Epic the Musical: The Modern Homer Retelling
The Overview:
So, you’ve seen the trailers for The Odyssey? And probably the comments. You’ve probably heard Homer’s The Odyssey, but took a look at one verse and said: HAHA! No. If you did read it, first, how? Second, kudos to you. Third, skip to the next paragraph. You probably feel overwhelmed by everything that comes with this ancient story and unsure whether you want to dive into the waters of knowledge. Let me offer you a fun and fascinating way that got me to appreciate Homer’s masterpiece. And it’s free. So bonus points there.
Epic the Musical is written, composed, and produced by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, who also plays not one but three characters. This includes the main character, so he had a lot on his plate. And this man managed to stage a beautifully crafted musical based on Homer’s Epic. I will be honest, I have read only parts of The Odyssey (I have a hard time reading poetry, especially translated poetry), but what I’ve heard the musical does vary quite a bit, giving it more of a YouTube-friendly vibe. There are still lots of dark and adult parts; it's the Odyssey, which is Greek. The Greeks like their drama and shock factor too much for it to be completely removed from the story. Not only does Mr. Jalapeño keep the Greek aspect and make it family-friendly, but he also draws perspectives I have not seen before. One being Polites. He was a background character in the novels and other adaptations. Epic is the only one who gives this fan-favorite character a major role.
Epic rewrote the way we listened to musicals and how the industry writes musicals. The traditional Broadway, Wicked took at least 386 people (Here’s the blog that gave me the estimate: Stage Spot). Epic took twelve. Jay took something that everyone thought was impossible and did it. And he did not go looking for high-end performers or well-known actors. He turned to TikTok to find people like him. People who want to make a name for themselves, no company strings attached. And to put the cherry on top. He put it on YouTube, a free platform. So instead of paying an arm and a leg for a musical with kinda trashy seats. You can watch a fantastic musical with great actors, a good mix of different music (I’m serious, you can get classical, then 80’s pop, then heavy rock, then love sick, and it all works), and an amazing community.
My Thoughts:
I love Epic. It’s one of my favorite musicals of all time. Two of the songs ‘Just a Man’ and ‘Monster’ inspired two books that I am writing. While I haven’t been with it in the beginning, I came in around the Underworld Saga and was here for it. I love the different style of music and the connecting motifs. I love connecting songs that arent reprises. Take the two mentioned above songs. ‘Just a Man’ is the second song of the entire musical and almost the reason I stopped listening. At the end of the song, it was missing a down beat like a final decision, but it never came. And it was infuriating to the point it drove me insane. And then ‘Monster’ came on. The TWENTH song later and suddenly, I’m hearing the same notes for ‘Just a Man’ but they are heavier and more final sounding. Then the lyrics, my goodness the lyrics. They had the same words at some during the chorus… but the meaning was totally different. It also had the down beat at the end!!! These two songs were a continuation of one line of story and Jimbo Pimbo executed it perfectly!
I have also slowly stared indoctrinating my friends, family and boyfriend to this musical. And they all love it. Recently, a group of friends and I went on a trip. One of my friends, Cassius, shouts from the back of the van, “Hey Page! Can we play Epic!?” And naturally, I turned that sucker on. The van became a vibe after that. I recommend this musical 10/10 to anyone who has decent taste.
The Graph:
Language- 3% There are a total of 5 curse words in the over 2-hour musical
Explicit Material- 30% There are four songs you need to watch out for. -There are other ways: Circe tries to seduce Odysseus
-Love in Paradise: Calypso entraps Odysseus and tries to manipulate him into loving her
-Not Sorry for loving you: Calypso tries to double down and manipulate Odysseus into staying
-Hold Them Down: This song even triggers me. Antinous describes in very symbolic ways how he and the other suitors want to forcefully take Queen Penelope.
Violence/Terror- 40% There are HIGH spots of violence. The Troy saga is a war saga and has terrifying moments like a baby being dropped off a wall. The Cyclops saga has two songs; one is where the Cyclops, Polyphemus, decimates the crew, and the next one is him getting blinded by the crew. The Ocean Saga is when Poseidon kills a large chunk of men and not in a nice way. Oddly enough, the only non-violent song in Thunder Saga is the song called Suffering. The other ones include mutilations, unwilling human sacrifices, a mutiny, and making a deal with Zeus to kill the remaining crew members. In the Wisdom Saga, Little Wolf and God Games are mildly violent. In the Vegence Saga, you have Get in the Water and 600 Strike. And the most violent ones in the entire Musical Hold Them Down and Odysseus. Hold Them Down does the previously mentioned atrocities and talks about how they want to murder Telemachus. And Odysseus is when Odysseus goes on a slightly deserved killing spree.
Drug/Alcohol use: 1% Odysseus spikes Polyphemus’ wine.
Non-problematic: 26% This is a GREAT musical. Most of these ratings are really bad if you decide to watch the animatics that go with it. If you listen to the musical, it’s only has bad as you imagination.
Name meanings:
(Spoiler: all of these are ancient Greek)
Odysseus: "Child of wrath" or "the one who is hated/gives pain"
Polites: "Citizen" or "of the city"
Eurylochus: "Wide ambush" or "broad company"
Penelope: "Weaver" or "web-face"
Telemachus: "Far from battle" or "fighting from afar"
Athena: "Sharp" or "praise"
Poseidon: "Husband/lord of the earth" or "lord of waters"
Hermes: "Heap of stones"
Aeolus: "Nimble," "quick-moving," or "shifting"
Polyphemus: "Abounding in songs and legends" or "famous/many-voiced"
Antinous: "Against the mind" or "hostile mind"
Circe: "Bird of prey" or "falcon/hawk"
Scylla: "To tear" or "to rip apart"
Calypso: "she who conceals" or "the hider."
Links:
Spoilers:
Polities Death- Yeah the fan favorite, he dies in the second Saga after a banger song that get’s used throughout the entire musical to mess with the audience. And it does… the entire time. I have fighting words with Mr. Summoner of the Chihuahua Machine.
Watch the animatics- The animatics show a lot more of what is going on. And some of them are funny as I’ll be it. They do get gruesome and make things more visual, but I love them.
Jorge’s nicknames- As you may have noticed I have only used Jorgenborgen’s real name once. This is because the fandom has a weird obsession with giving this man the most outrageous nicknames. So I decided to honor that by using just about every nickname I could find…. I don’t know the meanings behind most of them but they are hilarious.
Jorge Riviera’s big announcement- About twelve weeks ago the Monster posted a video on instagram citing a Hollywood reporter article. The article, announced that our beloved Epic: the Musical is get an animated movie!!! And that is all the information I have they have released nothing else to the public. Which I say is rude, but fair. Our fearless captain also announced last year June, the musical Ilium. The Ilium is based off of Homer’s Illiad and is the Prequel to Epic. Follow Jorgy on any social media to learn all the updates and the sneak peaks!
Thank you so much! For reading my rantings and my random links. Epic: The Musical is definitely a 4/5 in my book (the one song that keeps triggering me brought it down). I loved this musical so much. If you have listened to the musical before, comment your favorite song! If you haven’t if you were lost trying to get home what are you will to do to make it there?
Keep turning pages. Bard out!
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