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Hundreds of hopeful actors and fantasy fans have queued up in central London for the chance to star in the Percy Jackson musical.
Actors were seen huddled outside The Other Place theatre in Victoria early on Tuesday morning following an open call to cast the play, with some having queued overnight for the opportunity to audition for the performance.
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, based on the book by Rick Riordan, will go on tour across the UK this Autumn.
Auditions are expected to take place on a first-come, first-served basis and will run until 6pm on Tuesday.
Ben Kenwright Limited, the company behind the play, warned actors to “prepare for outdoor queuing and potentially extended waiting times”.
The company also warned that due to the high volume of applicants expected, not everyone may get the chance to audition to be part of “their company of demigods” on Tuesday.
The play has been auditioning for 10 roles, including that of the lead, Percy Jackson, a demigod with a teenage temper accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt.
The six-book fantasy series written by Riordan have sold more than 180 million copies worldwide and have already been turned into two popular films: the first, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) made $226 million and the second, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) made $200 million.
However, many fans were displeased with the film adaptations (which have an average Rotten Tomato score of 45 per cent), with some saying that the films’ directors, Chris Columbus and Thor Freudenthal, took too many liberties with the source material and others criticising the films’ plotlines, CGI and acting.
The first book in the fantasy series was also transformed into a Disney+ series in 2023, with a second series of the show expected to be released on the streaming giant in December.
