Warwick – September 2026
PLAYBOX OPENS 40TH SEASON WITH SELL-OUT HIP MUSICAL
THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL performs at The Dream Factory, Warwick from 24th to 27th September 2026
Opening Playbox Theatre’s 40th Birthday Season, and already selling out, the hip musical The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.
Directed by Juliet Vankay with Music Director, Richard Norris
As autumn creeps in, a modern demigod discovers ancient powers and dangerous secrets on a quest to stop a war of the gods. A thrilling, family-friendly musical adventure bringing modern mythology to exuberant life. This ensemble production represents the popular musical of today and follows in a long line of landmark Playbox musicals including The Who’s Tommy, The Addams Family, The Secret Garden, Cabaret and The Boyfriend. The production is performed by Playbox Theatre actors who have been in rehearsal since July.
Why Percy Jackson? Why Now?
The Lightning Thief is a phenomenon. Based on Rick Riordan’s best-selling Percy Jackson series (100M+ readers worldwide, often described as Harry Potter lite), the stage musical has become the gateway musical for a generation who might never have gone to live theatre before.
Music & Style:
A thrilling original rock score – PopRock / Contemporary Musical Theatre. Equal parts raucous rock musical, witty teen drama and adventure story for all ages. Loud, funny, fast-paced, wonderfully imaginative and described as a true family-pleaser where roars of adult laughter compete with children’s squeals of delight. Songs include ‘Good Kid’, ‘Strong’, ‘My Grand Plan’ and disco-inspired ‘D.O.A.’ – mixing power ballads about recognising potential and owning intelligence with comedy and rock anthems.
Why it’s huge with young people:
At every tour stop, audiences fill with Camp Half-Blood orange t-shirts, fans lining up at the stage door. It reclaims ADHD and dyslexia as clues to being a half-blood, where outsiders find belonging. It celebrates imagination over big-budget effects – scaffolding, columns and inventive staging become worlds. Many in the audience are taking their first foray into live theatre.
Perfect for Playbox at 40
From a hotel room in Leek Wootton in 1986 to The Dream Factory (UK’s first purpose-built young people’s theatre, opened 1999 by Adrian Noble and Sir Ben Kingsley), Playbox has always been unique – a theatre exclusively for young people. Now with 500,000+ young people worked with, satellites in Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth, and a return to Tokyo in 2027, Percy Jackson embodies that ongoing evolution: large-scale, imaginative, music-driven, ensemble storytelling carried entirely by young people.
Listing information – The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical runs from 24-27 September 2026 at The Dream Factory, Stratford Road, Warwick CV34 6LE
Directed by Juliet Vankay, Music Director Richard Norris
If you would like press images, please email emily@playboxtheatre.com
