When I discovered that Theatreworks USA will be putting on a Percy Jackson musical in NYC on April 21st, it was like MANDY’S FAVES COLLIDING. (Also: I WANT TO GO TO THERE.) So obvs, I had to find out as much as I could about it. Book writer Joe Tracz was kind enough to answer my questions — and provide some morning LOLs.
Where did the idea of adapting The Lightning Thief as a musical come from? Because when you think ‘middle grade action-adventure Greek demigod series’, a musical usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
Right, especially since Percy himself says in The Last Olympian that if he tried to sing, he’d probably cause an avalanche.
The idea to adapt the book originated with the folks at Theatreworks USA, which is an amazing company in New York that brings theatre to kids and families who wouldn’t normally get to see it. I understand Rick is cautious about adaptations, especially since the movies were, shall we say… less than faithful. But I think he recognized the value of Theatreworks’ mission, and also that they have a long history of adapting books respectfully. So the door was open to put Percy on stage.
And when I heard they were looking for a writer, as a huge fan of the books my first thought was: I will sword fight anyone else who is up for that job.
Fortunately it didn’t come to that.
Originally I planned to adapt it as a play, but there’s so much story and I realized music would be a huge help in conveying passage of time, and in putting us inside Percy’s head the way the book’s first-person narration does. So I brought in this rock star of a composer-lyricist, Rob Rokicki, and he convinced me that Percy Jackson: The Musical isn’t the stretch it might seem. He pointed out how, if you strip away the jazz hands and the dream ballets, the reason characters sing in a musical is because they’re feeling stuff too big and crazy for words alone. And the characters in the world of Percy Jackson go through some seriously big and crazy stuff…
You got the OK from Rick Riordan himself for this job. What was that meeting like? Did you have to complete any quests for him?
Early on, I got to sit down for dinner with Rick and his son, who’s also a writer and has written stories set in the world of Percy too. So I was doubly nervous. But Rick is as funny in person as you’d guess from his books (and from his Twitter account). Listening to him and his son swap jokes, I was like… ohh, I get it, this is where Percy comes from. It reminded me that what makes the series so memorable isn’t just the story but the way it’s told – everything’s filtered through this self-aware, self-deprecating, extremely funny voice.
No quests. But I did journey to a restaurant on the upper east side of Manhattan – does that count?
Well, that’s Blair Waldorf’s home turf, so I say YES.
Since you’re such a huge fan of the Percy Jackson books, how did you decide on which parts of the story to keep and which to cut out? Is the fan side of you an adaptation purist?
Because the show is designed to tour, we have six actors play all the roles, and an hour running time. So the challenge was how to take this nearly-400 page novel – itself just the first part of a larger story – and make it work within those constraints. I’ll be honest and say my first draft left a lot of stuff out. It felt painful as a fan, but necessary as a dramatist. But with each new draft, we just kept slipping more and more scenes and characters back in. Last week, I went through the book and made a list of which characters we’ve left out, and I came up with only three: Argus, Procrustes, and Cerberus. Then the very next day we put Cerberus in. This show hits the ground running and packs in so much – which I find exciting as a fan and a dramatist. Hopefully audiences will too.
Also, my fanboy side couldn’t resist throwing in some Easter eggs, including a cameo for a character who doesn’t show up until a later book but who would have been hanging around a particular location visited in The Lightning Thief…
Ooooh, intrigue! Who could it be? And OMG A TOUR?! Wanna stop by a certain Canadian city that a certain interviewer happens to live in?
Which scene was the most difficult to adapt? And which one had you been most excited to see performed?
Going in, I figured the hard stuff would be the moments of magic. When Percy gets to camp and Chiron steps out of his wheelchair to reveal he’s a centaur, I just wrote in the script: “Have fun, Director!”
But those moments ended up being easy because they’re so theatrical. The hardest stuff turned out to be the exposition – there’s so much world-building to get across. On the page, Chiron can tell Percy about the gods, and it’s riveting, but on stage it’s just a talking horse giving a monologue. So the trick was making the exposition as theatrical as the magic. I mean, if you’re Game of Thrones, you just set those scenes in a brothel, but we’re a family show! So we had to find more creative solutions.
Most exited to see performed? Capture the Flag. Rob wrote this awesome rocker chick number for Clarisse that devolves into a crazy Stomp-esque battle sequence, with weapons doubling as percussion. Our rehearsals are in a very small room and rehearsing it always feels legitimately dangerous in an awesome way.
This isn’t the only YA adaptation you’re working on; you’re also adapting Ned Vizzini’s sci-fi novel, Be More Chill. Could you talk about how the two processes compare and the different challenges that each present?
Clearly, turning sci-fi/fantasy YA novels into musicals is the weird niche I’m carving. I’m really proud of Be More Chill. I worked in the YA section of a bookstore before I ever got a job as a writer, so I saw first-hand how writers like Rick and Ned reached readers who might otherwise never pick up a book. Losing Ned this past year has made that project feel even more special, as a way to honor his totally original, singular voice. Both shows feel like they live in the same world (and not just because Joe Iconis, my Chill composer/lyricist, and Rob, my Percy collaborator, play in the same band). Ned talked to us about trying to adapt Chill as a movie – he said it was challenging because so much of the book is just Jeremy talking to a voice in his head. But theatre is less literal than film, and music can put you inside a character’s head. So it felt like the right pairing of medium and material. And we have some cool news to announce with that project very soon…
MORE intrigue! SO MUCH SUSPENSE.
Do you have plans to continue adapting the Percy Jackson series or other YA novels? And if you could adapt any YA book you wanted, which one would it be?
No plans yet, though I’d love to keep playing in Percy’s world, should fate (and the Fates) allow. As for other YA books, I’m obsessed with the Lemony Snicket series, and was always bummed we never got movies of the later, even better books. They’re so stylized and theatrical, they’d be perfect for the stage. Maybe all twelve books done as one Wagnerian epic? Can’t you just hear the accordion-and-prepared-piano opening number?
TOTES. Someone please make this happen!
Thanks for stopping by, Joe! And here’s the official word on the Lightning Thief musical:
On Monday, April 21, 2014 at 7 p.m., stage and screen luminaries Chuck Cooper, Charlotte d’Amboise, Kate Flannery, Judy Kuhn, Terrence Mann, John Tartaglia and many more will join together at Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) for a one-night-only benefit concert production of the new musical THE LIGHTNING THIEF.
Presented by Theatreworks USA, the benefit performance will support the company’s annual Free Summer Theatre Program, which provides FREE live theatre to more than 15,000 kids in New York City each summer.
The evening will feature an all-star ensemble of Broadway, television and film notables, including Bryan Batt (Mad Men, 12 Years a Slave), Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper (The Life, Caroline or Change), Tony nominee Terrence Mann (Pippin, The Addams Family), Kate Flannery (The Office), two-time Tony nominee Charlotte d’Amboise (Pippin, A Chorus Line), Tony nominee Richard Kind (The Big Knife), Tony nominee John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Shrek the Musical), three-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn (Les Miserables, Chess, She Loves Me) and Tony nominee Constantine Maroulis (Jekyll and Hyde, Rock of Ages).
The concert will also include performances by Parker Drown, Abe Goldfarb, Eric Meyers, Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Kristin Stokes and Jordan Stanley (performers are subject to change).
Based on the first book in the best-selling Percy Jackson and The Olympians series by Rick Riordan, THE LIGHTNING THIEF is the story of Percy, a 12-year-old boy who journeys into a world of mythological monsters and Greek Gods as he struggles with dyslexia and ADHD, and coming to terms with a father he has never known, while solving the mystery of Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt.
Directed by Stephen Brackett (Buyer and Cellar) and choreographed by Sam Pinkleton (Machinal; Natasha, Pierre and the Comet of 1812), THE LIGHTNING THIEF features a book by Joe Tracz with music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki.
For more info on the event, check out Theatreworks USA’s website. You can also find Theatreworks USA on Twitter (@theatreworksusa) and Facebook.
