The New York Times Best-selling book, The Lightning Thief, comes to life onstage at Walton Arts Center. you can be the first to see the National Tour production.

the books and the musical enjoy a strong fan following, as evidenced by a recent Fayetteville Public Library workshop where nine local students created a trailer for the show.

“The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction — Zeus’ master bolt. Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.

Notable Awards:

• A New York Times Bestseller

• Selected for Al Roker's Book Club for Kids, The Today Show

• A Best Book of 2005, School Library Journal

• A New York Times Notable Book of 2005

• A Best Book of 2005, Child Magazine

• Bluebonnet Award Nominee, 2006, Texas Library Association

• Askews Torchlight Award (UK) Winner, 2006

• Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book List, 2005

• VOYA Top Shelf Fiction List for 2005

• ALA Notable Book for 2005

• YALSA Best Book for Young Adults 2005

• Red House Children's Book Award Winner (UK), 2006

• CCBC choice award 2006, Cooperative Children's Book Center

• A 2006 Notable Children's Book, National Council for Teachers of English

• A Publishers Weekly National Children's Bestseller

• Warwickshire Book Award Winner (UK), 2007

From Page to Stage

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical begins with a loud thunder clap, then five performers move to the front of the stage, singing to punchy rock music. It’s a perfect beginning to this clever, hip and irreverent musical, which merges teenage angst with Greek mythology.

Creating this wild ride without the sort of special effects available to film makers required director Stephen Brackett to come up with ingenious staging solutions to tell a story which features not only gods, but mythological monsters. The set has a rock concert vibe, with scaffolding and the stage magic is frequently visible to the audience.

“We embrace that you’re actually seeing what it takes to make an effect in front of an audience,” explains Brackett.  

When the show played a commercial run off-Broadway in 2017, it attracted not just super fans of the book but musical theater lovers of every age.

“We were getting the millennials and families who read the books,” says producer Barbara Pasternack, “and we were getting adults who read fantasy and the comic con crowd, but we were also seeing audiences who had yet to discover Percy Jackson. These people were coming to experience an exciting rock musical and we definitely delivered.” 

During the off-Broadway run, videos of some of the songs went viral on YouTube. And when the cast recording was released, “It bumped Hamilton and it went onto the Billboard charts and it bumped Bruno Mars and Beyoncé,” Pasternack relates.

For the creative team, the themes in The Lightning Thief have broad appeal: “How do you take action in your life?,” says director Stephen Brackett.  “How do you advocate for the world that you want to live in? I think that’s a story that needs to be told.”