1040551

BA Musical Theatre
Contextual studies 1 (Musical Theatre) AS1

The meaning behind the accuracy of casting an age of a character in

The Lightning Thief by Joe Tracz and Rob Rokicki
Representation on screen is important, not only to members of minorities who see themselves
represented in films and TV, but also to the global box office, whether or not financial gain is a noble
motivation for diversity in cinema entertainment (Elbaba, 2019). This quest for inclusivity has also led
to a decline in adult actors portraying children and teenagers, as authenticity and relatability are also
important to young people as an age group (Langdon, 2022). Portraying a particular age group
however, becomes a different matter in theatre. Without the magic of camera and post-production
and with a greater physical distance, much more is left to the viewer's imagination, so audiences are
also more forgiving when an adult portrays a teenager or even a child. The reasons for this casting
decision vary from stylistic choices to smaller budgets to heavy subject matter. "This task is generally
considered to have a high margin for error, so those facing the challenge should take the time to
carefully study for this special kind of role" (Vork, 2017). Therefore, the authenticity of a young
character in theatre may have to come from the skills of the actor himself. In this essay, I will focus
on the musical adaptation of The Lightning Thief and how the show gives purpose to the age of the
actors with comedic intentions and great acting skills.

The decision to use child actors in professional theatre performances is fraught with many practical
complications. For a variety of reasons, such as the frequency of performances and rehearsals or
demanding roles that require a lot of management, the role may need to be split between two or
more children. During the rehearsal process and performance time, a child actor in the cast often
needs a tutor so that their academic success is not compromised (Pincus-Roth, 2008). Certain plays
that require child actors also deal with very difficult issues such as paedophilia and abuse. This would
require a lot of very careful conversations or possibly even preventing the child from seeing the
scenes they are not in to protect them from potentially harmful material (Jays, 2021). In short,
casting children in a professional production is a huge responsibility that may be avoided solely for
convenience. It is also worth noting that productions occasionally cast adults simply because they
have more acting skills and experience, and although they may not be the age of a character, they
can portray that age on stage better than a real child. (Miller, 2019).

However, if we consider a theatrical performance as a composition, the actors are merely the
elements from which it is constructed. The choices made in terms of accurately representing a
character's age are easily explained and justified by art and design theory. As typographer Beatrice
Warde explains with a metaphor about a wine glass, the right choice will not be noticed. One does
not pay attention to the wine glass, but to the wine itself. If, on the other hand, one were to drink
wine from a golden, bejewelled goblet, the goblet would attract the attention that should have been
paid to the wine and reveal the drinker as definitely not a wine connoisseur (1956). Similarly, the
audience of the musical Matilda, which features a whole host of child actors, does not notice this
casting choice, because there is nothing out of place with children playing children on stage. In a film
about teenagers like Dear Evan Hansen, however, Ben Platt, at twenty-seven years of age in a cast
full of accurately aged teenagers sticks out like a sore thumb (Heritage, 2021).

In certain cases, choosing the metaphorical bejewelled goblet over the ordinary wine glass on
purpose and with intention serves as a stylistic choice. This is where the theory of contrast comes
into play. When you bring two opposite elements together, for example the colour red and the
colour green (a complementary contrast - two colours from opposite ends of the colour wheel), each
of these colours is only accentuated. They will appear brighter and more radiant than when viewed
separately (Butina, 2000). With the same goal in mind, "a young child on stage can intensify the dark
heart of drama - as in key modern plays such as The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh or Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate." (Jays, 2021) On the other side of the genre spectrum, "sometimes
adults play children's roles for absurd effect as in "Pen15," the Hulu series whose two thirty-one-
year-old creators portray thirteen-year-olds navigating the treacherous world of middle school."
(Miller, 2019) In these situations, deciding on whether or not to accurately cast a younger role was a
tool used in forming the composition of the performance.

The Lightning Thief is a musical that mostly features characters in their early teens played by adults.
Its first version hit the stage in 2014 and, despite its initial success (especially with young audiences
and fans of the source material, the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series), received
disappointing reviews after moving from Off-Broadway to Broadway and losing its raucous charm in a
theatre that was too big. (Scheck, 2019) However, the earlier production in a small theatre with
barely 300 seats received much praise for its ingenuity with low-budget special effects and a small
cast, the majority of whom take on many roles. "A winning adaptation of a young adult fantasy novel
doesn't require a big budget" (Scheck, 2017) If there is one obvious conclusion to be drawn, it is that
resources were limited, making it obvious that The Lightning Thief was not a show that could afford
the responsibility of a group of children in the cast.

Looking at casting as a stylistic choice, it can be argued that a lack of resources was not the only
reason why the young characters were not cast accurately. Many critics express that the plot could
be confusing for anyone, particularly adults, who have not read the books (Block, 2017), which makes
it clear that the target audience is young people, especially those who are already familiar with the
book the show is based on. The book series is known for its fun, laugh-out-loud writing style that
does not take itself too seriously, and the musical is very true not only to the adaptation of the story
but also to its spirit. To recall the theory of contrast: When adults portray children on stage, the laid
back, scrappy and charmingly chaotic comedy of the production is pushed even further. The decision
to cast adults comes across as similarly silly as the infamous toilet paper blown out of a leaf blower,
meant to represent the water that the main character, as the son of the Greek god Poseidon, is
capable of wielding. "I was delighted by the low-tech ingenuity, even if I did also feel like a suburban
home those middle-schoolers had decided to vandalize, just in time for Halloween." (McHenry, 2019)

Adults playing multiple supporting roles sometimes fall into over-characterising children because
they have to play a variety of characters (Ross, 2017). "A company of seven actors play, in total,
nearly 50 characters." (Evans, 2019) As mentioned earlier, over-characterised children portrayed by
adults help to make the show funnier, but the show manages to keep this very tasteful with the lead
actor, at the time twenty-six year old Chris McCarrell, playing the titular Percy Jackson with a strong
and very convincing portrayal of a twelve year old. "McCarrell's believable boyishness, sweet
vulnerability, gangly posturing and off-handed humor is appealing, and he manages to keep you
engaged even if you've long lost interest in the details of the plot." (Rizzo, 2019) Many of the less
enthusiastic critics feel that his acting is often the show's saving point. "McCarrell, the only Broadway
veteran of the cast, deserves credit for carrying the show with cheeky humor, childlike charm, and a
strong voice." (Levitt, 2019) Portraying a child is a fine art and a challenging task for an adult actor. It
can be very easy for a performance to start feeling uncanny, too clichéd or over staged. (Etchells,
2019) "It's a small shift in semantics but a big shift in my mind-set. Kids experience everything so
vividly while adults make a choice not to feel things so intensely." (Podany, 2019) The prerequisite
for successful representation is not to portray a child, but to stop being an adult and act from the
outside in, rather than the other way around. McCarrell has adopted believable and genuine body
language and facial expressions of a child and has done this perfectly. "He's got the knack of making
Percy angsty, sarcastic, lonely, and pompous all at once, like a lizard, or just your average misfit teen.
One of his best, so-dumb-it's-hilarious line readings, after being told he's looking at the pit of
Tartarus: "Like," McCarrell asks, basking in a pause, "the fish sauce?" (McHenry, 2019)

Although The Lightning Thief was, according to harsher critics, a fan-service at best, there is no
denying the nail was hit right on the head with its casting. The age difference between the characters
and the actors is not only a justifiable convenience decision; it is a big contributor to the spirit of the
show. Casting is more than a tool for achieving accuracy; it is a tool of artistic expression. What
makes choices bold and effective is thinking them through and giving them intention. Bad artistic
decisions are seemingly the ones not thought through and made carelessly. A stage performance is a
work of art, after all, and it is only necessary to find and use all the tools to perfect it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS (quoted)

Butina, M. (2000) Mala likovna teorija (Little Art Theory). Ljubljana: Debora.

Warde, B. (1956) The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography. Phoenix, AZ: World Publishing
Company.

BOOKS (not quoted)

Riordan, R. (2005) The Lightning Thief. New York, NY: Hyperion.

ARTICLES

Etchells, T. (2014) “The fine art of acting like a child,” The guardian, 20 June. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2014/jun/20/adults-playing-children-on-stage-the-
notebook-forced-entertainment (Accessed: February 20th, 2023).

Heritage, S. (2021) “Arrested development: why are adults still playing high-schoolers on screen?,”
The guardian, 21 September. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/sep/21/arrested-development-why-are-adults-still-
playing-high-schoolers-on-screen (Accessed: February 20th, 2023).

Jays, D. (2021) “‘There is no book of rules’: how theatres aim to safeguard child actors,” The
guardian, 13 December. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/dec/13/how-
theatres-aim-to-safeguard-child-actors (Accessed: February 21st, 2023).

Miller, S. (2019) “Age 28, going on 12: How adult actors pull off playing children onstage,” The Los
Angeles times, 1 April. Available at: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-adult-
actors-in-child-roles-20190401-story.html (Accessed: February 21st, 2023).

THEATRE REVIEWS
Block, M. (2017) Review: Percy takes on a musical, Theaterinthenow.com. Available at:
http://www.theaterinthenow.com/2017/04/review-percy-takes-on-musical.html (Accessed:
February 21st, 2023).

Evans, G. (2019) ‘the lightning thief’ Broadway review: Percy Jackson musical teases gods and
monsters, Deadline. Available at: https://deadline.com/2019/10/the-lightning-thief-broadway-
review-percy-jackson-musical-1202761359/ (Accessed: February 22nd, 2023).

Levitt, H. (2019) The lightning thief gets thrown into the deep end on Broadway, Theatermania.com.
Available at: https://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/the-lightning-thief-broadway-
musical_89987.html (Accessed: February 21st, 2023).

McHenry, J. (2019) Theater review: Teen Perseus alights on west 48th in the lightning thief, Vulture.
Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/review-the-lightning-thief-the-percy-jackson-
musical.html (Accessed: February 22nd, 2023).

Pincus-Roth, Z. (2008) ASK Playbill.com: Child actors on Broadway, Playbill. Available at:
https://playbill.com/article/ask-playbillcom-child-actors-on-broadway-com-148947 (Accessed:
February 22nd, 2023).

Rizzo, F. (2019) “Broadway review: ‘The Lightning Thief,’ the musical,” Variety Daily, 17 October.
Available at: https://variety.com/2019/legit/reviews/the-lightning-thief-review-musical-1203370223/
(Accessed: February 22nd, 2023).

Ross, P. by (2017) The Lightning Thief: Half Blood Teenage Angst on a quest, front mezz junkies.
Available at: https://frontmezzjunkies.com/2017/04/04/lightning-thief/ (Accessed: February 22nd,
2023).

Scheck, F. (2017) “‘The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical’ Theater review,” Hollywood
Reporter, 4 April. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/lightning-
thief-percy-jackson-musical-theater-review-991079 (Accessed: February 22nd, 2023).

Scheck, F. (2019) “‘The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical’: Theater review,” Hollywood
Reporter, 16 October. Available at:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/lightning-thief-percy-jackson-musical-
theater-review-1248120 (Accessed: February 22nd, 2023).

OTHER WEBSITES

Elbaba, R. (2019) Why on-screen representation matters, according to these teens, PBS NewsHour.
Available at: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-on-screen-representation-matters-according-
to-these-teens (Accessed: February 20nd, 2023).

Langodn, E. (2022) Why authentic representation matters to teens, Womensmediacenter.com.

Available at: https://womensmediacenter.com/fbomb/why-authentic-representation-matters-to-
teens (Accessed: February 20nd, 2023).

Pincus-Roth, Z. (2008) ASK Playbill.com: Child actors on Broadway, Playbill. Available at:
https://playbill.com/article/ask-playbillcom-child-actors-on-broadway-com-148947 (Accessed:
February 20nd, 2023).

Vork, L. (2009) How to act like a child, Our Pastimes. Leaf Group. Available at:
https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-act-like-a-child-12186520.html (Accessed: February 20nd, 2023).