In June of 2005, author Rick Riordan released a book entitled, “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” and 12 years a new musical based off the first book premiered Off-Broadway, “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” written by Joe Tracz and Rob Rokicki. Now, the show is on a national tour throughout the U.S.

The show has gotten mixed reviews, with fans of the books and those who see the show loving it but, is confusing to people who don’t understand how good this musical is. It is the cast recording that sells the musical, especially for first-time viewers or listeners.

The first song, “Prologue/ The Day I Got Expelled,” begins with characters, Luke, Annabeth, Grover, Silena, and Clarisse singing about their godly parents not being around because the gods are not allowed to be, which leads up to Percy Jackson’s (Chris McCarrell) entrance of “’ Look! I didn’t wanna be a half-blood.’” The song continues with Percy recounting the day of the field trip to The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the day he got expelled. From there, the cast recording goes onto “Strong” sung by Sally (Carrie Compere) and Percy about how Sally met Percy’s dad and how “the things that make you different are the very things that make you strong.”

The musical then continues onto Percy ending up at Camp Half-Blood after his mom is taken by the Minotaur and the events leading up to Percy’s killer quest to save his mom from the underworld through amazing songs like “Another Terrible Day,” “Put You in Your Place,” “Good Kid,” and much more. Act One ends with “Killer Quest!,” a song detailing the events of Percy and his friends, Grover and Annabeth, getting ready for their quest to the underworld with help from their other friends at Camp Half-blood.

Act Two begins with “Lost!,” Where Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are lost in the woods deciding to figure out where they need to go, explaining their frustrations of having to be responsible on their own with little protection. The act continues through the adventures that the three must take to get to the underworld, and what they do to save Sally, and find Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt. This is done through many songs but the most notable being, “Drive,” “The Tree on the Hill,” “D.O.A.,” and “Bring on the Monsters.”

The entire album has great instrumentals which can make even the people who dislike theatre want to sing and dance along. The storyline is more similar to the plot of the book rather than the 2010 movie adaptation of “The Lightning Thief.” Overall, everything about the album is fantastic and should be listened to by people.

Currently, “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” is on tour staring Chris McCarrell as Percy, Kristin Stokes as Annabeth, Jorrel Javior as Grover, and many more amazing performers playing awesome half-bloods and demigods.