Displaying items by tag: Rick Riordan

MadKap Productions is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for The Lightning Thief: a Percy Jackson Musical, a special Theatre for Young Audience presentation which will run for 10 live performances between June 7 and July 28 at the Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln Ave in Downtown Skokie.

The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical, is an of the popular young adult Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan, with a book by Joe Tracz and a score by Rob Rokicki.  In 2017, it was nominated as Best New Musical for a Drama Desk award, an Outer Critics Circle award, and an Off-Broadway Alliance award.  It is the story of a 12 year-old boy named Percy Jackson who finds out he’s the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.  While at a summer camp for demigods, he is sent on a quest with his friends Grover and Annabeth to recover the source and symbol of Zeus’s power, his master lightning bolt, which was allegedly stolen by another god.  If they don’t find the bolt on time, the gods of Mount Olympus will go to war, wreaking havoc on the mortal world as they do.

The production is directed by Miranda Coble.  Musical direction is my multi Joseph Jefferson award winner Jeremy Ramey with Choreography by Bianca Thompson.  Maddy Shilts produces for MadKap Productions.

The diverse ensemble cast features P-Jay Adams as Percy Jackson, Isha Singh as Annabeth, Joey Prette as Grover, Maddy Shilts as Luke, Anna Seibert as Sally, Patty Roache as Chiron, Margaret Higgins as Clarisse, Zach Moore as Mr. D, and Kitty Phillips as Thalia.

The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical opens Friday, June 7 at 7:30 pm., with additional performances Sat June 8 at 7:30 pm, Thu June 13 at 7:30 pm, Fri June 14 at 7:30 pm, Sat June 15 at 7:30 pm, Thu June 27 at 10:30 am, Thu July11 at 10:30 am, Fri July 26 at 2:00 pm, Sat July 27 at 2:00 pm, and Sun July 28 at 7:30 pm.  Tickets are $35 general admission, and $25 for students and seniors and can be purchased online at SkokieTheatre.org or by phone at 847-677-7761.

MadKap Productions is celebrating their 10^th anniversary at the Skokie Theatre.  In addition to plays and musicals, they also produce concerts, cabaret, and comedy shows.  They will be announcing their 11^th season on March 29 at the opening for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Despite being both a writer and a fanboy of books aimed at readers much younger than I’ve been for what seems like millennia, I never got around to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Maybe I thought it was a knockoff of the, at the time, immensely popular Harry Potter books. Or maybe I’d had enough of Greek mythology from my own junior high days.

Either way, I came into the Oriental Theatre to see the touring production of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical with no advanced knowledge, no preconceptions, and no great expectations. But then a thunderbolt hit, the show began, and I ended up very pleasantly surprised by the cast of gods, demi-gods, and enthusiastic actors and musicians who took the stage.

As luck would have it, the titular character’s played by Chris McCarrell, a Broadway vet who actually originated this very role Off-Broadway. So from start to finish, the production’s in good hands, as McCarrell is youthful, confident, and has a Hades of a voice. My date for the evening — my six-year-old daughter, only slightly younger than the audience’s average age, I’d wager — whispered to me after one of Percy’s songs, “Daddy, I think I love that boy who’s singing.” Judging by the applause and squeals, much of the crowd agreed with her.

The cast for this show is a small one, with most members playing multiple parts, and playing them well. Jorrel Javier features as both a trusty young sidekick and crotchety old god of the vine who’s traded in drunkenness, debauchery, and drama to be a camp counselor. Kristin Stokes’ voice filled the theater whenever her Annabeth (type-A daughter of Athena) sang. Like Stokes and McCarrell, James Hayden Rodriguez has been part of this show for a long time, and his experience showed as he played both an adolescent counselor and an ancient deity with charisma and charm.

But the two cast members who had me applauding and near squeals were Ryan Knowles and Jalynn Steele. Knowles is first seen as a stuffy, wheelchair-bound teacher of the classics, but quickly proves his verve and versatility, playing a centaur and a beach bum among many others. But his best moment was as a snaky, strutting, devilish diva of yore. Steele then one-ups Knowles’ diva with her own, bringing the house down to an underworld full of shimmy, shake, and some shoutouts to long-dead musical heroes that the audience’s older members recognized.

And that brings me to the thing about The Lightning Thief that stood out the most to me. While there were bits here and there meant to appease the oldsters — pop-culture references, old-school mugging — this production felt young. It could’ve been the thrown-together (I mean that in a good way) but thoughtful set and costumes designed by Lee Savage and Sydney Maresca. Or it could’ve been the clubby lighting by David Lander. All of those things were fresh.

But I think what made The Lightning Thief seem so new and fresh to me is that it is new and fresh. It’s got the feel of the kids these days (again, meant in a good way). It’s not trying to be cool. It just is cool. It’s not trying to shoehorn ancient stuff like gods and monsters into today’s world. It just does so. I found it fun and inspiring and I’ve gotta say, it proved to be the gateway drug that’ll find my daughter and me checking out the book series on which the stage show is based.