I’ve known about the existence of EPIC for years. A musical about The Odyssey, made by some young guy and released in instalments, that’s all I knew But whenever it popped up, I never had the time or attention to actually listen to it.
After seeing The Odyssey (by Christopher Nolan), I thought it was the perfect time to actually listen to the full musical!
This is not really a review or anything. Just my thoughts that I wanted to write down.
I must say that, initially, I … wasn’t a fan. I thought there was a bit too much screaming. I understand wanting to start the musical with high energy, make it sound “epic”, but the same constant high energy basically means it all sounds the same. It sounded a bit too modern and crunchy to me.
Most of all, I thought there was too much “talk-singing” (or “sing-talking”?) Many lines are said without a clear melody, without a nice song structure around them. It’s basically dialogue but with a faint melody to it. I know you can’t escape this when you have a 2.5 hour sung-through musical, but if you do it this often, you have to wonder why you made it sung-through at all. It also means that sometimes they try to slip in a few extra syllables where they weren’t before, which feels a bit clunky and amateurish.
Finally, some of the actual melodies (that also repeat or reappear later) were a bit too simplistic or same-y to me. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it’s the kind of melody you feel you’ve heard a million times before. A melody that is so simplistic that you can perfectly predict where it goes the first time you hear it, because it does nothing surprising or unique, or doesn’t evolve over time into a longer melody phrase.
Despite these criticisms, there were enough good (or even great) parts that I wanted to continue and listen to the whole thing. I felt like the quality of the songs and storytelling also improved as it went on. Once melodies start reappearing or evolving in later songs, a staple in musicals, they also grew on me.
I must also mention that I couldn’t listen to the musical all in one go. I listened in three parts: 1 hour, 1 hour, final 30 minutes. I simply didn’t have the time or opportunity to listen during the day. Because when I do something, I do it with my full attention! I wasn’t going to put on this musical while working or while there’s other noise. That always feels to me like just adding extra noise. It almost feels like an insult: this creator put a massive amount of work into this music, and I’m not even paying attention.
But it does mean that I often have to do things in multiple parts, spread over a few evenings when I can give it my full attention. And in this case, I think that’s a good thing.
My brain—and I suppose most brains—has this processing period of two days. The day after some big event or experience of mine, I’m not thinking about it at all. The next day is the one where I wake up with thoughts, ideas, one of the melodies stuck in my head, and an opinion/feeling on whether I liked the thing or not.
Even though I wasn’t sold on the first hour of EPIC, two days later I felt better about it and started the second hour with a more favorable view. The same thing repeated when I was quite eager to listen to the final 30 minutes in the end.
All of that to say: the musical grew on me. I found myself humming the more recognizable melodies, or suddenly playing them when improvising on the piano. I found myself comparing some its narrative choices to that in The Odyssey (the movie), and finding that I liked EPIC better.
For example, the final part where Odysseus returns home and slaughters all the suitors waiting there. In the movie, this is a pretty standard all-out brawl that, when you think about it for more than a second, feels incredibly stupid. Odysseus just stands in the middle of an open space with nothing but a bow, while 30 enemies surround him. He’s just shooting one arrow at a time, slowly, and when that fails he starts to just fight with his fists and it becomes a mess and you’re like: “Really? This is the clever, cunning Odysseus? Who could not predict that this is the most stupid way to start a fight? Who could not plan anything better?”
In the musical, Odysseus is actually smart. He removes all the light sources, plunging the palace in darkness. Then he uses his superior knowledge of the palace (that he build), and his long-range bow, to pick off suiters one by one. It’s this really tense, horror-esque sequence that would have looked amazing on film and made a lot more sense. (And the strategy he uses—going after those with torches—he actually picked up from Scylla during his Odyssey, so it’s a callback and narrative cause-and-effect too.)
Similarly, the musical does a much better job of establishing the narrative, the emotions, the role of the gods, and what characters (mainly Odysseus) go through. Together with some pretty strong songs, it can basically do everything that Nolan is always lacking in his films.
For example, the musical neatly explains that Odysseus sails through dangerous areas like Scylla on purpose because Poseidon doesn’t dare go there (… because it’s dangerous). Quick to explain, makes sense, nice. Whereas the movie is just like “you have to go through this clearly hostile area for … some reason, go now!”
In a way, the two of them are perfect counterparts. Someone ambitious might combine them into one super event that’s amazing on all fronts :p
As I write this article, several weeks later, I am more positive about the musical. I’ve re-listened to many songs that I think are pretty great. I’ve come to appreciate how amazing the vocal performances of all singers are. My criticisms didn’t go away exactly—I still dislike the sameness of the singy-talky-screamy lines all over the musical—but they are overshadowed by the bigger positive aspects. I still wish the musical had a bit more defined and memorably melody to all of it, and played a bit more with completely different genres or types of instrumentation/recording/sound. Maybe, perhaps, I wish it sounded more ancient/mythical/classic instead of pretty modern pop, to fit the source material better.
But it has been added to my informal collection of “musicals I’ll watch/listen to in its entirety once in a while” ;) It also contains, for example, Next To Normal and Hadestown.
Most musicals, unfortunately, have a terrible second act or too many songs that are just too boring/mediocre to me. That makes it impossible to listen to them in full. I only listen to select songs, or just the first half. (That reminds me … I have never heard the second act of Hamilton :p) But EPIC has enough quality throughout to never make it boring or frustrating.
What I’m most inspired by, though, is the process and people behind it. Just a guy with an ambitious dream to turn this massive story into a 2.5 hour musical. And he just … did it? He found amazing musicians through social media, and they recorded this great piece of art that sounds professional and worthy of being performed? He’s also doing all the singing for Odysseus? He’s interacting with the community, allowing all this fan art to exist (without copyright striking stuff), and basically built what will likely be a monument of musical history from scratch.
In case it wasn’t clear already, I’m a big music(al) guy. I’ve seen loads of them. I rarely listen to music while working, but if I do, it’s a musical and not some random Spotify playlist or album. From a young age, I even tried to write them. I was that weird 11 year old who suddenly finished a script and a few bad melodies for what was obviously going to be the next hit musical.
I’m a bit older now. Waaaaay better at writing music, writing scripts, finishing projects. I have ~5 “finished” musicals that just popped into my head. I have the melodies, snippets of lyrics, parts of the story. But I never found the motivation to 100% finish it all, create a finished script/score, and try to get it made. Because the barrier to entry is just too high. I have no money, I have no connections, I have no name, I only have demo recordings with my phone! (And I got chronically ill, which ruined my singing voice and basically requires me to let all the real singing be done by other people.)
But this guy showed that you can actually finish it (if you cut it into smaller parts to not overwhelm yourself), record it yourself, release it, and get it made. I didn’t just listen to EPIC, I watched it through the amazing animatics by all the fans, which do a lot of heavy lifting in turning it into a fully rounded story. I’ve also read there’s now a deal to turn it into a movie.
In short, EPIC inspired me to maybe try and do the same thing myself. Because it feels like a waste to let these entire musicals my brain dreamed up stay hidden in demo recordings. I’m not expecting the success of EPIC or getting rich, I just want it to exist in a professional way that people can listen to. And this musical shows that it is doable, though it obviously takes time and effort.
And, well, I feel like that is the true goal of epics, isn’t it? To give you a feeling of ambition, of epicness, of things being larger than life and played out on a grand scale. I mentioned this too in my review of The Odyssey: nobody leaves a good epic without feeling the desire to create something big or do something big.
Those were my thoughts,
Tiamo