BY
Joanna Hu

Editorial Admin

Hype Issue #60

Published on

January 5,

2025

Photo from Jorge Rivera-Herrans’ YouTube page.

Over the past five years, Epic: The Musical has taken the internet by storm. Created by Puerto Rican artist Jorge Rivera-Herrans, known on social media as Jay Herrans, Epic is a sung-through retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Blending influences from video games, anime, and manga, the musical is a nine-part series of audio-only concept albums. With a total of 40 songs across the nine sagas split into two acts, the story follows Odysseus – voiced by Rivera-Herrans himself – on his harrowing journey home after the Trojan War. 

With the latest release of the Ithaca Saga on December 25, 2024, the musical is finally complete, after two years of musical releases. Over its lifespan, Epic has garnered a massive and devoted fanbase, boasting millions of streams per song and over 100,000 members in its Discord community. 

So now, as the musical finally comes to a close, this breakthrough hit has left us asking: how exactly did Rivera-Herrans manage to captivate so many people with a story that has been around for over two thousand years? 

Jorge Rivera-Herrans, the creator of Epic: The Musical. Photo from Rivera-Herrans’ Facebook page (@JayHerrans).

Telling a story through music

Like most musicals, Epic primarily tells its tale through music and its catchy, and sometimes humorous, lyrics. However, what really sets it apart from the crowd is the details in its intricate composition. 

Inspired by Peter and the Wolf, Sergei Prokofiev’s famous musical composition where different instruments are used to represent different characters, Rivera-Herrans takes a similar approach in Epic. Key characters are symbolized by distinct instruments — for example, Odysseus is embodied by a guitar, while Athena, his mentor, is characterized by the ticking of a metronome and running piano notes.

Peter and the Wolf cover art from a 1959 Soviet vinyl. Photo taken from People’s World.

Recurring melodic motifs further enrich the listening experience, serving as callbacks to earlier moments, foreshadowing future events, or drawing parallels between different points in the story. These motifs add layers of depth; building tension and anticipation, and tugging on the heartstrings of fans who listen closely enough to notice them. 

Unlike traditional musicals, where stage or film visuals can be counted on to bring scenes to life, Epic has to rely almost entirely on sound. Although almost all the songs in the musical are conversation-based, it does not make the story any harder to follow. Beyond the instrumental and lyrical composition, Rivera-Herrans incorporates sound effects, like the roar of a monster or the twang of an arrow, directly into the music without it seeming out of place, immersing listeners in the world of the Odyssey without visual aids or scene descriptions. Combined with the motifs and lyrics, these audio cues make the narrative easy to follow, while also offering a treasure trove of Easter eggs for dedicated fans and musicians.

The ‘TikTok musical’ and its digital fanbase

Epic has sometimes been dubbed a ‘TikTok musical’, thanks to Rivera-Herrans’ extensive use of the platform throughout the project. In January 2021, when Epic was still in its early drafting stage, Rivera-Herrans shared a snippet of an early version of “Full Speed Ahead”, a song from the first saga, on TikTok. From there, he began posting clips of other song drafts, along with behind-the-scenes glimpses and explanations of his creative process. As such, Rivera-Herrans’ social media platforms have become a detailed documentation of Epic’s progress and evolution. 

Rivera-Herrans’ first post on TikTok about Epic: The Musical. Photo from TikTok. 

Rivera-Herrans also used TikTok for casting calls, posting instrumental tracks for the characters’ main songs and inviting any and all interested candidates to audition by duetting his videos. This unconventional approach not only opened up opportunities for a wide range of talent but also boosted Epic‘s visibility, as auditioning candidates would share their videos with their own followers, further spreading awareness of the musical. 

Rivera-Herrans casting call on TikTok for the role of Calypso. Photo from TikTok.

Engaging the community

Rivera-Herrans has fostered a strong sense of community among Epic fans. With each saga’s release, he hosts a livestream listening party, featuring animatics and artworks created by his fans with his input, bringing his vision to life. Not just that,he also frequently reposts fan art and animatics created independently after the official release of the sagas on his social media, crediting the artists and showing his appreciation. Rivera-Herrans also created the official Epic Discord server, providing fans with a dedicated space to discuss the musical and connect with one another, further deepening their engagement.

Listening party on YouTube for the release of the Wisdom Saga. Photo from YouTube. 

Taking creative liberties

Like many modern adaptations of old stories, Epic takes some creative liberties with its source material. Some choices were intentional, aiming to humanise the characters and make them more relatable. Others, like a deviation in the timeline and the description of the Wind God Aeolus’ island, were unintentional, which Rivera-Herrans has openly acknowledged as a mistake on his part. 

As such, Epic is not a carbon copy of the Odyssey, and Rivera-Herrans has even encouraged fans to read the original tale for themselves. Nonetheless, the musical still serves as a gateway into the world of Greek mythology, and still maintains the spirit of the Odyssey in a way that appeals to the modern audience. 

What comes next for Epic: The Musical?

With the release of the musical’s concluding chapter, the Ithaca saga, on December 25, 2024, the nine-part musical has now come to a close, leaving many fans speculating about the future of the series. Fortunately for fans of the show, several executive decisions in the musical’s past may leave the door open for future development in the world of Epic.

In 2023, after disputes with his original licensing company, which had failed to pay royalties for the first two sagas, Rivera-Herrans founded his own company, Winion Entertainment LLC. Under this new banner, the cast re-recorded the entire first two sagas – the Troy and Cyclops sagas – releasing them alongside the Thunder Saga. With Winion Entertainment, Rivera-Herrans now has the potential to expand Epic into new business ventures which, as many fans hope, could include merchandise and future adaptations of the musical for film or stage.

So, if you are a fan of Epic: The Musical, you might want to keep an eye out for any potential work from Rivera-Herrans in the future.

‘Winions’ are Rivera-Herrans’ name for the Wind God Aeolus’ subjects, who appear as backing vocals in the song “Keeep Your Friends Close”. Photo from Epic: The Musical Wiki.