INTERVIEW: Oh my God! Lightning strikes for Jalynn Steele in ‘Percy Jackson’ musical
Photo: The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical stars Chris McCarrell and Jalynn Steele. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by BBB with permission.
Oh my God!
The hugely successful Percy Jackson stories by Rick Riordan have been adapted for the stage into a new musical with a book by Joe Tracz and music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is currently playing a limited engagement through Jan. 5 on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre.
The show, which began off-Broadway and has toured the United States, follows the adventures of the title character, who just happens to be the son of Poseidon, though he doesn’t know it yet. He begins to sense something is awry when his powers start emerging, and there are monsters breathing down his neck. After tragedy strikes his family, Percy (Chris McCarrell) heads on a journey to find Zeus’ lightning bolt to prevent a war amongst the gods.
One of the key figures in the show is Sally, Percy’s mother. Making her Broadway debut in the role is Jalynn Steele, who also portrays several other characters throughout the two-hour show.
“I didn’t know about the books or anything about the off-Broadway show or anything until my agent sent me in, and when I got the callback, they sent me the music material,” Steele said in a recent phone interview about her audition for the national tour of The Lightning Thief. “I happened to look on YouTube, and I was like, oh my goodness, some of these songs have over a million views. So I was like, well, what is this? That’s when I started to research exactly what was going on there, and sure enough when I went in for the callback, I had fun and did what I did. When I got the gig, I actually was like, let me do a little bit more research because it’s a lot of fandom going on, and there’s a beautiful story behind it that I wanted to find out about. So that’s kind of how I fell into it.”
The tour was successful, and near the end — almost at the very end — the cast members were told about the Broadway transfer, a dream come true from Steele and the company.
“I had no clue,” she said about the prospects of bringing the musical to the Longacre. “It came so out of the blue. I think we found out right at the very end. I was actually trying to get in contact with my people here to make sure that I had things lined up and auditions and stuff like that, and lo and behold, they gave us a call. It was the last Sunday of our tour, and they were like, ‘Guess what? You’re going to Broadway.’ Like a little kid, I boo-hoo-ed because for me I’ve been trying to go to Broadway for 18 years. I’ve been trying to make it there, so to hear that I was going with a show that I knew and loved, that was such an exciting feeling.”
That first preview a few months ago had Steele nervous and excited, but she was also at ease. She knew the material well at that point, and the actor was ready to put forward her unique take on Sally and the other characters in front of a New York audience.
“Now opening night, I was all over the place with that one,” she said with a laugh. “I had family come in, so they were able to share with me in that moment. But I want to say I was for the most part more excited than nervous with the whole thing.”
She added: “I would say it did take some getting used to. It wasn’t until a good two months out on the road for me to actually know what I was doing in this show, and with these characters, they’re such beloved characters. And everyone that’s read the books has in their minds who these characters are, so I try to draw as much as I can from the books and as much as I can from my real life because Sally, who is the only actual real person who is not a monster or demi-god or god or anything like that, that one I had to draw from my mother and mix a little bit of her in with what I knew from the books, the descriptions that Rick gave in the books.”
Over the course of this two-hour production, Steele jumps from the mother role to playing an oracle, a monster, a demi-god and an actual god. It’s quite a journey, with much frantic running behind the scenes and quick costume changes.
“Keeping them different in aspects of who they are as characters, it took a little doing, a little practice,” said Steele, who appeared off-Broadway in Sistas: The Musical. “Maybe two months in I finally got a handle on getting them, but the first week, I would get dressed really fast and get ready to come on — wait, who am I again — right before going on stage. But after a while you get used to it, and you kind of know what you’re doing afterward.”
Steele remembers the early performances on the tour and how the company and the creative team were trying to figure out the hectic running around, both on stage and backstage.
“As soon as you’re offstage, you’re changing into your next costume,” she said. “You might have to prep some things to get ready to bring on and bring off and things like that, so when you’re starting with a different crew in a different area, that one took a lot of getting used to. … I will say the transition into Broadway has made it a little easier because we have the same people helping every night, so they know what they’re doing. You get into a rhythm of things and stuff like that, but it’s live theater. So anything can happen, but we’ve got some good people that know what to do just in case.”
The theme of the show, which has Percy embracing his background and celebrating diversity, has won over the cast members, including Steele. In fact, this message is what keeps her interested and engaged night after night.
“I think that’s why it was easy for me to fall in love with the material and try to create characters that other people could fall in love with because it’s such a great story,” Steele said. “It’s such a great theme, and one of the songs that Sally sings is ‘Strong.’ It’s a song about celebrating your faults and uniquenesses. The things that make you different are the things that make you strong, and when you rely on that and know that for sure, then you create such a wonderful person to bring a little more goodness in the world.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, featuring Jalynn Steele, plays through Jan. 5 at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. Click here for more information and tickets.
