Hercules on Stage

[UmbrellaFish]

Good to know! The Muses looked like they could be real costumes, but Meg’s was so confusing!!

[rodrigo_ca]

Thank you for sharing those! I *might* be able to see it live and I'm so excited even if what we know about it is less than stellar. Have they announced in which shows will the Hercules alternate go on? I'd hate to miss Benet

[Jäger-Rose]

Thank you for sharing those! I *might* be able to see it live and I'm so excited even if what we know about it is less than stellar. Have they announced in which shows will the Hercules alternate go on? I'd hate to miss Benet

Hmm no I couldn't tell you where to find that even if it was made public beforehand. :/
But hey, really cool that you plan on seeing it! If everything goes well I should sit in the audience during the media premiere end of March I'm really excited to see it again in the reworked version.

[Jäger-Rose]

Let me share a few new concept arts with you all, including costumes.

[UmbrellaFish]

Much better! Thank you for sharing.

[Sotiris]

The costumes for Meg and Phil suck, but the rest are OK...

[Sotiris]

The song "Cool Day in Hell" has been replaced by a new song for Hades.

Q: Were there any plans for Hades to have a song in Hercules?

David Zippel: Even the first time through, Alan [Menken] and I were really keen to write a song for Hades. We had a song for Hades that we wrote for the Central Park version of the show. Then Casey Nicholaw came on and he wanted to do a dance-y song for Hades, so we wrote another song which we are going to try out in Hamburg. We're going to rehearsal in January. We open in March. So, Hades had two songs written for him already, but one is replacing the other.

Q: We saw [Hercules] at Papermill Playhouse. Is that the one that's going or the one that's through?

David Zippel: That has been replaced. I liked that song. It was a little bit of "Walk on the Wild Side" for Hades. The new version is a song called "Getting Even" and it swings a little bit and it involves all the chorus. I think Casey was excited about getting people up on their feet and really giving it some movement. I hope we bring [the show] to New York at some point.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8kxE6Sm7Bg

[Sotiris]

More featurettes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8p_TXTlrg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ik-UwxtjM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glqYr5-XOz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5f07-5DDDs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5nOCCreOoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lciip4j0-T0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GBmHA1xzds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T25FCanaTu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dm_K94UMgo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYf3e9yLwQw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ij467Jj7p0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htWCjDt40lE

[Jäger-Rose]

This week, Alan Menken and Thomas Schumacher are in Hamburg, Germany for the premiere of Hercules (less than 2 weeks now!) On Sunday, I saw the first preview of the show and let me tell you: they've changed quite a lot from the Paper Mill Playhouse version!

Today, I was invited to a press event and I'm happy to present you the whole thing - a 40 minute panel about Hercules:

https://youtu.be/p0qJTOoW4Es

Also there war a quick roundtable interview with Alan where I didn't ask any questions, but I'm able to share it nonetheless.

https://youtu.be/HMYQUkIvdfE

I'm gonna conduct two separate interviews with both Alan and Thomas within the next few days. If there is anything you'd like to know, any great questions you might have - let me know!
I'll try to remember to post my interviews here as well (but I guess just in case subscribe to my YouTube to get notified... hahaha) - Oh and feel free to share the videos above online! I think there's probably many people that are interested in this. It felt like a small D23 panel. I mean, Alan is even on the piano for a few moments

[Sotiris]

On Sunday, I saw the first preview of the show and let me tell you: they've changed quite a lot from the Paper Mill Playhouse version!

Can you tell us what the changes are?

Today, I was invited to a press event and I'm happy to present you the whole thing - a 40 minute panel about Hercules. Also there war a quick roundtable interview with Alan where I didn't ask any questions, but I'm able to share it nonetheless.

Thanks for sharing these!

I'm gonna conduct two separate interviews with both Alan and Thomas within the next few days. If there is anything you'd like to know, any great questions you might have - let me know!

I have so many questions, but I'll try to contain myself to just a few.

For Alan:
1) Was there ever an attempt to include in the stage adaptation of Hercules any of the songs that didn't make it into the movie like Shooting Star or I Can't Believe My Heart?
2) Are there plans for Hercules to come to Broadway or the West End?
3) What's the status on the live-action Hercules remake? Will you be writing any new material for that?
4) It was announced the new production of Beauty and the Beast is getting a North American tour in 2025. Are there plans to bring it back to Broadway at some point?
5) What's going on with the Night at the Museum musical? Is it still happening?
6) What can you share about the new stage version of Tangled? Is it being developed for stock and amateur or is it being eyed for Broadway? Have you written any new songs for it yet?
7) What other projects are you currently working on?

[Jäger-Rose]

On Sunday, I saw the first preview of the show and let me tell you: they've changed quite a lot from the Paper Mill Playhouse version!

Can you tell us what the changes are?

So, it's a little tough to name all of them but a few things that come to mind are these. Beware, I'm gonna go with some spoilers in here!


- Hades got a new song (Cool Day in Hell is gone)
- Pain and Panic were reworked into different characters, they meet Hades during the events of the show as souls working for him (kinda like Meg does). Their names are Karl and Heinz - which is some German joke (that I honestly don't even get...)
- I wanna say Meg enters the play much earlier (while Herc is still young)
- I feel like Herc's time as a teen in the village with his mom got shortened - but not 100% sure on this one
- Phil's Jazz Club or whatever it was named is gone, instead it's Medusa's now (she's a character)
- Some new monster puppets
- The underworld set is new and looks much better now
- Hades has mommy issues
- New intro scene for the gods shows how Zeus, Hades and Poseidon each got their roles
- No Titans anymore, Hades is now summoning an undead army from the Underworld
- The whole finale plays out in a different way - not gonna spoil anything here though


That's all that comes to mind right now. However, they mentioned today that they've took notes and are reworking some things. Oh and fun thing: the whole creative team inlcuding Alan, Thomas and director Casey Nicholaw set right behind me during the preview showing... Crazy!!

Oh and thanks for the questions! I'll try to get some of these in.

[veu]

Jager Rose, great opportunity!

I have some questions:

For Alan:
- What idea (not strictly connected to Disney's previous work) would you like to adapt into a Broadway musical or a movie (animated or live action)?
- What's the status of Hercules live action? Do you work on it? When shootings are begins?
- Is there a possibility Pocahontas or Tangled could begin a Broadway musical?
- Years ago you wrote on Twitter there will be more projects about Rapunzel: is there a live action movie in development? if so, what's the status of the live action movie?
- Some years ago, Hunchback has been announced as a live action movie. What's the status?
- Is there a possibility you can return to do music for Disney Animation in the future?
- Do you liked to work with Lin Manuel Miranda on TLM live action and with Paul and Pasek on Aladdin?
- I appreciate too much the deleted song Desert Moon in Aladdin, a truly jem. Is there a possibility you can work again with Paul and Pasek?
- I remember that in the past you were assigned to work on preliminary version of Princess and the Frog titled Frog Princess and preliminary version of Frozen titled Snow Queen. Did you write songs for them? could you release online?
- Could you release online deleted songs about Rapunzel (I remember the song "You're my forever")? I'd like to listen them.


For Thomas Schumacher:
- Disney Theatrical has done some great works. What's the future of shows? Could you give some previews for future shows?
- Aida is the first original disney musical, not based on a classic movie. I know in Netherlands the show has been released last year. Is plans for Aida to return at Broadway?
- In some country of the world (especially Italy), people can't see theatrical musical because there's no culture about musical. Is there a chance that some musicals like for example Aida or King David could be released on Disney+? I remember Hamilton has been a success years ago. I'd like to see Aida and King David.
- Is there a chance Aida could become a live action musical movie? Could you propose to Disney Studios to adapt into a movie some original shows like Aida or King David?

[Jäger-Rose]

Thanks for your questions!
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk to Thomas Schumacher after all. However, today I did have my interview with Alan Menken! I tried to mix in as many interesting questions as I could and we did speak about some very interesting things.

The full interview (about 15 minutes) I still have to edit and upload. But I do have a first snippet on Instagram already from when I shared my fear that the Muses might get cut. You can check it out here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4gjckhIEkp/

I hope I'll have the full interview up in the next couple days. I'll keep you posted!

[Disney's Divinity]

The whole idea of Hades using an army of dead rather than the Titans is alright considering the latter would be hard to portray.

It's funny to me though, if the plots were going to be flipped, you'd almost think the musical would've had the Titans and the film the "army of the dead." Just because I know an army of the dead was an idea they used with the Horned King only a handful of movies before Hercules came along. I remember watching features that would talk about how they struggled with how to portray the Horned King in his solo scenes when he was talking to himself (didn't they briefly think of giving the Horned King a song?). Random thought, but reading how they thought about how to write a song for Hades took my mind there, I guess.

[Jäger-Rose]

Oh funny you should mention Hades' song because that is something I've also talked with Alan about.

I hope I'll have the full interview ready on YouTube by tomorrow. But for now, here's another snippet where he talks about how the thought of a Hercules Musical first came to be on a Disney Cruise: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4itC3Iovzy/

[Jäger-Rose]

It took me a while now but I can finally share my interview with Alan Menken with all of you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAvcY94Ubqk

Some things we are talking about include obviously the new Hercules Musical, songs for Hades (Cool Day in Hell and Getting Even), the Muses, the popularity of Hercules as a movie, the live action Hercules remake, his relationship to Disneyland (where he mentions is work on the Snow Queen stage show for Tokyo DisneySea!) and I kinda low-key force him to pitch a Hercules attraction to Imagineering...

I hope you enjoy the interview. Feel free to share it with friends and fellow Hercules Fans! I think it is a really interesting interview!
Please excuse my weird pronunciations here and there and bad grammar - that kind of stuff happens when you're talking to a Disney Legend... haha

Oh and there's another thing that I remembered for the changes between Jersey and Hamburg list from above:
- The Fates are completely written out as is their song "The Prophecy".
- "Despina's Lullaby" might be gone, too. I remember that she was singing but I can't recall the song right now. But it's definitely only one time that she's singing not two times.
- "Phil's Soul Spot" is another song that is gone.
- I'm not sure if "Uniquely Greek Tough Town" is still in there or not.

I'll be seeing the show again this Saturday at the media premiere night. So maybe/hopefully some more details stay with me this time. Haha

[Sotiris]

Thank you for all the updates! We appreciate it!

[Jäger-Rose]

You're very welcome! I was afraid I'd be spamming too much tbh. But I'm glad you are enjoying the information that I am able to share with you all.

[Disney's Divinity]

A shame the Fates are written out. I think a (very brief) song by them was a good idea. Not so sad about Phil losing a song, I feel like "One Last Hope" is enough song for that character--maybe a reprise at the end when Hercules becomes a "true" hero or something.

Who is Despina? Did they re-name one of the Muses or Alcmene/Hera?

[Sotiris]

Who is Despina? Did they re-name one of the Muses or Alcmene/Hera?

It's the new name for Alcmene which is a downgrade, if you ask me. I don't get why they decided to give her a new name. It's a completely unnecessary and pointless change. They also cut Amphitryon in order to turn Phil into Hercules' central father figure.