The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical hits Southsea
Paolo Micallef is Luke on his biggest UK contract so far as he tours the country in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, a production marking the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Lightning Thief.
When New York City teenager Percy Jackson discovers that he is the half-blood son of the Greek god Poseidon, his life takes a dramatic turn as he is plunged into a world much bigger than he could possibly have imagined…
Paolo is delighted to be in the thick of it all for a tour which takes in Theatre Royal Brighton from September 30-October 4 and Southsea’s Kings Theatre from November 4-9.
“This is my first professional thing in the UK apart from pantomime. I'm from Malta. I've done a couple of things back home in the more professional sector of the industry and then I wanted to come here to study and now I want my career to be here. The UK is a massive hub for musical theatre and for theatre in general and I'm sure that I will be able to develop a lot of different skills here.”
Paolo graduated two years ago in 2023 having started his training during the pandemic: “But it was great. I loved my experience at the college. It was a nice boutique school, MPAA. We had smaller classes which meant that we got more attention.
“It's not easy in the industry. The industry is a massive competition but I consider myself lucky because I'm now on my third contract out of college. I did a cruise ship and then I did the panto. There were longer breaks in between than I would have wanted but at least I've got those.
“The cruise ship was great. It's really hard work especially with the company that I was with. You rehearse on the ship. You have five weeks going through all the shows and then you're doing show after show after show after show, two shows a day, six days a week. It is not easy but it's not impossible but you have to have a really close bond with the people you are working with because you've got no one else. You work hard, and one of the things you really learn is resilience.”
Now comes Percy Jackson: “I knew the books. I didn't really get into them at the time. I wasn't really a great reader but I listened to my friends talking about them and I loved the stories they said about them. And actually it sparked in me a real interest in some areas of Greek mythology. I became a Greek myth nerd rather than a Percy Jackson fan but I definitely love the stories and it's great to be in it.
“I would say that's it’s a show about self-worth really. Percy has been kicked out of six schools in six years and he is feeling like he can't get anything right but then he goes on this magical adventure and goes through this huge ordeal to get back his uncle's stolen property. You see different sides to that as well, different aspects of self-worth. It is great and the set just looks brilliant. We had three weeks of rehearsals to get the show into our bodies and then we had a week of half tech and half debut and then we had another week and then we started the tour.”