28/08/2025

REVIEW: The Lightning Thief at Newcastle Theatre Royal

The Lightning Thief

Newcastle Theatre Royal

Until Sunday 31 August 2025

The comedy musical, based upon the best selling book by Rick Riordan, lands in Tyneside during the final week of the summer holidays. Perfect timing for those wondering what to do with their children. A tight cast and the tricks of the theatre combined to deliver an origin story with plenty of pace.

Percy Jackson (Vasco Emauz) keeps getting kicked out of school but he doesn't know why. The show starts with a school trip to New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The group are accompanied by their Latin teacher, Mr Brunner (Niall Sheehy) who has a detailed knowledge into Greek mythology and he tries to get the kids interested.

The trip also has Mrs Dodds, the substitute maths teacher who seems to also know a lot about the mythology too. After a brief discussion about the art, Percy finds himself alone with Mrs. Dodds, who promptly transforms into a Fury, a mythological Greek demon of Hades, and she starts having a go at Percy. Mr Brunner flies through on his wheelchair and hands Percy a pen that transforms into a sword and Percy fights off the creature. Afterwards Mr Brunner denies any involvement and so Percy gets kicked out of school for a sixth time.

At home, Percy's mother Sally (Simone Robinson), decides to send Percy to a summer camp for "Half-Bloods". He meets a satyr called Grover (Cahir O'Neill) and together they fight a minotaur - resulting in the death of his mother. At the camp he meets the camp director Mr D (Aidan Cutler), who is also Dionysus - the god of wine, who explains the whole demi god thing (one parent is mortal, the other is a Greek god). Percy settles in and meets several other campers such as Silena (a daughter of Aphrodite), Katie (a daughter of Demeter), Clarisse (a daughter of Ares, performed by Ellie-Grace Cummings), and Annabeth (a daughter of Athena, performed by Kayna Montecillo).

After a game of capturing the flag Percy heads off on his quest o find a lightning bolt and thus prevent a war between the gods, accompanied by Annabeth and Grover and thus the story develops over the two hours (plus interval).

So I begin with a confession. I knew nothing about the story or the characters beyond the brief few words on the theatre website. I have not read the books or seen the movies. Having said that, I do love new shows and experiences. Opening night/press night saw the theatre full of younger faces. I know that I have said this before, but there is a need for high quality shows, that are not panto, aimed at the youth market if we are to entice the next generation of people who will love theatre. Joe Tracz's script did not patronize the youngsters nor did it overload their parents with too much exposition. By the same token, as a total newbie to the scenario, there was enough input in this origin story for me to know what the set up was and how we got to this point.

The songs by Rob Rokicki follow a fairly traditional musical format (the "I want" song etc) and in doing so they serve the story well, starting with the opener The Day I Got Expelled. There are nice performances from Simone Robinson and Vasco Emauz on Strong and Kayna Montecillo on My Grand Plan. The band are on a raised platform behind a screen - which means that you cannot usually seen them. The screens and other lighting are used to great effect with Tim Deiling's lighting design and Matt Powell's video design filling the performance area. It tends to be the lighting rather than the props that change the scene and support a fluid transition between the scenes, which in turn helps maintain a good pace to the storytelling.

Clearly many of the younger members of the audience were more clued up on the story arc than I was and they found many of the in-jokes funny. It was wonderful to hear young people laughing from the stalls. Indeed the cheer at the end was young and energetic and thus the show has succeeded in delivering a strong fantasy story aimed at the, often ignored, youth market. It is pleasing to see strong female characters who get stuck in to the debates and the action. There were a few illusions, that tried to replicate the transitions that are easy to imagine in a book or recreate in a film, but pose more of a challenge in real life theatre.

As a newcomer to this phenomenon, I cannot comment on how this experience compares to the book or the film, but I can say I enjoyed my night at the theatre and I'd be happy to repeat the experience - especially if the other books are adapted for the stage.

Review: Stephen Oliver

Photos: Manuel Harlan

Tickets:

The Lightning Thief plays Newcastle Theatre Royal Wednesday 27 - Sunday 31 August 2025. Tickets are on sale soon and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 0191 232 7010.