I am no stranger to writing about musicals on this blog, but today I am bringing something a little bit different. Last school year, one of my students mentioned this musical based on The Odyssey. After listening to it, I became hooked, much to Mary’s dismay. As I have continued to listen to the musical and really think about it, I realized that there was a disconnect for me between how much of the fandom perceives the musical and what its creator intended. So please join me as I put on my PhD in English (with an emphasis in Creative Writing - Poetry) hat and discuss EPIC: The Musical!

A quick introduction for those not in-the-know! Jorge Rivera-Herrans (aka Jay Herrans or @JorgeHerrans on TikTok) was working on his senior thesis at Notre Dame University when he came up with the idea for EPIC. He continued to work on it, eventually releasing clips of his work in progress on TikTok. The app fell in love with the songs and eventually Herrans recruited other content creators from TikTok to fill in the gaps of the other characters (with him playing Odysseus). If you at all like musicals or Greek mythology, then this will probably be interesting to you. But the real reason why I kept thinking about this musical (which currently only exists as a concept album and a YouTube video comprised of animatics) is the disconnect between what people want the musical to say, based on the fandom’s response and its general vibe, and what it is meant to say, at least according to Herrans himself.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: the author is dead. That’s true. But in this case, if the main composer/lyricist of a 40-song musical is telling the audience how to interpret his work, it is worth listening to that. According to Herrans, the “main lesson is that it is necessary to have a capacity for ruthlessness in order to protect yourself and that which you care about.” The arc that Odysseus goes on, according to Herrans, is realizing that he must be more ruthless in order to make it back to his family and his homeland.

Except, that doesn’t really make sense? Odysseus’ defining characteristic is his wits. In the musical, this is addressed early and often, and seen in the viral sound where Odysseus tricks Athena into revealing herself to him. This is the guy who came up with the Trojan Horse and tricked Polyphemus into believing that “Nobody” had blinded him. If anything, ruthlessness is not a quality that Odysseus lacks. And yet, as the musical progresses, we see Odysseus wonder if he is being as tough as he needs to be in order to make it home. And he does all this after throwing a baby off the walls of Troy.

I completely understand Herrans wanting to make the journey of Odysseus more psychologically complex, and the way that we are let into Odysseus’ psyche makes him seem like a more relatable character than he ever can in the original text of The Odyssey. But the compounding effect of that complexity is that the qualities that make him such a fascinating character are sanded away for the sake of the story that Herrans wants to tell.

As one example, in EPIC Odysseus remains faithful to Penelope, who does not show up for real until the final “saga.” While this might make him more sympathetic to a modern audience who has different views about monogamy than the ancient Greeks, it also makes him less flawed. Perhaps one issue is that Odysseus is not meant to be a morally gray anti-hero. He is a hero. He kills a lot of people and a lot of people die on his watch, but that is part of going to war.

Something that the musical does well is try to portray the women in the story with more nuance than they are usually given. Both Circe and Calypso, rather than mad temptresses, come off like flawed but understandable people. Circe is only trying to protect her nymphs and her island, while Calypso is just happy to have met another person. Now of course, the musical doesn’t really have time to develop or deepen these characters much beyond their couple of songs, but what is here is admirable.

It is precisely this attention to the nuances of certain characters that relates to how the audience of EPIC has received it: mostly as a feel-good (or feel-bad, depending on the song) time, full of goofiness, silly in-jokes, and a whole lot of shipping. This is the nature of fandom, and I do not blame people for latching onto the characters of EPIC, especially as it was born out of that stretch of the pandemic when it seemed like everyone would be stuck inside forever. However, this more carefree embracing of the text of EPIC is at odds with what Herrans claims is its main theme.

One thing that stands out when re-listening to EPIC is the way that Odysseus’ wits, while frequently discussed, are not ultimately able to save him. Near the beginning of the play Poseidon tells Odysseus that “Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves,” which becomes the motivating force for Odysseus throughout the rest of the musical. He callously kills the sirens (who he had been able to use his wits to outmaneuver at first). He sacrifices his men to Scylla, and then to Zeus’ wrath. This is not the same person who had to save his men from Circe’s clutches or got so worked up over Polyphemus killing one of his men. And I’ll be honest, it just sucks to have the main antagonist of a work be the person who drives the character’s arc. It is okay for antagonists to push a character, and even for an antagonist to be “right,” like Killmonger in Black Panther. But they should not be so right that the main character does exactly the kind of thing they would do in order to achieve their goals. Even Scylla is basically proven to be right about Odysseus in the end, as is Zeus. Shouldn’t someone as smart as Odysseus be able to out-think even a god?

Near the end of the musical, in order to get back to Ithaca, Odysseus tortures Poseidon until the god relents and releases the storm that is blocking Odysseus’ way. Then, when he gets home, rather than use his wits to figure out what is going on, he simply kills the 108 suitors that have been trying to marry Penelope. The famous “arrow through 10 axes” bit is used by Penelope to stall for time, rather than it being the thing that reveals who Odysseus really is. It is Odysseus’ capacity for violence, his ruthlessness that ultimately saves him. And at the end of the day, that just sucks.

Herrans has said that a big influence on him is anime and video games, and that is apparent in a lot of the writing of EPIC. Characters like Hermes pop up like NPCs to hand out power-ups and then fly away. Odysseus drops one-liners like he’s Duke Nukem. But ultimately the name of the game is: hit the bad guy until they drop. While that could be satisfying in the right context, for EPIC it just leaves me cold.

You are Athenaaaaaa, badass in the arenaaaaa

Near the end of the musical, Odysseus reunites with the goddess Athena who had abandoned him earlier for being too soft. Athena wonders if a better world is possible. Odysseus, after brutally killing dozens of men, simply responds:

If that world exists, it's far away from here

It's one I'll have to miss, for it's far beyond my years

He shrugs. He lived a life of violence and he paid for it with 20 years of his life. Now, he’s done. “There’s a girl I have to see,” he says, as if that makes up for what he has done. He gets to end his story with a love song.

We don’t have that privilege. In the face of ruthlessness, of undying cruelty, we don’t get to retire to our chambers. There is no going back to the way things were. But we can make that better world a reality, by never giving up and always believing that that world is possible. At least I hope it is.

Near the beginning of the play, Odysseus and his friend Polites visit a mysterious island. Odysseus is still in the mindset of one at war, but Polites tells him to relax, saying:

This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms

Whatever we face, we'll be fine if we're leading from the heart

No matter the place, we can light up the world

Here's how to start

Greet the world with open arms

I’ll take open arms over ruthlessness, any day. I hope you will too.