Tag: Musical

By: Lottie Bynum

Casual musical enjoyers of musicals often say Hamilton was their introduction into theater and the performing arts. Due to its catchy songs and historical plot retold in a modern way through theater and rap, it caught many people’s attention. Now there is a new playwright looking to tell the story of The Odyssey in musical form. Jeorge Rivera-Herrans started writing EPIC: The Musical In 2019 as part of a project for college. Over the past two years, he has since finished it and finished the recordings of the songs which have gone up on Spotify and other music platforms. 

The true work of completing such a task as this is aided by TikTok and YouTube where Rivera-Herrans posted his progress on the musical and did casting calls to find his voice actors and singers for his recordings. EPIC is very similar to Hamilton, but it’s a much more modern and pop-culture way of writing, casting, and producing unlike Hamilton which Lin Manuel Meranda had more professional casting and producing processes. Because of the casting calls for singers and voice actors as well as Rivera-Herrans posting updates, snippets, and easter eggs of the musical while in progress and opening up about how he wrote it and what inspired him, EPIC has gained a large following on TikTok supporting the creator and his musical; A modern way to get his audience involved in the musical. While EPIC isn’t yet at the same fame of Hamilton it isn’t a stage musical where they perform it on stage, rather it’s the collection of songs other creators can build upon with their own visuals such as animation or creating their own stage performance for the songs. These two plays have many similarities in that they are both historical events/stories turned into musicals for the modern day audience and push each other forward with their growing followings. Overall, EPIC has a larger relation with young adults because of the experience of the making of the musical being so public on TikTok and the original  content it’s based on being more well known as well as the sheer musicality in the production.