Holding out for a hero at Hercules stage show

Live team
19 minutes ago
8 min read

We catch up with the creative team behind Hercules, the latest Disney adaptation to hit West End stages

Words Katie Kasperson

Few stories have stood the test of time like those of Greek mythology. One such character reappears throughout these tales: Heracles – also known as Hercules in the Roman translation – a divine hero and son of Zeus.

Though his story can be traced to Neolithic times, Hercules rose to pop culture fame in 1997 when Disney adapted the ancient myth into an animated film. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, and with music by legendary composer Alan Menken, the movie-musical follows the titular Herc, who’s been raised among mortals, as he attempts to reclaim his god status and join his family in Mount Olympus.

Though not an immediate hit, Disney’s Hercules has amassed a cult following in the 28 years since its release. Combining Greek mythology with screwball comedy, the film borrows its visual style from ancient sculpture, illustration and architecture. It also came complete with certified bangers like I Won’t Say (I’m in Love), Zero to Hero and Go the Distance.

Nearly three decades on, following the commercial successes of on-stage adaptations for The Lion King, Aladdin and Frozen, Hercules has officially jumped from page to screen to stage, now hitting the West End’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Overseen by Disney Theatrical Group and directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, the production had its work cut out. So how do you bring the gods down to Earth?

Setting the stage

With any adaptation, there’s a balance to be struck: sticking to the existing IP – but not too closely. For the creative team behind the musical Disney’s Hercules, this was addressed very early on. “I’ve seen the movie, and it’s great, but we didn’t want to just recreate that,” reveals lighting designer Jeff Croiter. “That’s not what we were doing.”

Video designer George Reeve, whose credits also include productions of Frozen, Tarzan, Aladdin and Mary Poppins, ultimately chose to go with a Greek-inspired mosaic style for the show’s backdrop – a look that strays from the original film’s animation while maintaining its ancient aesthetic. The tiles shapeshift in real time to transport audiences from the Underworld to Earth to Mount Olympus within seconds.

For lighting, “I didn’t lean into the original at all, really. There were moments when I was looking for an idea or was curious about something, so I looked at a couple of stills from the movie,” Croiter admits – but that was all. For him, the guiding questions were, “What are we seeing? Where are we looking? What’s the time of day? How is Mount Olympus different from the Underworld?” He continues: “There’s an answer in lighting for every moment of the show.”

According to Croiter, the early conversations revolved around the show’s overall goals rather than one specific facet of the production. “It’s a very big show with a lot of moving parts, and the goal is to bring something to the people sitting in the seats – to make them laugh, cry, smile or feel something, and to entertain them for however long we have them in captivity,” he jokes. “We are delivering a show and, lighting-wise, I always try to enhance that storytelling.”

While now enjoying its West End run, Hercules was previously touring in Hamburg, Germany, at the Stage Theatre Neue Flora. But when it moved to Drury Lane, Disney asked Olivier Award-winning sound designer Adam Fisher (Sunset Boulevard, Evita, Into the Woods) to come on board. “The main note was that the creators wanted to feel the music, as well as hear it – making it a kind of visceral experience,” he shares.

Joining an already-established production means “coming into a team that’s already settled,” Fisher says. “You’re trying to play a bit of catch-up. Taking over on a show, you try to find out why they were looking to go a different way.”

From set design to costuming to, of course, sound and lighting, Hercules is a visually and sonically striking show from start to finish. Fisher went with a sound system more akin to a live concert, while Croiter amped up the brightness. “It might be one of the brightest shows ever on a West End stage,” he suggests. “I didn’t ever want to see someone sitting in the audience and squinting. It’s all delivered into the audience’s lap.”

Living on Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane – which was renovated in 2013 for its 350th anniversary and again in 2020 – houses an audience of just under 2000, spread across four levels. According to Fisher, these renovations ‘created distinct acoustic zones’, presenting an obvious audio challenge. “It was a lot of trying to make a cohesive enough show without getting overly worried about it not being exactly the same, acoustically, between those spaces. There are a lot of fills and delays in that theatre.”

Fisher chose Panther loudspeakers from Meyer Sound for their immersive, stadium-sized feel. “I’m a big fan of Meyer Sound, and they’d just come out with the Panther. Drury Lane is one of the biggest theatres in London, so I thought these might be appropriate for the show, with the scale of its sets,” he explains. “I prefer using a bigger speaker and running it at a lower level, rather than having a smaller speaker that’s working incredibly hard to keep up.”

As well as a line array at the front, Fisher’s design also included a surround sound set-up. “It’s a combination of Meyer doing the main system, with EM Acoustics for surround and foldback,” he says. Additionally, the cast wear head mics during performances. “That’s been a challenge – trying to keep it intelligible and at a level that’s big, but not loud,” Fisher admits. “At the end of the day, it’s still a show for kids. There are lots of conversations asking: is this too loud? Are we understanding that lyric? Is that being heard well enough?”

Meanwhile, Croiter was also navigating Drury Lane’s existing lights. “With every show I do,” he begins, “no matter what it is, we work within the front-of-house structure. At Drury Lane, it was really good. There wasn’t a lot wanting.”

Over the stage, “it’s an empty box,” Croiter continues, “so we can do whatever we want.” His design blended wash lights from German Light Products with ETC Lustrs ‘all over the place’, the PRG Ground Control Followspot and Zactrack systems for spotlights and an ETC Eos Console for system control.

“There’s a lot of scenery in the show,” Croiter adds, “so the constraints become: how do we fit everything we want to fit in? There’s a lot of flying scenery that takes up space where lights would go. There’s a lot of scenery that tracks on and off stage that takes up space too,” including the pillars adorning either side. “Fortunately, what comes with doing a Disney show is some very smart people who can help solve these problems.”

On the video side, Reeve collaborated with a team of designers and animators to create both LED backdrops and laser projections, which decorate the pillars, as well as the stage floor itself. Reeve and the team used Disguise Designer, Omnical cameras and EX 3+ media servers, plus Unreal Engine, Substance and After Effects, to develop and render the Herculean imagery, ensuring it was properly lit to match Croiter’s work. Once rendered, the high-resolution visuals were processed and transmitted via a robust Lightware system, comprising an MX2-24x24 4K matrix, seven OPT-J transceiver pairs and a PSU rack tray.

“Lightware is the go-to when it comes to reliable 4K infrastructure, which we use on almost every show we supply,” comments Ed Cooper, director at Blue-I, a company specialising in high-end AV and technical production – and the team behind the spectacular delivery of Disney’s Hercules at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Downstage, the crew installed a 928-tile Roe Visual BP3 LED screen, while two Panasonic PT-RQ35K and four Epson PQ2220B projectors displayed upstage imagery. Using Disguise Designer, the video design team could build a cue list and automate visual changes depending on the scene. It also allowed previews of each image in 3D, giving an accurate idea of the show’s final look before rehearsals even began in early 2025.

Gods and monsters

Mount Olympus, home of the gods, is a magical place, akin to Heaven. To light this, Croiter opted for warmer tones – primarily oranges and golds. In contrast, the Underworld, home of Hades, is much cooler and darker, tinted with greens and blues for an eerie, almost sickly effect, fitting for the land of the dead. For what is essentially representing Hell, “red was too comfortable,” Croiter explains, “and too cheery. It wasn’t different enough from the hues of Mount Olympus.”

Hercules is the first live show to use Disguise’s new Colour Management licence on the EX range, designed to improve the colour pipeline. With that tool in play, Reeve was able to tweak parameters and grade content in real time, making sure it blended with the rest of the set.

Reeve created a video sequence for the prologue of the show. “There’s a godly voice, which explains the battle between Hades and Zeus,” describes Fisher. “George created some amazing visual elements, with shooting stars and all sorts going on. I took that, thinking, ‘I can map some sounds to it,’” he shares.

Matching what Reeve and Croiter had done, Fisher created hundreds of sound effects that sync with the show’s visual cues. “At the end of act one, Hercules fights a hydra, then he fights Hades. All that’s laid out, and a lot is time-coded, to help George and Jeff,” he explains.

“I collaborated with those two departments to tie everything together timing-wise. They might cut two bars from a piece of music, which then changes everything for everyone,” Fisher continues. “It’s a lot of work because one little change can have a massive impact.”

Dancing through life

Hercules comes complete with 25 musical numbers, some of which are brand new. “It’s such a well-known film – especially for its music,” Fisher argues. “Many people know the songs but don’t necessarily know the film, so we’re trying to deliver all these big gospel numbers in a fashion that people expect in 2025, and make it sound as impressive as we can.”

Hades, for instance, now gets his own musical number (Getting Even), which is described by Croiter as ‘a tap number in Hell’. The lighting “starts off dark, with this blue-green motif, and builds from there. It’s a very different look from the rest of the show; side-lit and a little more sculptural, with beams of light through the air, and more punctuated too.”

Because it’s a tap dance, Fisher had to ensure the music and vocals weren’t lost amid the stomping feet. “Thankfully, the music department helped us to deliver what we needed to deliver.”

Compare this with Zero to Hero, sung by the Muses, who detail Hercules’s overnight transformation from scrawny teenager to hunky hero. Closing out act one, the number begins with a modular approach to lighting. “The space isn’t lit in expanse. It’s carved out – a small scene between Hercules and his followers happens in one place, then the light shifts and we’re focusing on Hercules interacting with people someplace else.” The scenery moves simultaneously, and eventually we are at the Colosseum for what Croiter describes as a ‘big Hercules celebration halftime show’.

According to Croiter, there are 700 individual lighting looks throughout Hercules. “Every time any actor moves more than four feet, the lights change,” he says. This is especially important during dance numbers, “because the choreographer has an idea of how a number is paced from beginning to end, and the lighting has to match that. Whatever story the choreographer is telling on a micro level, the lighting is a part of that, helping to tell the story.”

Curtains up!

Croiter isn’t partial to any one scene or lighting configuration over another; he believes they all shine in their own way. “I hope it excels the whole time. There’s lots of variety to it; I love how the last scene of the show is lit in a totally different way from anything else.”

“It’s difficult to recreate a Disney film on stage,” Fisher adds. “I hope we made something that offers a new slant on it, while being true to what the film was.”

Fisher, Croiter and Reeve are just three of an enormous team, made up of cast, creative, production staff and orchestra, plus the Disney Theatrical Group and house employees at Drury Lane. “On any given day, there are hundreds of people involved, working hard,” Croiter explains. “I’m very happy audiences are enjoying it – that’s number one.”