Perhaps you’ve heard of Percy Jackson. It’s kind of hard to imagine you haven’t. He’s only the main character in a blockbuster series of books by Rick Riordan that’s pretty much second only to Harry Potter in the YA fantasy sphere.

The series of five books, which begins with The Lightning Thief, basically spawned its own genre. Riordan went on to write numerous supplementary books, sequel series, related titles, and graphic novelizations around Camp Half-Blood and its cast of gods and demigods. And in the process, he ignited an obsession for ancient Greek mythology among young readers everywhere.

My own kids (7 and 9) recently discovered the books and absolutely devoured them. Seriously, they can’t get enough mythology and routinely come home from school with books about Ancient Greece, mythology, and related legends. There’s something special about these books. If you haven’t picked one up, you might just want to do that, regardless of how old you are. You don’t need to be a “young reader” to appreciate them.

The first two books were also made into films (The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters), for better or worse. In all honesty, they’re not that great and left a lot of fans feeling really let down.

But The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is here to change all that. First of all, yes, this is a real thing. They made a musical out of The Lightning Thief. (Hey, if Spongebob Squarepants is fair game for Broadway, Percy Jackson has more than enough cred.)

The show originally premiered Off Broadway in 2017 and is currently on a national tour featuring most of the original cast (so if you’re a fan of the original cast recording, you’ll hear a lot of familiar voices). The recording is also streaming on Spotify here.

Chris McCarrell and Kristin Stokes reprise their roles as Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, respectively. Also on tour from the original cast are James Hayden Rodriguez (Luke, Ares, others) and Sarah Beth Pfeifer (Clarisse, Mrs. Dodds, others).

So, OK, the Percy Jackson books are wildly popular and have sold something like 100 million copies worldwide. And OK, they made a musical out of the first book. But is it any good?

Oh my, yes. It absolutely is.

Photo: Jeremy Daniel

I’ll admit that I went into this with the bar set pretty high. My Percy Jackson-obsessed daughter can recite and sing the entire musical by heart. Honestly. I heard her do it in the back seat of the car as we drove home from New York this past weekend. She can do every song, every part.

So needless to say, she was expecting nothing but the best. The real test of this performance was whether she’d be satisfied.

Reader: I’ve literally never seen her so happy as she was during the two hours of this musical. If she had smiled any more, it would’ve left permanent wrinkles on her face. If she had clapped any harder, she might’ve broken a finger bone.

The Lightning Thief knocks it out of the park. It hits all the notes that made the books so wildly successful and leaves out the parts that would just drag it down. The show is hilarious and fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s not ashamed to let its geek flag fly. In short, it’s everything the movie failed to be.

Listen to the recording, and you’ll hear that the musical tracks most of the major plot points of the book. They leave a few things out, sure, but most of it’s here. Whereas the film completely cut Mr. D and Clarisse and gave us a trippy extended sequence in the Lotus Hotel, the musical reinstates those integral characters and grants the Lotus a one-liner gag so we can move on.

Photo: Jeremy Daniel

So many of the songs are really good. Like, REALLY good. They’re catchy, soaring, funny, hopeful, and intimate . . . all at once. I mean, come on, lyrics like “My teacher was a creature then she vanished in the ether with a demon scream” shouldn’t work. Like, at all. But the whole show is filled with things like that. It takes the impossible and somehow makes it seem perfectly natural.

If you want a quick sampler, check out “The Day I Got Expelled,” “My Grand Plan,” and “Son of Poseidon.”

It makes sense that the original cast members at this point fit the show hand in glove. Chris McCarrell excels as Percy, and Kristin Stokes is phenomenal as Annabeth (just listen to Act 2’s “My Grand Plan” – swoon) – both seem perfectly at home in the roles.

But the rest of the cast is nothing to sneeze at. Jorrel Javier is by turns hysterical and endearing as both Grover and Mr. D., but the jewel of the show – the piece of the puzzle we couldn’t stop talking and laughing about – is Ryan Knowles as Chiron/Mr. Brunner (and Medusa and Poseidon and Hades and…).

Knowles commands a voice that will stop you in your tracks. Deep and resonant, it’s actually a little bizarre that a human’s voice can be so deep. But that voice is only the icing on the cake of comedy he brings to the show. Perfectly timed and with an indulgence in physical comedy, his presence on stage (in any of his roles) is sure to give you an ache in your sides. In other words, you will be laughing. A lot.

Photo: Jeremy Daniel

The production is also fantastic. Don’t go into this expecting elaborate instances of “stage magic” that leave your jaw on the floor. Instead, special effects are presented in a way totally in keeping with the playful tone of the show as a whole. Sure, there are plenty of transformations, monsters, dream sequences, and explosions – but all will leave you laughing and giddy.

As soon as the lights came up, my daughter turned to me and asked when they were making a second one.

The Lightning Thief is a jolt of joy; it’s a vaccination against the horrors of the real world. For two hours, you’ll feel GOOD. And you’ll drive home happy. Which is medication we all need in 2019, no doubt. It’s a trip to the Underworld I’ll gladly take again.

The musical is currently on tour with performances across the country. At the moment, it’s bumping around the east coast, but it’ll make its way west in the coming months. Check here for dates and tickets.

Don’t think about it. Just go see it.

Photo: Jeremy Daniel