A Warwick theatre has announced the opening play which will mark its 40th birthday season.

With tickets already selling out, Playbox Theatre is set to showcase the hip musical The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical this September.

Directed by Juliet Vankay with Music Director, Richard Norris, the play will run from 24 to 27 September 2026 at The Dream Factory.

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.

A thrilling original rock score - PopRock and 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.

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.

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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 plus young people worked with, satellites in Stratford-upon-Avon andKenilworth, 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.

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical runs from 24 to 27 September 2026 at The Dream Factory.