W.When Jorge Rivera-Herráns released part of Epic: the musical Last Christmas, he managed to knock Taylor Swift off the top of the US iTunes album charts. So the stakes are high when the latest installment of his musical version of The Odyssey premieres on Christmas Day.
Rivera-Herrans’ project has already been an extraordinary success, with more monthly listeners on Spotify (1.6 million) than veterans like Morrissey, Liam Gallagher or the Sex Pistols, and 119 million streams on the platform in the last 28 years alone. days.
“I wanted to have sword fights and the ocean, and I wanted to have gods and monsters, and spells, and love, and lust, and revenge,” he told Observer. “I want people to have this feeling of wonder, that they can see it and feel like a kid again.”
Epic It is a musical production, but not theatrical. At least not yet. It’s a 40-track concept album with Rivera-Herrans singing the role of Odysseus on his 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the siege of Troy, with every step posted on TikTok.
Epic It fuels two obsessions of the cutting-edge teens of the Alpha generation: Greek mythology and fan engagement.
Rivera-Herrans began writing and recording in his bedroom studio and later built a soundproof vocal booth with his father. While most artists are determined not to risk spoiling their magic by revealing creative secrets, Rivera-Herrans is quite the opposite. He’s shared everything from the songs’ motifs to orchestration choices to the audition process.
“At first I was terrified,” he said. “The first time I uploaded a video to TikTok I was so nervous that I didn’t sleep that night. But it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done, because the good thing about being able to show the process online is that we are all on an odyssey together. You can see in real time what works and what doesn’t.”
The first songs were solo songs, but Rivera-Herrans later held auditions on TikTok, and candidates posted their own videos singing his music. “I thought we were going to have about 30 auditions, but by the end of the month we had 1,000 video submissions,” he said.
Fans have also created their own animations to bring Epic’The songs come to life and Rivera-Herrans enjoys their interactions. “If I tried to leave a hint of something that’s happening in a previous song (I make a lot of hints through musical motifs), would people notice? When they do it, it is very rewarding.”
Perhaps the darkest leitmotif spotted by fans is a trumpet melody indicating that Poseidon is responsible for the storm that keeps Odysseus and his crew at sea for years, without the god appearing on the scene. Only later does the theme return, sung by the god.
“It’s wonderful that people were able to (resolve it),” Rivera-Herrans said. “We’re discovering interesting ways to tell stories while doing this, and it’s very exciting.”
Fan engagement in musical theater has been growing since composers began sharing work on YouTube around 2015, according to Clare Chandler, senior lecturer in musical theater at the University of Lincoln’s school of creative arts.
after newsletter promotion
Be calmer, a show about a clumsy high school student trying to become cool, originally produced in a New Jersey theater, became a minor hit when Spotify’s algorithm picked the cast album. After gaining traction online, it sold out off-Broadway, where people “came from all over the world to see it,” Chandler said, and then moved to Broadway. “(It goes) from being something that was ignored, through this virtual Broadway environment, to something that is performed on Broadway because of its popularity.”
The pandemic fueled the rise of two other TikTok musicals. First came Ratatouillewhich emerged from the online meme culture that had grown up around the Pixar film. Several TikTok users composed songs and Ratatousical ended up on Broadway for a one-off benefit show.
Then Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear created the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical after Barlow posted a video of her singing a snippet of a verse. They won a Grammy for best musical theater album, but attempts to stage the show sparked a lawsuit from Netflix.
the question Epic Fans have been asking all along if they will be able to see him on stage.
After the final saga arrives on Christmas Day, when Odysseus finally arrives in Ithaca, they may get the answer. Rivera-Herrans and his team are in talks with what they describe as a “very high-end company” to make an animated film, and with another to create a live-action spectacle. Three video games are planned and two are already on the way. And the team is aware that fans will want to participate in the process of bringing these things to life.
“What is the next version of Epic What do we throw into the world? “I am very open to all options, because in each different version we can convey different aspects of the story,” said Rivera-Herrans.