#ryan knowles

You cannot show us a character that dresses like this, is a huge dork, and gallops like a horse, and not expect us to fixate.

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Congrats to the Lightning Thief Musical cast and crew for finishing their Broadway run!

I had the chance to interview the fantastic Kristin Stokes who played Annabeth Chase from The Lightning Thief Musical.

so i saw the lightning thief musical on BROADWAY!!! this show is so special for so many reasons. the cast is so amazing, invested, and talented. the show is true to the books but also adds drama and humor in perfect places and in perfect doses. easter eggs are scattered throughout the performance so anyone who is familiar with the book series will find themselves caught smiling at the smallest moments. the fact that tickets start so cheap in order for fans to see this wonderful show is what theatre and broadway should be all about. 

i’m so grateful to have seen this show’s progression from local theaters, off-broadway, and now (so deservingly) onto broadway.

Everyone! Was! Awesome! I am still starstruck from stagedooring and getting everyone but Chris’s signature! I wasn’t sure what to think about Izzy and T. Shyvonne but they were absolutely incredible no joke, I think I might like them more than Jorrel and Sarah actually

(this was the 8 PM show on 7/18/19 btw)

Act 1

During the trip to the Met Percy was like pulling on Grover’s sleeve and wandering off to look at statues and stuff, Kristin’s and James’s characters were acting like a couple, every time Mr. Brunner said “Kronos” Mrs. Dodds echoed “KRONOSSSS” in an ominous voice and the lights went all green

When Smelly Gabe came in Percy started spraying a can of air freshener all over the place until Sally pushed his arm down

Chris clearly said “you’re a furry!!” none of that “you’re all furry” shit, I was literally close enough to the stage that I could clearly see their faces even with my shitty eyesight so I know what I’m talking about (also the entire theater fucking died of laughter) no but i kinda headcanon grover as a furry now lmao

When Percy was claimed he said “...is that a fork?” and then when he learned it was a sign of Poseidon there was a few moments of silence then he went “sweeeeeeet!!”

When Percy got his sword he waved it around and made “floom” noises until Annabeth said “it’s not a lightsaber”

Oh and I think I know how he got the pen to turn into a sword during the fight with Mrs. Dodds, it looked like he pulled it out of Mr. Brunner’s wheelchair

They brough Another Terrible Day up a step or two for Izzy, it still sounded amazing though, I actually liked him better than Jorrel, his growly voice was less strained

During the part where Silena Beauregard said “sunflowers, everywhere” she did circles around her crotch

After Katie talked about saving trees, Mr. D grabbed a pencil and thrust it into an automatic sharpener, she looked horrified as Mr. D chased her offstage with it, at the end she was marching around with a sign that said “save the trees!”

Percy, after Annabeth calls him sexist: No, I love girls!!! *incredulous/weird pause* I mean, I think girls are really...nice?

Also Percy, to Annabeth: You’re my dream girl!!!!!!! *awkward pause* I mean you’re the girl from my dream!

Grover and Percy were sitting by the side while everyone danced at the beginning of Campfire Song, Grover was joining in from where he was sitting on the ground, but Percy just hunched in on himself other than the times he leaned over to whisper something to Grover

Grover was super super enthusiastic about Percy finally joining in to sing, and someone went “aww” loudly in the audience when Percy started singing about his mom

When Katie was talking about how “planting and planting’s a pain” Grover was looking like “can’t relate”, then when he sang “those who love nature are often beguiled” he looked straight at Katie

When Silena sang about “she’s there in her nightie!” Luke literally fell over laughing

When Grover went “my turn my turn! It’s my turn!” and everyone was like “ugh” at him, Annabeth eventually threw her hands in the air and went “alright your turn!”

After Put You In Your Place—

Percy: was this your plan all along?

Annabeth: you mean the plan to distract Clarisse so we could get the flag unnoticed?

Percy: I could’ve died!

Annabeth: the plan would’ve worked anyway

Mr. D kept going on and on about turning Percy into a dolphin when Chiron was talking about what to do about the prophecy, like—

Chiron: We only have one option

Mr. D: *cough* dolphin

Chiron, giving Mr. D a look: one reasonable option

When Chiron said to go “talk to the mummy in the attic”, Percy said “by mummy you mean like the old person way of saying mom, right?”

Percy and Grover are really huggy it’s actually super cute, but also when they hugged during Their Sign (first time I watched it these little kids up front went “awww” during it), after Percy pulled away he looked down at Grover’s goat legs and Grover just kinda shrugged sheepishly (ha)

During Killer Quest Grover ran in for his verse with like a million camping bags slung all over himself, and he just handed this tiny backpack to Percy

When Annabeth was singing her verse in Killer Quest Percy and Grover were whispering on the side, their expressions were like “is she really coming?” (Percy) / “yeah duh” (Grover), Grover looked really excited when Annabeth officially said she was joining in

When Chiron’s horse side appeared he swung his butt all over the place to show off his tail, everyone cracked up laughing

Luke, after Percy was claimed: Come on, Mr. D wants to kill you—I mean talk to you—

During Put You In Your Place Clarisse punched Grover in the mouth and stomach, he stumbled away in pain, after Annabeth drew her game plan into the ground with her spear and told him “satyrs are creatures of Pan, you know what to do?” he whimpered “yeah, hide in a tree!” and ran away

Oh and speaking of, when Annabeth told Luke “Hermes kids are fast” Luke said “actually that’s a stereotype”, Annabeth gave him a look and said “Luke” and he said “okay, okay, foot brigade, got it!”

After Put You In Your Place, Luke bowed down to Percy before he left and said “all hail Percy Jackson, supreme lord of the bathroom!” (we all love book references), then Annabeth was like “how did you do that?”, Percy struck a pose and said “the toilet water just, spoke to me”

Mr. D said Zeus’s lightning bolt was “pure Celestial Bronze, not some piece of tin for a traveling musical!”

When Grover pulled Percy behind him to show him around camp, the last thing he mentioned was “the cafetorium!!” in that tone so I’m 99% sure it was a BMC reference

T. Shyvonne Stewart was awesome holy shit, her Put You In Your Place was fucking incredible I loved it and her high notes were powerful

When Clarisse said “don’t get eaten by monsters!” Chiron quickly put his hand over her mouth and Clarisse glared at him as he said “have a great quest!”

Act 2

When Percy said “so you hate me because of our parents?” to Annabeth after she told him about Medusa’s backstory he sounded really heartbroken

Percy: of course i know how to hold a sword! *swings it around, slices self on shoulder* ow

When Percy said “that seems kinda...nuts”, Annabeth looked away and covered her eyes with her hands in supposed irritation at the bad pun but she was smiling

When Hades told Percy to hand over the bolt, Percy said “There’s no way in hell—wait”

Before My Grand Plan when Percy talked about how many schools he’d been kicked out of to try and relate to Annabeth, she said “yeah, but boys always get a second chance” and OOF i felt that

At the end of DOA Charon’s backup dancers were fighting Percy, Grover, and Annabeth, and when Charon was calling out each of their weaknesses, the dancer would wrestle the demigod to the ground

Oh and right before that she had everyone onstage on their knees in front of her, she directed their movements based on her dance moves

When Poseidon talked to Sally he deepened his voice and shot her fingerguns, “hey”, he stepped closer and closer to where Sally was half-hugging Percy until they were staring into each other’s eyes, finally Percy ran forward and threw his hands in the air and said “okay! That was the weirdest family reunion ever!”, when Poseidon left he pumped a fist at his “smoothness” and strutted offstage, Percy was like “so that’s my dad!” in this totally done voice, Sally stared off after Poseidon and said in this lovestruck voice, “that’s your dad”, Percy looked disgusted

The layering in Bring On the Monsters is even cooler in real life just gonna say

When the bus exploded the driver said “that wasn’t even my worst experience on a Greyhound” right before a confetti cannon exploded, I missed a tiny bit of Lost! because I was trying to catch some confetti (it didn’t quite reach me rip, but the guy right beside me and the girl right in front of me got some)

During Lost! when Annabeth said “I hope so!” it was super super excitedly, like she was literally thrilled to be being chased by monsters

After Luke monologued about how he was going to get back at the gods, he told Annabeth, “I know you’ll do the wise thing”, a pause when Grover from up above put his head down on the railing in despair while Percy watched in shock, then Annabeth finally said “Yeah” and took out her knife, Percy and Grover both looked up, delighted

In the lobby of DOA records this really peppy music was playing—idk whether they added it after January (when I saw it the first time) or if i’m just forgetful—then when they got in the elevator there were these vertical lines of lights that lit up so the light was falling downward, slowly the music got drowned out in favor of growls and scary sound effects while the light changed to red

The tractor in Drive was literally a piece of the set on wheels (kinda like this scaffolding thing?) being pulled around by a piece of rope tied to the wheelchair, the motorcycle was a stage light with handlebars with a piece of pillar for the seat, Grover sat on the ground to indicate the sidecar and Ares threw his hand on Grover’s chest so he didn’t fly forward when they “hit a bump”

The kids on their way to the Vatican were literally hand puppets, I choked when I saw them, and DJ Cerberus was just a person with this three-headed dog hat with red eyes it was fucking hilarious

Hades was talking about his brother like “he doesn’t care about his family” then he got choked up and said “or his brother...it gets lonely down here you know! but does he ever visit!?” and then later “everyone always thinks i’m the villain! is it because of the decor?” and he gestures around

I wasn’t sure what to think of Izzy Figueroa before seeing him but he was fucking incredible!! like during Tree on the Hill he literally made me tear up and I never cry at music, god that was so powerful, I wish we’d had a chance to applaud him but they went straight into the next scene

During the fight with Medusa at the end Grover swung Percy on his shoulders toward Medusa where Percy slices her head off, Annabeth picked it up and muttered “ew ew ew” and shoved it in a closet

When Percy sent the head to Mt. Olympus, Annabeth told him in horror “the gods will think we’re impertinent!”, Percy gave her a deadpan look and said “we are impertinent”, he did it again at the end when Annabeth said the same thing after Percy said he was going home for the school year since he didn’t want the gods to just solve all his problems