooked. Briston Diffey is Luke, senior counselor of one of the cabins, who helps Percy adjust to his new life, the surrogate big brother he thinks he needs.

Props from RCTC’s production of “The Lightning Thief”

Cerda is kindly and protective as the mother who tries to protect Percy from the forces seeking to destroy him, to the point that she married an objectionable human (Jackson Boriack) whose aura hides the boy from the monsters. Boriack also plays Ares as a biker-style dude. Barnett is grumpy as a camp director who hates kids, while Light has an interesting costume that helps him transform into a mythical creature, and he maintains the image of a grandfatherly uncle.

Florence Molano is strong as the Oracle and Charon, who transports dead souls across the River Styx. She gets to rock out on the “D.O.A.” number, which features some lively choreography for the dead by Holly Salcido. Nicholas Simpkins plays Hades as an I-don’t-care-what-you-think-of-me-but-I’m-in-charge-here big shot, while Robert Simpkins plays Poseidon as a cool beachcomber and the mysterious Auntie Em (who makes and collects stone statues that look like famous people).

Maria Trejo is Clarisse, an overbearing bully who takes a disliking to Percy. Daniel Ward is the sinister Kronos (look him up in a mythology book)…and he also made the show’s swords. Little Paloma Betancourt is the “Wittlest” Minotaur, and cute as can be.

Daniel Ward and Briana Vasquez directed, packing the pocket-sized Opera House stage with more than 25 bodies. Filled with mythological references, this is a show that will send you to the library (Dewey Decimal System—290-299) . . . or at least to Wikipedia and Riordan’s books.

The Reedley Opera House is at 1720 10th St., Reedley, CA. For ticket information, check the RCTC website.

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Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.