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‘Hercules’ Review: Disney’s Over-Bright, Relentless Revamp Muscles Into the West End
Disney Theatrical Group's over-bright musical adaptation of the 90s movie comes to the West End in a restless and relentless production.
“Hercules” was a moderate Mouse House success, though something of a disappointment compared with its doubly more profitable immediate predecessor “Pocahontas.” What connected the two and keeps it alive in the memories of those who saw it (or stream it now on Disney+) was its fun, ’90s feminist sensibility. Even when characters get a moment of self-realization, Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s book, including sizeable chunks of the screenplay, replaces drama with platitudes or dialogue gags. But banishing the amusingly furious grumpiness of the character as written for and played by Danny DeVito flattens the friendship between him and Hercules because beyond a little early exasperation, the relationship – and by extension, the whole show – has no texture.
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