I'd agree that it was more charming at the Delacorte, but part of that came from having a community theater vibe. They really tried to scale it up here to varying degrees of success.
The biggest issue by far (which I think many of the critics mentioned) is that we don't see any of the battle scenes, except with the Hydra, and that one feels lame. They took the time to put in a dance break in Zero to Hero but I would've preferred a battle montage instead to actually demonstrate how Hercules started proving himself. Great Bolts of Thunder is a fun song and shows a bit of the gods' battle, but we don't really watch how the titans get defeated (I think in the Delacorte it showed the villagers actually going up against the titans). And just a small interlude of Meg going after Hades would've worked wonders (in the movie Hercules gains his powers back because Hades harmed Meg, which was against their deal. Here, it's just because Hades was defeated?)
I agree that To Be Human stops the show a bit (and not in the good way). It's so close to the end that we can feel it, but the downtempo ballad really just makes everyone take a pause so we can listen to what Hercules has to say about human life. I wouldn't mind it as much if there was more progression through it, if it showed more struggle or if the music evolved more between verses, but it mostly felt like the same idea being said across all of the verses. I didn't remember A Cool Day in Hell from the Delacorte, but I really did not care for it here (though the reprise was fun enough), and at intermission when I mentioned it, my friend said something along the lines of "I don't think anyone liked it".
The costumes, especially for the gods, straddle a line between purposely over the top and cringingly garish, and I'm still not quite sure which side of the line I fall on. I do think Hades's costume worked better in person than in the pictures that were posted, but I kind of wish they just went with the wig Roger Bart had at the Delacorte rather than trying to make it too much like the movie. I was a little confused about the colored costumes that the muses change into midway through the first act. I get that it's to maybe give them some variety, but I couldn't tell if they were alluding to something or if it was just for the sake of having them in a different costume.
I think the show is a lot of fun in the big group numbers if you don't think too much about how the plot is progressing. There are a good number of laugh out loud lines in the classic Robert Horn style, but the overall arc of the show felt off-kilter (a long drawn out first act and a second act that wrapped up all the plot lines much too simply...or just dropped some). As it stands now, it wouldn't be a bad show for community theater groups, but I'm curious to see if changes are made for Germany.
