Disney's Hercules at a glance

Show
Disney's Hercules
Venue
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, West End
Address
Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JF
Nearest station
Covent Garden (5 min walk); Holborn (7 min); Temple (8 min); Charing Cross (10 min)
Genre
Family musical — Disney adaptation
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 10 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
6+ (under-4s not admitted, including babies in arms)
Dates
6 June 2025 – 5 September 2026 (final London run, no further extensions)
Press night
24 June 2025
Price range
From £29.50 (typically £29.50–£90)
Music
Alan Menken
Lyrics
David Zippel
Book
Robert Horn & Kwame Kwei-Armah
Director & choreographer
Casey Nicholaw (with co-choreography by Tanisha Scott)
Awards
3 WhatsOnStage Award nominations including Best New Musical (2026)
Cast change
Bradley Gibson takes over as Hercules from 29 June 2026; Emile Ruddock as Phil

Expert Review: Disney's Hercules at Drury Lane

3.8
★★★★☆

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 11 May 2026.

The Verdict

Disney West End musicals come in two flavours: the genuine landmarks (The Lion King, Frozen) where the stage production fundamentally transforms or expands the source material, and the slickly produced adaptations (Aladdin, Hercules) that aim a little lower and deliver a polished family night out rather than a piece of new musical theatre history. Casey Nicholaw's Hercules is firmly in the second category — and that's an honest assessment rather than a criticism. The production knows what it is, the audience knows what it's getting, and on those terms the show absolutely delivers.

What works best: the Five Muses, reimagined here as a full-on gospel quintet, are the production's secret weapon and the one place where the stage version expands meaningfully on the film. The Menken/Zippel songs are the songs you remember — "Go the Distance" lands, "Zero to Hero" tears the house down, "I Won't Say I'm in Love" gets its moment. Stephen Carlile's Hades is a properly enjoyable villain in the panto tradition. Dane Laffrey's revolving set and George Reeve's video design move the show along briskly. What works less well: the new songs written for the stage are competent but unmemorable, the love story between Hercules and Meg feels under-developed, and the climactic battle sequence is a muddle. Most broadsheet critics landed around 3 stars; the family audience reception has been much warmer. For families with 6-to-10-year-olds who love the film, this is a solid, well-staged, properly-funded night out. Bradley Gibson's arrival from 29 June 2026 — he originated the role at the Paper Mill Playhouse premiere in 2019 — gives the final run a definite reason to revisit.

What Makes It Special

  • The Muses as full-on gospel quintet. The film's narrating chorus of Muses becomes, on stage, a finger-snapping, head-shaking, quick-changing gospel sextet that drives every transition and lifts every set-piece number. The Time Out review described them as the show's "not-so-secret weapon" — and they really are.
  • Bradley Gibson as Hercules (from 29 June 2026). Gibson originated the title role at the 2019 world premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse, New Jersey, before playing Simba in Broadway's The Lion King. His takeover for the final London run is a significant casting event — the original Hercules at the original production, now at Drury Lane.
  • Alan Menken's score. One of the most decorated Disney composers in history (eight Oscars), Menken's Hercules film score is among his most loved. "Go the Distance" remains a Disney-musical staple alongside "A Whole New World" and "Let It Go". The Drury Lane production gives the songs the orchestral and choral weight they were always intended for.
  • Stephen Carlile's Hades. Carlile (long-running Scar in The Lion King) makes the underworld villain genuinely funny and gives the script its sharpest lines. Most reviews single him out as the production's best individual performance.
  • The Theatre Royal Drury Lane itself. The 2,196-seat Drury Lane is one of the grandest West End houses — extensively refurbished in 2021 by Andrew Lloyd Webber's LW Theatres — and well suited to the scale of a Disney production. The columned auditorium has a particular resonance with the Greek setting that other West End houses couldn't match.
  • The book by Kwame Kwei-Armah & Robert Horn. Kwei-Armah, the British playwright and former Young Vic Artistic Director, co-writes with American Tony-winner Robert Horn (Tootsie, Shucked). The result is a book that's looser and funnier than typical Disney stage fare, with some properly self-mocking gags that land.

You'll love Hercules if you...

  • Are bringing children aged 6–10 who know and love the 1997 film
  • Want a big, slick, properly Disney-budget family musical
  • Enjoy gospel-flavoured production numbers and big song-and-dance sequences
  • Are a fan of the Menken/Zippel score and want to hear it performed live at Drury Lane scale
  • Have always wanted to see Bradley Gibson — the original Hercules — in the role (from 29 June 2026)

It might not be for you if you...

  • Are looking for groundbreaking new musical theatre — this is conventional Disney adaptation territory
  • Prefer the genuinely transformative Disney stagings (The Lion King) to the conventional ones
  • Find Disney's brand of feel-good family entertainment overly familiar at this point
  • Are bringing under-6s — the show is loud, has battle sequences, and requires sustained attention
  • Want a major showstopper "Let It Go"-style new song — there isn't one

Best for

  • Families with children 6–10
  • 1997 film fans
  • Disney musical completists
  • Multi-generational outings
  • Tourists wanting "the big Disney show"
  • School holiday entertainment

Not the strongest fit for under-6s, audiences seeking experimental new musical theatre, or anyone hoping for transformative Disney staging on the scale of The Lion King.

Critical Reception

Press night was 24 June 2025. The London critical reception was politely mixed — two 5-star reviews from family-focused publications, three 2-star dissents from major broadsheet critics who felt the show settled for being competent rather than ambitious, and a broad middle of 3-star reviews acknowledging the production's polish while noting its lack of risk. Family audience reception (as reflected in repeat bookings and box office) has been considerably warmer than the broadsheet response, and the show received 3 WhatsOnStage Award nominations including Best New Musical. Verified star ratings:

  • The Times ★★★
  • The Guardian ★★★
  • The Telegraph ★★★
  • Time Out ★★★
  • Evening Standard ★★★
  • WhatsOnStage ★★★★
  • Radio Times ★★★★★
  • The Stage ★★★
  • Theatre Weekly ★★★★★
  • LondonTheatre.co.uk ★★★★

Source: published reviews of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane production, June 2025 – April 2026. Average critic rating across major UK publications: 3.4★. The show is one of those productions where the gap between broadsheet criticism and family-audience reception is unusually wide — both data points are real, and which weighs more depends on what you're looking for.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in Hercules?

The musical follows the broad shape of the 1997 Disney animated film, with some restructuring of the songs and several new numbers added for the stage. It's a coming-of-age story dressed up as Greek myth: a boy raised in obscurity discovers he is in fact the son of Zeus, sets out to prove himself a hero, and learns that real heroism is something different from what he thought.

The opening: Olympus and the kidnapping

The show opens on Mount Olympus with the birth of the infant Hercules to Zeus and Hera. The Muses — five (here six) gospel-singing narrators — set up the show's tone with a sassy, knowing prologue ("The Gospel Truth"). Hades, ruler of the Underworld and Zeus's brother, learns from the Fates that if Hercules grows up he will prevent Hades' planned overthrow of Olympus. Hades dispatches his henchmen Pain and Panic — here renamed Bob and Charles — to kidnap the baby and make him drink a potion that will strip his immortality. They succeed, mostly: Hercules is rendered mortal but retains his godlike strength because the boy refuses to finish the bottle.

Growing up in Thebes

Hercules is found and raised by mortal foster parents. As a young man (we cut forward fifteen years), he is enormous, awkward, much too strong for his own good, and considered a freak by his peers ("Today's Gonna Be My Day", a new song for the stage). After accidentally destroying half the village marketplace, he is told the truth of his origins by his foster parents: he was found in the wilderness with a medallion bearing the symbol of Zeus.

Phil and "Go the Distance"

Hercules journeys to the temple of Zeus, where his immortal father appears to him in a famous show-stopping number ("Go the Distance") and reveals that he can only return to Olympus by proving himself a true hero on earth. He must find Philoctetes — "Phil" — a grizzled satyr who has trained dozens of would-be heroes, all of whom have failed. Phil, played in the original London cast by Trevor Dion Nicholas and from 29 June 2026 by Emile Ruddock, has retired and wants nothing to do with another hero. Hercules eventually persuades him.

Meg and the rise to fame

Hercules and Phil set out to make a name. Their first encounter is with Meg — a wisecracking, deeply cynical young woman who has, unknown to Hercules, sold her soul to Hades in exchange for the life of a former lover, and is now Hades' indentured agent. Hercules saves her from a centaur. He falls instantly in love. She is professionally obliged to manipulate him. The Muses narrate his rapid rise to celebrity via the show's biggest production number, "Zero to Hero" — Hercules becomes a Greek tabloid superstar, signing endorsement deals for sandals, action figures and statues. Meg's reluctant love song "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" is one of the show's emotional highlights.

Hades' gambit and the second act

The second act opens with Hades discovering that Hercules and Meg have genuinely fallen in love — a development that Hades exploits. He offers Hercules a deal: give up his strength for 24 hours in exchange for Meg's safety. Hercules agrees. Hades immediately releases the Titans — long-imprisoned monstrous gods — to attack Olympus, then reveals Meg has been working for him all along.

The finale

The climactic battle sequence — Hercules powerless, the Titans destroying Olympus, Meg risking herself to save Hercules — is the show's most ambitious staging sequence. Hercules' strength returns at the cost of Meg's life. He descends into the Underworld and pulls Meg's soul from the River Styx — proving, by the willingness to die for love, that he is a true hero. He earns the right to return to Olympus. He declines it. Real heroism, he realises, is staying with the woman he loves, on earth, as a mortal. The Muses bring the show home with a final reprise.