Epic

 If it hasn't become painfully obvious by now, outside of my obsession with musicals, I had a very strong obsession with reading and literature. In fact, in the ninth grade we studied the Odyssey, which funnily enough, kickstarted my obsession with the literature side of language and literature, something that may have changed my entire high school career. Despite this, I actually despised this book when I first tried reading it. I found it quite boring and decided I'd simply throw it away and never read it. After all, I had gotten away with not reading the books for almost every year of middle school, so I decided this year didn't have to be different. However, my tune would soon change when I kept hearing the same song on my reels. 

"Nah don't be modest I know you're a Goddess, so let's be honest you are Athena." 

This song was super catchy, the way he sang Athena scratched an itch in my brain perfectly, as the kids would say. I wanted to hear more, and so I looked it up. This song actually came from a concept album, not a staged musical, and the album was called Epic. Side note, I think there's a rise in people pretending like hearing a song on Instagram or TikTok makes you less of a fan, but I disagree. Social media exists to share, and I think that Epic in particular was only able to grow as large as it did thanks to social media. 

Written by Jorge Rivera Herrans, Epic is a nine-part concept album that follows the same story as that of the Odyssey. Beginning with the Troy saga, we see Odysseus lead his men to victory in the Trojan war. The story then moves through different sagas, my favorite being the Cyclops Saga (where the gang fights Polyphemus). Odysseus ends up on Circe's island, meets Calypso, fights Gods and monsters alike before finally arriving home. Epic is, well, epic. The songs have an absolutely incredible production value and even though it hasn't been staged yet, it paints an image so powerful that I can imagine staging in my head (although the fandoms wonderful animatics help me in this quest for sure).  

That being said, chances are good that if you've heard of this musical, you haven't heard of the epic production value or story. You've heard of the fandom.

Epic has always been a musical fueled by its fanbase. From the animatics to the comment sections under any video that used a song from it, much of the hype around this show stems from the rabid fans. That being said, the fans can be terribly annoying. This hurts me to type, because I am somewhat of an annoying fangirl myself, and I realize that society tends to be awful to fandoms that are largely comprised teenagers, specifically teen girls (SWIFTIES RISE UP). 

I wondered why the Epic fanbase made me so upset, seeing as I've always given some leeway to cringy behavior when it was clearly done by a young fanbase. That's when I realized that this fanbase gets on my nerve like no other, because they're literally me. No, I was never a huge Epic fan, I discovered it when I was in high school and aging out of some of my old fangirl behavior. But, it reminded me a lot of how I was at 12, and discovering Hamilton for the first time. A lot of the cringe behavior, like insisting that Epic was the best musical and being outraged that it didn't win a tony (no idea how they think a concept album could win a tony but anyway) reminded me a lot of myself before I knew about musicals. Back when Hamilton was the only show I knew, I got almost annoyed when people spoke about other shows, how dare they not talk about my hyperfixation. 

Naturally, I'm over that phase, but looking back on it, it was incredibly embarrassing, but I think it's a rite of passage for all young theatre kids. I think we're a little to harsh on the Epic fandom, particularly the older fans, who have long since forgotten what it was like to be a middle schooler and obsessed with a show. Maybe I speak with such clarity because it has only been 4 years since I was there, maybe it's because I have been a part of many hated fandoms, but I truly feel bad for the fans that always get clowned on by people much their senior.