MUSICAL REVIEW: Hercules ★★★

 

Disney’s Hercules, now flexing its muscles at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, delivers high-octane spectacle; soaring vocals, shimmering costumes, and thunderous set pieces. But while it dazzles on the surface, there’s a hollowness beneath the sheen that leaves the mythic core frustratingly underpowered.

Luke Brady sings the title role with gusto, and Mae Ann Jorolan’s Meg brings bite and presence. The Muses, gospel-inflected and scene-stealing, inject humour and energy whenever they appear. Visually, it’s polished to a Disney-branded gleam.

But the script, by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, often undercuts itself. The tone veers wildly between cartoonish gags and attempts at genuine heart, but neither quite lands. The pacing is relentless, as if afraid to let a moment breathe, and key emotional beats, such as Hercules’s identity crisis and Meg’s vulnerability, feel skimmed over rather than explored.

Stripped of the film’s more memorable monsters and mythic grandeur, the stage version plays it oddly safe. New songs mostly service the plot but rarely soar, leaving Menken’s original score to do the heavy lifting.

There’s fun to be had here, especially for families and nostalgic fans, but it’s a slick product rather than a story reborn. This Hercules might go the distance in terms of production values, but emotionally, it doesn’t quite lift off.