Mythic at the Charing Cross Theatre is a light-hearted musical version of the Greek myths with a strong Broadway potential. If you are in for a glamorous interpretation of eternal themes, this musical is something you should not miss in London this autumn.
“Hey, mortals!”, this is the first phrase you hear even before the light in the auditorium goes down. It’s just a standard message about turning your phones off (cause only Gods have the right to use them throughout the show, right?), but you already feel good about the show. It goes on quickly and easily in one ninety minute act. Songs are nice, rock motives are alternated with classic musical tunes, characters act as well as present amazing solos, and the story is easy to follow as we are all somehow more or less aware of Greek mythology.
Mythic follows the story of Persephone who is presented as a rebellious teenager, eager to see all the glamour and darkness of life and who occasionally crosses the way to Aphrodite, gets under her love spell and ends up in The Underworld with Hades. Each god has their own drama, and we get their point without going too deep into each of these plot twists. There are stories of love and hatred, competition and revenge, political manipulation and betrayal, and two major ones: everlasting conflict between parents and children, or generational gap, and the self-actualisation and realisation of personal potential.
While diving into the Greek myths, we actually discover how relevant those issues are to our daily lives and how these ancient gods are similar to us, humans. That’s why the little leaflet Know your Greek! provided with a ticket, amused me so much: Olympus is a place of ‘God Celebrity Culture’, Aphrodite is ‘Kim Kardashian of Ancient Greece’, the Acropolis is a place of ‘Zeus’s all-night ragers’, and the Underworld is ‘polluted, overcrowded and the transport system is a mess’. Sounds so familiar, right? If you struggle to make your kids interested in ancient history, this may be a great way to introduce it in a new light.
The musical is funny and witty, heart-warming and enjoyable. I should praise the singing performances by Georgie Westall (Persephone) and Michael Mather (Hades) and amazing acting by Genevieve McCarthy (Aphrodite), but it will be just fair to state that audience meet almost each and every single number with a round of cheerful applauds and gives a standing ovation to the cast in the end. The setting is simple and the costumes are quite what you expect when somebody promises you a pop-rock musical, but all in all, it makes you feel good and that’s the point of any good musical. Highly recommended!
Image Credit: Victorine Pontillon
we went to this show last week and enjoyed all of it.Not only were the cast good and fun to watch but they sang in tune too.The music was fun, songs came one after the other.Also the dancing and lighting was impressive too obviously a lot of thought had gone into it. Storyline was up to date and would appeal to many people even teenagers!