‘Epic the Musical’: The tragedy of when a man turns monster

Though I have not watched many musicals, I love them with all my heart. Music plays such a core process in my work and day-to-day life, so it makes sense that I would inevitably be drawn to musicals as much as I am. Recently though, there has been a specific musical that has caught my eye. This musical is known as “Epic the Musical” by Jorge Riverra-Herrans. 

I have grown such a hyperfixation with this musical. Words cannot even begin to describe my love for it. 

Now for context, “Epic the Musical” is basically a musical retelling of “The Odyssey” by Homer, which tells the tale of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his journey back home following the end of the Trojan War. This journey is riddled with many challenges and losses along the way, but through it all, he doesn’t give up.

The story presented within the musical has a few liberties from the original work but overall it remains faithful. Throughout it there is this core idea of change, the main one being that of Odysseus’s transition from man into a monster as he learns to become ruthless and cold-hearted in order to make sure he can get back home to his wife and child.

“Epic the Musical” is not a theatrical musical sadly, at least not yet. It is a concept album that is available for listening on both YouTube and Spotify. Despite being kind of an indie project, the fanbase behind is decently sized and filled with many talented people. 

There are a large number of animations out there for every single song in this musical. Some notable animators are those such as Gigi, Mircsy, Anniflamma, Ximena Natzel, Duvetbox and Neal Illustrator, making a large sum of the most beautifully animated versions of the songs from the musical. I would dare to say that these animations definitely had a great contribution to the growth of this fandom, bringing on their own interpretations of each song and character.

Now as for the musical itself, there are so many reasons as to why I love it. So, my first reason is, obviously, the music. Each song is beautifully composed and full of emotion, with such great sound design that it helps to paint a bright and vivid image of each scene, even without the help of animations.

One of my core favorite aspects of the musical is the use of motifs. Throughout the musical there are many moments where the songs call back to past songs or even motifs that signify incoming danger. For example, every time a new threat is present within the song there is typically a motif known as the danger motif that plays within the song at some point. When Odysseus himself becomes ruthless and cold-hearted he too gains this motif.

As for the song callbacks, this can appear in both the instrumental and the lyrics. There was one such famous line in which Odysseus says, “When does a man become a monster?” that is referenced in many future songs. 

The instrumental ones tend to tell an extra story in a sense. For example, the song “Ruthlessness”. In this song, Odysseus comes face to face with the god of the sea, Poseidon, voiced by Steven Rodriguez, who is upset with Odysseus for harming and sparing his son. 

At some point, Poseidon mentions that all of this could’ve been avoided if he just killed his son. During this moment, the instrumentals from an earlier song known as “Storm” in which Odysseus and his crew fought to navigate a dangerous storm. This signifies that the one behind the storm was Poseidon himself.

The level of detail in the songs doesn’t just end there. Another really cool detail about the songs is that when it comes to songs having multiple background voices, in most musicals this just kinda happens, but with this musical, there is logic behind it. For human characters, there is no accompaniment unless they are accompanied by others, for gods though they can always have accompaniment as they can conjure up their own accompaniment since they are gods.

Then, there are the instruments and styles themselves. Each character tends to have their own instrument for each song. Odysseus is followed by variations of the guitar, Poseidon has the trumpet, Athena the piano, Hermes has synth music and so on. 

Now for the characters themselves and their voices. The voices for each character fit so well and each singer is able to perfectly capture each character’s own personality within each song. Some of my favorites include Odysseus, Penelope, Poseidon and my favorite, Hermes. 

Odysseus is played by the musical’s creator, Jorge. There are many moments where his acting skills shine through, capturing the desperateness, sadness and sometimes anger of Odysseus. Then, there is Penelope who is played by Anna Lea. Her songs never fail to make me cry, especially with her last song where she reunites with Odysseus. 

Next up, there is Poseidon. Now, for Poseidon, I could go on and on. The grunge in his voice and the emotion he captures within his voice just fits so well. It manages to deliver this overwhelming voice that conveys just how much of a threat his character truly is. 

Lastly, there is Hermes, played by Troy Doherty. Hermes is a very energetic and playful character, and Troy manages to portray that extremely well, both in voice and in acting. His voice shows Hermes’ playful nature, and even when he is not playing Hermes he still shows this off. In promotional material he acts very much like his portrayal of Hermes being extremely just upbeat, further adding to how perfect this role really is for him.

There is so much more that I could talk about in reference to this musical, but I think some things are better left untold. If any of the things I said made you intrigued, I implore you to watch it. It is genuinely such a joy to watch.