Playhouse Stage Company announced the regional premiere of the hit musical The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, featuring teens from the Playhouse Stage Academy training program, at the Cohoes Music Hall.
The Playhouse Stage Company has been producing free summer musicals at Albany’s Park Playhouse in Washington Park since 1989, producing musicals year-round at Cohoes Music Hall since 2016, and has since become manager of the historic Spindle City venue in 2020. They are celebrating their 35th anniversary with a great lineup of events for the season. The company makes theater an all-inclusive art form by providing free and affordable admission at each production, welcoming people from all walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds. The company also provides arts education programs to young people in the community with Playhouse Stage Academy.
The Cohoes Music Hall opened its door in 1874 in Cohoes. It was restored in 1974 to become what it is today, a historic music hall with a great lineup of events. In late December of last year, the venue was awarded $1.88 million in funding through New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation grants, transforming it into an energy-efficient building. The Lightning Thief production begins on April 13 and runs to the 23, reuniting Director Chuck Kraus, Choreographer Ashley Simone Kirchner, and Musical Director Brandon Jones, who has worked on more than a dozen teen productions at both Albany’s Park Playhouse and Cohoes Music Hall for Playhouse Stage Company.
The Lightning Thief is a rock musical adapted from the best-selling young adult novel by Rick Riordan of the same name. It was first produced by Theatreworks USA as a one-hour “theatre for young audiences” production in 2014, in 2017 an expanded two-act version premiered at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and was a critically acclaimed hit, and in 2019, there was a limited engagement on Broadway. The show features a thrilling rock score with music and lyrics by Rob Rikicki and a book by Joe Tracz.
The novel follows Percy Jackson, a troubled young man struggling with dyslexia and ADHD, who finds himself expelled from five schools in a few years. He comes to learn he is the half-blood son of a
Greek God and finds himself at “Camp Half-Blood,” where he and his friends are sent on a quest by the Oracle of Delphi to uncover the truth behind the theft of Zeus’s lightning bolt. “The Lightning Thief is an epic story that is ideal to be performed by our gifted teen students,” said Owen Smith, Playhouse Stage Company’s Producing Artistic Director. “Fans of the book series will revel in the loyalty to the original
book, while the average audience member will be enthralled not only by the cast of colorful characters and rock score but also how personal and relatable the story is.”
The cast is led by AJ Halsey (Percy Jackson) and Joshua Hoyt (Grover), who received strong reviews for their performances in last summer’s The Wedding Singer at Park Playhouse, as well as Molly Kantrowitz
(Annabeth Chase) who is playing her first principal character for Playhouse Stage. The cast features eighteen of the area’s most talented teen performing artists, hailing from all corners of the Capital Region. Those who have graduated from the Playhouse Stage Academy have gone on to study in top collegiate theatre programs, and to appear on Broadway, film and television, or national tours.
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical plays April 13 through 23, 2023, at Cohoes Music Hall. Performers play Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are now on sale online, by phone, and in-person through the Playhouse Stage Box Office at Cohoes Music Hall.
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