Hercules Reviews Round-up – Disney’s new West End musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

"The West End’s latest musical Hercules is a blast for the under 10s"

"This fun-filled adaption has retained the Disney animation’s goofy knockabout humour and refusal to take itself seriously"

"Disney stage adaptations tend to be conceived with a ruthless eye on the film’s pre-existing fanbase. Not so this theatrical version of the 1997 animated riff on the Hercules myth, which is pointedly – and triumphantly – aimed at families with young children rather than the original’s numerous disciples."

"Best of all, it boasts a truly heaven sent quintet of Muses who sashay their way through Alan Menken’s still radiant gospel-driven score with just the right amount of sass to make your average tween squeal in delight."

"Most unforgivably for the film’s fans, Hades struts about in a blingy frock coat rather than shimmering in a haze of icy blue fire. Yet if you are under 10 years old and care less about such things, this punchy stage show is a blast."

"It’s about as lightweight as an aspen leaf, and a lot of fun."

"Luke Brady is an endearing wannabe hero, sporting a goofy grin worthy of Jim Carrey and singing the show’s stand out song Go The Distance with palpable tenderness. The beefed up character of Meg doesn’t come off so well"

"Nothing to scare the gods then, but for families with young children, an excellent tip for summer."

"Disney musical is fun, finely sung but not quite fit for the gods"

"Luke Brady is the hero navigating between godliness and humanness in a show that’s big on booming numbers yet short on emotion"

"... lightning does not strike twice with this stage version, although it is a sturdy enough Disney vehicle, with strong songs and plenty of splash. There is a briskness to its drama, under the direction of Casey Nicholaw, and a pounding out of the material – Songs! Lights! Action! – that makes it seem like a conveyor-belt musical."

"... the sound and optics are always eye-popping, the swivelling set designs intent on moving heaven and earth. Gregg Barnes and Sky Switser’s costumes are heavenly, too, and camp as hell".

"Luke Brady is an incredible singer, as Hercules... But the title character is rather generic, a Hunkules who is earnest for too long despite shades of Joey from Friends... The cast around Brady is just as strong vocally, but breezy in their dialogue."

"... in the second half Kwame Kwei-Armah and Robert Horn’s book gets funnier, Hercules turns goofier and his love story with Meg (Mae Ann Jorolan, cool cat to Brady’s golden retriever) grows in chemistry."

"Chugs along agreeably enough"

"This adaptation of the Disney film is slick with some fun songs but somewhat lacking in strength"

"It might be faint praise but this adaptation of Disney’s 1997 animated film, which plays fast and loose with ancient Greek myth, is like the slickest panto you’ve ever seen. Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw’s production is pacy and family friendly, full of cheery songs and snarky jokes"

"... Brady’s Hercules is sweet but uncharismatic, his romance with Hades’ bored-seeming servant Meg (Mae Ann Jorolan) low-powered."

"Stephen Carlile’s outrageously camp, scene-stealing Hades gets all the best lines: “People die all the time: I should know, I kill them.”"

"If only scriptwriters Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah had put as much effort into the plot and emotion as they do into the one-liners."

"... the show chugs along agreeably enough, powered by the attitude and powerhouse vocals of the Muses."

"Mighty muses save Disney’s musclebound musical"

"The new mega musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane has new songs by Alan Menken — but why does it look like a Vegas theme park?"

"... it’s hard to work up much enthusiasm about Casey Nicholaw’s musclebound production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. True, the temperature rises whenever the five muses deliver hand-clapping gospel fervour — Zero to Hero still does the business — yet otherwise this is a show which ticks along competently enough."

"The new numbers are efficient but unmemorable, nor is there much of a buzz about the romance between Luke Brady’s likeable hero and Mae Ann Jorolan’s winsome Meg."

"The good news, though, is that Trevor Dion Nicholas adds mischief as Hercules’ sidekick Phil"

"Stephen Carlile makes an authentically sneering villain as Hades: all hurt pride and flaring nostrils, he brings a touch of panto energy to the proceedings. Whenever he’s on stage, the script co-written by Robert Horn and our own Kwame Kwei-Armah starts to crackle."

"Disney’s latest big budget musical is a fun spectacle with some great gags, but it won’t go down in legend"

"... here comes Hercules, the next in the megacorp’s long line of perfectly adequate, not very imaginative adaptations of its bountiful ’90s animated roster."

"Book of Mormon director Casey Nicholaw’s production is good looking and high energy. Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s book is appropriately big hearted with a handful of very funny gags. The show’s not-so-secret weapon is the retention of the film’s sassy quintet of singing Muses... However, the Muses are also symptomatic of the fact that the show’s Ancient Greece comes across as a reskinned small-town America, without having any comment to make on small-town America."

"While there’s a vague nod to Hellenistic art, there were endless opportunities to have done something visually audacious and aesthetically interesting, and they were all passed upon."

"All that accepted, it’s a sturdy action-adventure romp that absolutely does the trick and is eminently worth taking The Kids to during the hols."

"It has charm, because it’s adapted from a charming film and talented people have made it, but it’s definitely not going to go down in legend."

"Cheerful nonsense"

"Amiable Disney adaptation is shamelessly silly and flimsy"

"With its heroes and villains, its featherweight plot, its abundance of glittery numbers performed by a prancing, perma-smiling ensemble and its fantastical but relatively lo-tech mythological creatures, all served up with liberal lashings of camp, it has plenty in common with a big-budget panto. And it might be a treat for younger children or nostalgic lovers of the film, who squeal with delight at the recreation of each familiar moment. The rest of us are more likely to find ourselves craving a scintilla of nuance, a whiff of real jeopardy – any reason at all, really, to care about the antics on stage."

"... Casey Nicholaw’s production isn’t for us – it’s for the fans, the Disney devotees, and it flaunts its silly humour and utter flimsiness with unabashed abandon."

"Our guides through this cheerful nonsense are five fabulous Motownish muses, who supply sassy glamour and much of the musical fire power. Luke Brady’s likeable Herc brings the right combination of beefcake and boy-next-door innocence and charm to the title role, while Mae Ann Jorolan as Meg, a prisoner in the Underworld with a fiercely feminist outlook and a dim view of masculine heroics, makes an enjoyably feisty, reluctant love interest."

"I love the original cartoon but Disney's Hercules musical fails to go the distance"

"Replacing Frozen as the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Disney's Hercules bounces between divine and dreary but has two major things in its favour."

"One of the greatest joys of the animated original was the sassy Muses. Their role has been wisely expanded, and these five swaggering powerhouse divas bring the entire auditorium alive time after time"

"All the brilliant big numbers from the cartoon are there, packed around the basic story"

"Alan Menken's melodies, of course, were sublime and, like the blissful play on words above, David Zippel's lyrics were packed with sly wit. However, the new stage production has ditched all the edge and rolled out the full cheese trolley."

"If this were a touring show or temporary filler, I'd applaud what it achieves, but from an entertainment giant renowned for its excellence in one of the showcase theatres of the West End, it is just OK. It may put "the glad in Gladiator", but not in my heart."

"Bursting with energy but lacking in heart"

"Hercules, the latest arrival, has all the qualities associated with the brand: it’s slick, it’s colourful, it’s energetic. It’s a show where it’s perfectly possible to have a good time. Yet something is missing. The wit and warmth that made the 1997 classic rather endearing have been replaced by something much more mechanical and heavy-handed."

"The songs by Alan Menken and David Zippel supplement those in the film, but don’t ever produce a tune to touch “Zero to Hero” or “Go the Distance”, which were both in the original."

"Hades himself (Stephen Carlile, doing his best) has been turned into a snarling pantomime villain, with strong echoes of Scar (who Carlile previously played on Broadway). Luke Brady’s Hercules smiles at every opportunity and has a nice line in cheek, while Mae Ann Jorolan’s sweet-voiced Meg enlivens each scene in which she appears."

"Best of all are the five Muses – Malinda Parris, Candace Furbert, Robyn Rose-Li, Sharlene Hector and Brianna Ogunbawo – who combine magnificent gospel-riffed singing with plenty of humour and knowing sass."

"Hercules is antiseptic fun, carefully manufactured. It isn’t a bad night out, but it’s like a fizzy drink, lively on the tongue but ultimately unsatisfying."

"Oh mighty Zeus! The Hercules musical is awful "

"I would recommend that you go quite some distance to avoid this"

"Great Zeus! What on Earth has Disney done to Greek myth and legend? This hideous grab-bag of classical mythology is based on the company’s 1997 animated film... Yet there is no escaping the fact that this new production, presumably intended for Broadway, is engaged in a continual, well, Herculean struggle with its own script. Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah have collaborated on a new book and the resulting two charm-free hours exist in a state of almost constant narrative bewilderment."

'From The Muses’ four-part opening song, “Gospel Truth”, I felt I had inadvertently stumbled into a very lavish pantomime."

"The Muses raise the tempo of Casey Nicholaw’s busy but unmemorable production every time they shimmy on in another set of eye-catching outfits, but aside from this it’s a dismal evening."

"Musical lacks a punch in new take of Disney classic"

"... he's been reduced from legendary hero to close to zero by a laboured new musical version of his derring-do, based on the 1997 animated Disney film."

"Stephen Carlile adds spice as a Vincent Price-like Hades, and makes something of his panto-villain gags – including the groanworthy verdict on baby Hercules: 'So strong he could be a single mother.'"

"Pillars and statuary, shifting about in front of mosaic skyscapes designed by Dane Laffrey, add visual glitter. But the superhero action sequences are lugubriously undercharged, leaving Brady sleepwalking through adventures."

"Music and lyrics by Alan Menken and David Zippel are audaciously bland. And with the five gospel-singing muses adding diva-ish decibels, I couldn't make out what they were singing."

"But all these moments lack the power and pageantry of Disney's other theatrical hit, The Lion King. Simba's underpowered sibling needs to go back to the gym and bulk up."

"Like its demigod hero, Disney’s Hercules musical loses its divine status in clumsy hands"

"This show is lit up by sinuous harmonies and heart-melting ballads, but the warmth evaporates when the music stops"

"The film’s gloriously leftfield take on Ancient Greece... Unfortunately, there’s none of the same imaginative energy in this stodgy new stage version, which hits the expected beats without capturing the lovable zaniness that makes Hercules a fan fave."

"... even a dish of Angel Delight wouldn’t tremble at Stephen Carlile’s telly host-esque evocation of the ruler of the underworld"

"If the darkness is gone, thank the gods for star Luke Brady’s twinkly brightness as Hercules: he’s camp and joyful in a collection of truly bizarre Greek-style get-up... The film’s standout song, “Go the Distance” is fantastic here, full of pep and yearning. The muses are gorgeous, too – the show is lit up by this charismatic quintet’s sinuous harmonies, fabulous Motown party-worthy outfits and general clowning around."

"Still, when the music stops, this show’s warmth evaporates. Writers Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s disjointed update of the story flirts with modernisation before settling on something infinitely more trad."

"Hercules has two things stopping it from going the distance: a lack of stagecraft to create moments of real awe and wonder, and a lack of consistency in a script that doesn’t really have a cohesive take on who these mythic figures are, and why we should care about them."

"This musical is an ungodly mess. How did so many talented people get here?"

"Disney’s far from heroic Hercules fails to go the distance. Here’s how other shows got it right"

"Only the songs, by Alan Menken and David Zippel, have stayed constant — albeit the new ones are even less exciting than the ones they wrote for the original film. And yes, I know songs such as Go the Distance and Zero to Hero have their fans. But Menken, who has scored nine Disney films, has written many better melodies elsewhere."

"Hercules staggers through its storytelling, going from the spectacular to the silly to po-faced balladeering. The director Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Mean Girls) can’t stop the comedy or the action from feeling effortful."

"Hercules does have pleasures: the five Motownish Muses who pop up now and then to sing variations on their gospel song; some nasty monsters; a decent tap routine. It doesn’t hang together, though."

"Disney’s Over-Bright, Relentless Revamp Muscles Into the West End"

"In place of actual dramatic tension, the film relied on fast-cut, explosive animation and some character zip. Softening those characters for present-day sensibilities banishes what little edge there was and leaves everything feeling over-bright in a restless and relentless production."

"In “Hercules,” on screen and stage, that’s embodied by the Muses, a five-strong Greek chorus of smart-mouthed, lung-busting Black women. Laced throughout as commentators, their joyful energy kickstarts everything and they land every moment, striking poses and rising up through the floor of Dane Laffrey’s set to the audience’s delight. But the thought occurs that it takes more than hydraulics to lift a show."

"The strongest scenes belong to those featuring the dashingly droll antagonist Hades. Vulpine, frock-coated and led by his coiffured mane of white hair, a deliciously enjoyable Stephen Carlile is like Alan Rickman on steroids, with added decibels."

"... the new numbers feel merely efficient because they’re so generic"

"Staging a beloved property means Disney knows there’s an audience ready to applaud having memories recreated live. But having a super-saturated production insist upon you having a good time all the time proves less entertaining, more enervating."

"As if aware that engaging plot is not the story’s strongest suit, Nicholaw keeps his foot on the accelerator throughout, making sure nothing and no one dawdles as the production hurtles from one incident to the next."