This guest review is from Crystal Anne! Crystal Anne with An E comes to us from a sunny clime, but prefers to remain a pale indoor cat. She enjoys reading, cross-stitching something nerdy, going to see live music, and playing video games.
She works as an autism consultant by day, got a degree in information science for fun, and currently serves on her local library advisory board.
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CW/TW
CW/TW: A lot of violence, because Greek mythology and The Odyssey, and explicit threat of sexual assault (particularly in Calypso’s treatment of Odysseus and the suitors’ treatment of Penelope)
“I believe the children are our future….” Sometimes this is not just a line in a song.
My daughter learned much of her geekery from me. Fortunately for us both, that means we have noticeably similar taste in things we enjoy. I got her into Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hamilton. I procured her every single Percy Jackson book available when she decided she wanted to read them. She recently returned the favor, by introducing me to Epic: The Musical.
I am rather confident that I would not have discovered it without her. I am terminally online the way a 46 year old person is. She is terminally online the way that an 18 year old is, and these ways are pretty different. She also is deeply interested in art and animation in a way that I am not (I enjoy these things, but she’s interested in making a career of it), and much of her discovery of this musical came about as she watched animatics of it. I am a deeply lucky parent in that when my daughter loves something, she wants me to love it, too, so she insisted that I was going to listen to the entirety of Epic with her. Yes, all 2 and a half hours of it.
Naturally, she chose January 20th as the day that we were going to do this. There was an event happening that day that we had decided not to waste our time and attention on.
First, a bit of background. Epic: The Musical is a concept album consisting of nine parts (styled as “Sagas”), written and composed by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, who also performs as Odysseus.
It began in 2019 as his college senior thesis, and gained popularity on TikTok and later YouTube. He documented his process there, used the platform to audition other performers, and recruited several of his friends and even family members (his mother performs as Odysseus’s mother, which I thought was a sweet touch). There were some legal difficulties with the original recording company that caused the entire cast to re-record the first two Sagas in 2023. Since then, Sagas were released every few months, and the final one, The Ithaca Saga, was released on Christmas Day, 2024.
There are many factors that make this appealing. The first, and simplest, it’s GREAT.
It’s extremely well-written and Rivera-Herrans was clearly having a blast with the source material. Some of the wordplay throughout the songs is extremely clever, and when it needs to go for an emotional punch, it goes there. There is one part in the song “The Underworld” in which Odysseus encounters someone that he was previously unaware was dead, and it’s a gut-punch when he hears their voice.
There are some GORGEOUS voices in this cast, with standouts being Teagan Earley as Athena (my daughter’s favorite part to sing, because she goes HARD), Steven Rodriguez Jr. as Poseidon, and Rivera-Herrans himself. I highlight these three as my favorites, but the truth is that almost everyone in the cast has arguably world-class vocal talent. Rodriguez in particular makes a point of starting off with calm fury, but as his songs continue he becomes more and more unhinged until you can practically hear the drowned deep that those who anger him are consigned to.
Given that this is an internet-based phenomenon, there is also a great deal of entertainment to be had in viewing the various animations that artists have made of the songs. It is a sign of good work when that work ends up inspiring others to make art of their own. My favorite ones are probably either the following animation of “Suffering” (because of Odysseus’s “daughter”)…
…and “Different Beast”. “Different Beast” probably does one of the better jobs of portraying just how much Odysseus embraces his dark side and how frightening he becomes as a result.
For both my daughter and I, listening to this musical has brought us much enjoyment, but it’s also provided a respite and outlet for us. It would be an understatement to say that we are not enjoying some of the decisions being made by those in power at the moment, and it becomes difficult to maintain a sense of focus about our own lives and the things we enjoy as a result. We both tend to enjoy the more violent and angry songs right now. It’s not that we can’t enjoy the sweeter and more beautiful, but the darker material seems to speak better to our brains at the moment. It puts me in the right mindset to write my reps and call my senators. It has provided my daughter some fodder for her own art, as she likes to draw the characters.
Right now, just the ability to make and enjoy art is a form of resistance. It is a form of kindness to ourselves, and the more we can support those who are making art, the more powerful we can make them, especially in a time in which those in power would either control or completely silence their voices. Jorge Rivera-Herrans is a young man, still in his 20s. He has a lot of life to live, and a lot of work to see. He makes a good case for what happens when arts education is offered and talent is nurtured. We’re living in a time in which work like this is dismissed as unimportant or dangerous, depending on who is looking at it.
In conclusion, enjoy this sketch my daughter did of Poseidon, inspired by listening to the song “Get In the Water”. We’re going to need art and music and voices over the next several years.
If I were grading this? Squee. I have no chill.
