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There’s been no shortage of figures from Greek mythology on the London stage recently — Oedipus, Elektra, Antigone, Medea, plus Hermes et al in Hadestown — and the Bacchae are lurking in the wings at the National Theatre. Antiquity is all the rage.
Yet few have been attended by quite so much bling and zing as Hercules — or at least Disney’s zero-to-hero version. This lavish musical of the same name — music by Alan Menken, lyrics by David Zippel, book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah — adds new songs and an expanded script to turn the 1997 animated film into a family-friendly stage spectacle.
But can it pull off the Herculean task of translating a sweet but slender rite-of-passage story into great theatre? Sadly, no. What emerges is a snappily staged pantomime, complete with villain, comic sidekicks, love interest, slash-and-bash fight scenes and even a “he’s behind you” moment of sorts, as Hercules sprints across the stage with a monster in hot pursuit. There’s loads of energy and a droll, wisecracking script bursting with puns and anachronisms (“Call IX-I-I!”), but little heft or emotional punch.
It certainly looks swish: the set and video designs (Dane Laffrey and George Reeve) spin and swirl to compose each backdrop, lending the show a picture-book quality. Mount Olympus has an ancient-Greece-meets-Trump-Tower decor, with soaring Doric pillars and baby Herc cradled in what looks like a Fabergé egg. The gods strut about in gold and white costumes, favouring the sort of camp excess that peppered Dolce & Gabbana’s 2019 Alta Moda collection.
Director Casey Nicholaw, who also choreographs with Tanisha Scott, whisks us through the story. Hercules’s hot-tempered uncle Hades (Stephen Carlile, relishing his wickedness) tries to rob the baby god of his divinity, but entrusts the task to a couple of incompetent (and underwritten) numpties.
Luke Brady’s likeable Hercules looks impeccable in his tiny toga and mesh vest and brings a soaring voice and open-faced, high-school musical quality to his perma-smiling hero. He loses his winged steed, Pegasus, but retains his personal trainer Phil(octetes), here a world-weary mortal played by Trevor Dion Nicholas, and meets his match in Mae Ann Jorolan’s coolly poised Meg, sullenly in hock to Hades. In one smartly witty scene, as she explains that it’s sexist to assume she needs help, the besotted Hercules keeps singing over her.
Meg and Phil are the snappiest aspects of the show, together with the fabulous five Muses, who channel girl bands through the ages and have a habit of suddenly popping up through the floor to belt out a banger with hair-flicking sass.
Even so, it’s thin dramatic fare, zipping from plot point to plot point with little real sense of jeopardy or nuance. None of the new songs have the take-home impact of “Zero to Hero” and it’s all a bit breathless, loud and one-note, while the sound design makes it hard to hear the lyrics. It’s a genial, feelgood show. Whether it’s one for the ages is another matter.
★★★☆☆
Booking to March 28 2026, herculesthemusical.co.uk
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