Disney’s HERCULES will transfer to the West End in 2025

Exclusive: Disney’s ‘Hercules’ musical sets premiere in London’s West End" by Broadway News' Andy Lefkowitz - "“Hercules,” the latest musical fromDisney Theatrical Group, has set a summer 2025 premiere at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End. Tony winner Casey Nicholawwill repeat his work as director and co-choreographer from a recently opened Hamburg production. ... Production dates and casting, by Natalie Gallacher CDG for Pippa Ailion & Natalie Gallacher, are still to be announced for the West End staging of “Hercules.”" https://bway.ly/3wgglx

Updated On: 6/24/24 at 09:10 AM

On paper, the Hamberg production seemed like a shotgun marriage of a creative team (list below), some of whom were carried over from the Paper Mill production. Nicholaw is one of those people who does his best work with close collaborators that he works with time and time again. I wonder if they will shake it up further for London?

This world-premiere production is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (Aladdin) and co-choreographer Tanisha Scott, with set and additional video design by Dane Laffrey, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Kai Harada, and costume design by Gregg Barnes and Sky Switser. The production team also includes video designer George Reeve, puppet designer James Oritz, hairstyles and wigs designer Mia M. Neal, makeup designer Kirk Cambridge-Del Pesche, and special effects designer Jeremy Chernick. The music team is led by music supervisor and arranger Michael Kosarin, with orchestrations by Danny Troob and Joseph Joubert and dance arrangements by David Chase.

bwaylyric said: "Why is Disney so high on this property? There are other titles that are more worthy of development and production. I'd rather see Hunchback on stage."

Anecdotally speaking, anyone I have ever spoken to between the ages of 20-40ish have all unequivocally said Hercules is their favorite Disney film of all time and the one they have the strongest connection to. I'm not really sure why, but that seems to be the case for a lot of millennials/gen Xers.

Luke Brady cast in the title role; full casting to be announced shortly

I'm so nervous. I hope they fix the story Hercules. I want the Hercules musical to succeed so it can go to Broadway. I'll try not to expect to that it'll WIn a Tony Award for Best Musical or for now, an Olivier Award for Best Musical, but I hope Hercules is fixed and become a hit. P.S. Is it wrong that I want to see a Disney musical to Win the Tony Award for best musical?

They need to go back to the Berlin production of Hunchback. That new one ( which I do love ) needs to get away from all the narration that takes place, also remove Scott from the project as well.

‘Hercules’ Review: Disney’s Over-Bright, Relentless Revamp Muscles Into the West End

https://variety.com/2025/legit/reviews/hercules-review-musical-west-end-1236439211/

This is a vastly improved musical from what I saw a couple years ago. Unfortunately vastly improved from that disastrous Papermill dumpster fire, is still pretty bad. It’s just theme park entertainment now with a slightly bigger budget. Cast is all great, though.

Chip27 said: "I guess it might not come to Broadway. Oh well, it’s not Broadway worthy or Tony Award worthy anyway. I can’t believe I came back for that."

I mean Hunchback is both of those things and Disney failed to transfer it so they don’t always have the best judgement

It’s really time for us to stop thinking Disney has any desire to put something “special” on stage. It’s this myth we’ve carried on with for decades after “Beauty and the Beast”, “Lion King” and “Aida” but it’s been a quarter century or more and countless Broadway misfires since those. Disney made an enormous splash on Broadway and had a huge impact on the revitalization of Times Square but it was short-lived and for some reason we keep expecting them to put out product like that again. They won’t.

I thought Aladdin was a pretty uninspired and mediocre adaptation, lesser in every way to the movie, and yet here we are, over a decade later and it's still printing money. Should it transfer, I imagine Hercules would be the same.

Updated On: 6/25/25 at 11:57 AM

Kad said: "I thought Aladdin was a pretty uninspired and mediocre adaptation, lesser in every way to the movie, and yet here we are, over a decade later and it's still printing money. Should it transfer, I imagine Hercules would be the same."

I REALLY don't think anybody has an attachment to Hercules like that. Like yeah the movie made money, but it was on the otherside of the Disney Renaissance that people cared about.

The photo I’ve seen from the production had Hercules in a mesh tank top looking like he was heading to a sex dungeon after performing at Broadway Bares. Is this meant to be a family show?