Follow cast member George Salazar through a two-show day in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The show officially opened April 4. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through May 6.
Flip through the photos of his two-show day below:
Hi. I'm George. I really enjoy sleeping. This is a picture of me pretending to sleep. I woke up ten minutes before I took this and remembered I had to take pictures for Playbill. Put your goggles on and jump in with me!
I showered and got ready for the day, but those pictures came out blurry/I was naked so we're jumping ahead to my Liquiteria stop for a lil breakfast.
And here we are! The Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher St. I've always wanted to do a show here since I saw Neil LaBute's SOME GIRLS ten years ago. Now I'm here sweating my @$$ off in goat pants! See, kids? Anything's possible!
This guy went in to buy tickets to THE LIGHTNING THIEF. What a brilliant guy. Smart. Ahead of the curve. Trendy. You should strive to be like him and do the same.
I fell in love with Lee Savage's set design from day one. It's giving you Ancient Greece meets New York City and it gives me and the rest of the cast shin splints and great upper body strength.
First stop once in the theatre: SIGNING IN. I never remember to, but I did today because Playbill and I'm working on reinventing my image from bad boy with street smarts to consummate professional.
Next, I break into Chris McCarrell's room and use all his make up. I also just like to sit in his chair to feel what it's like to be a star. I broke down into tears after this because I want that life.
This is our AMAZING stage manager, Leigh'Ann Andrews. She's the captain of our ship and the person who keeps me in line.
We get in an hour before curtain (we don't have a curtain) for fight call. The show has MANY crazy fight scenes so this takes about a half hour to run through all of them. This also keeps us safe considering all the sharp and pointy things we play with on stage.
Chris, a classically trained ballet dancer, is incredibly impressive with stage combat. Here he is coming for Sara Beth Pfeiffer who plays Clarisse and 12 other characters in our show.
One of the fights we run involves James Hayden Rodriguez as a Minotaur. This is his broken doll Minotaur.
We also run another fight involving Sara Beth as Mrs. Dodds, a fury with six fingers and a Fupa.
Chris loves working with me. We are best friends. I teach skype acting and singing lessons on the side and he's one of my top students.
This is Jonathan Raviv! We are also best friends. He also plays a ton of characters. I helped him get his Equity card.
We finish fight call and Leigh'Ann screams at us and tells us to start getting ready. Here I am at my station. I draw fan art of myself and send them to the theatre under fake names and make a big show of receiving them.
This is Carrie Compere! We're also best friends and laugh all the time. I'm sponsored by BEN NYE so I lend her my stuff all the time bc she watches my kids.
Here's Kristin Stokes who plays Annabeth. Again: BEST FRIENDS. She always needs a hand with her hair and I'm her rock so I help her out. I also just like to feel her locks through my dry fingers.
Sara Beth again! Another bestie. Just touching up her eyebrows here. She always tells me, "George, no one does eyebrows like you." And I'm always like, "You're an angel, dear. Pass me my Zoloft will ya?"
And here's James! He came to my voice studio eleven years ago and I introduced him to the Vicks steamer. We're also best buds who text all day and all night. Last night, we watched an old episode of Dukes of Hazard (his favorite show) and texted during the whole thing. He's so funny!
Chris is an Amazon addict. He buys shoes, suits, neck pillows, and bustiers and has them sent to the theatre because someone in his building steals his packages.
I sweat a lot in the show and so I have four shirts so I can change out of soaking wet tie-dye during intermission. I've always wanted to wear tie-dye on stage. Again, dreams come true, you guys.
Got some quick collagen and Botox injections after helping the ladies get into their hair and make up. The producers pay Lisa Rinna's guy to come to the theatre to work on my face.
I play Grover, Percy's best friend and Satyr protector, for most of the show, but I also play Mr. D, the Camp Half-Blood camp director. My Mr. D costume hangs on the wall next to Mr. D's desk. He's a mess. Not like me. I'm very put together as made evident by the previous photos.
I'm on stage for basically the whole show and whenever I'm off stage, I'm quick changing into Mr. D/Grover. While backstage, I sing background vocals and watch our MD, Wiley on the video monitor. I bought him that shirt with my massive paycheck.
The matinee's over and we go on a nice dinner break. Chris and I are off to a fancy French dinner together. He always insists on paying he's so nice!
Ok so something came up and Chris couldn't make it to dinner so I just went to 2nd City, an amazing Filipino joint on Hudson right around the corner from the Lortel. Having some bao buns by myself. It's cool. All good. I wasn't crying.
Thanks for feeding me, 2nd City!
After dinner, I like to sit in the empty theatre for a power nap/good cry.
Chris likes to nap with his Amazon boxes. I typically take a quick nap so I can stand over Chris and watch him rest. So peaceful. So sweet.
Time to get ready for the second show. We skip fightcall for the evening show because doing two of those in one day is overkill. I get to my station and Leigh'Ann has left me love notes.
We wind up on a beach during the show and I decided to really immerse myself in that setting and play with imaginary sand. Leigh'Ann didn't like that choice. She must've had a bad experience as a child.
While we get ready, Peter LaPrade, our Percy understudy, applies moisturizer to his dry, chapped skin.
We got through Act One of our second show and are at places for Act Two. Here's the trio with Mrs. Dodds.
In act two, I spray out my mic as I'm notorious for sweating out my mics. As you can see, the Botox and Collagen has kept and I have no leaks! Thanks, Lisa Rinna's guy!
Tickets are $85-$65 and can be purchased by visiting LightningThiefMusical.com and (866) 811-4111.
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