Cards on the table: I’m not a card-carrying Disney fanatic; I still maintain that Ragtime should have won Best Musical over The Lion King; and I don’t think every one of the studio’s animated movies automatically deserves the Broadway treatment. Start throwing your Mickey ears at me now.
But if any Disney ’toon was ripe for theatrical reinvention, it was 1997’s underrated Hercules. The title character is endowed with godlike strength but human insecurity; he’s someone we admire, but also with whom we identify. He cries, for Zeus’ sake.
That explains the rock-star reception that greets the current limited-run Public Works production of Hercules at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, directed by the insanely creative Lear deBessonet. This crowd loves—I mean loves—everything about Hercules: the gospel-infused stylings of the muses (played by Ramona Keller, Brianna Cabrera, Rema Webb, Tamika Lawrence, and Tieisha Thomas); the bumbling devilish duo Pain and Panic (Nelson Chimilio and Jeff Hiller, respectively); Herc’s fast-talking sidekick/trainer Philoctetes (James Monroe Iglehart, a Tony winner for his Genie in Disney’s Aladdin); the blue-haired, black-clad Prince of Darkness himself, Hades (Broadway vet Roger Bart, Hercules’ singing voice in the film); the don’t-call-her-a-damsel-in-distress Megara (Krysta Rodriguez), whose shoop-shoop-y song “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” gets applause during its orchestral introduction; and especially the toga-clad man himself, the man who goes from “zero to hero,” the guy who “put the glad in gladiator,” Hercules (Frozen’s Jelani Alladin, who endows the role with a sweet vulnerability, a megawatt grin, and killer dance moves).
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★ review here.]
As adaptations go, this isn’t totally faithful. They did cut the flying horse. (Alas, poor Pegasus.) But this Hercules has more than its share of magical moments—all of the ensemble numbers, for starters. The chief joy of any Public Works production—in past years they’ve brought us The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Odyssey, and Shaina Taub’s musical versions of As You Like It and Twelfth Night—is its size. The shows bring together a massive cast of Equity and non-Equity performers drawn from all over New York City—more than 200 in this case. The opening number begins with the Broadway Inspirational Voices choir. At one point, the Passaic High School Marching Band—which possesses an appropriately thunderbolt-like percussion section—files in. It takes more than a dozen people to command the puppets designed by James Ortiz; the Slinky-like Hydra is especially impressive. Sure, a few of the performances aren’t razor-sharp (remember, they’re not all pros) and some of the dancers are behind the beat—there is always a little girl in front who’s about half a step behind, and she is my absolute favorite—but that is part of the Public Works’ charm.
Playwright Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) has updated the script—keep your ears peeled for the Hadestown and Hamilton references!—and composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel have added five new songs, including a sassy number for Meg and Herc (“Forget About It”), a charming ensemble ditty (“Our Uniquely Greek Town Square”), and a jazzy toe-tapper for Hades (“A Cool Day in Hell”). It would be a shame if these songs went unrecorded and if this Hercules had no future life. But in truth, I can’t imagine this beautiful production on Broadway. There’s something so perfect about seeing this updated Greek myth in a modern-day Greek amphitheater and watching Alladin perform the inspirational “Go the Distance” with the trees of Central Park blowing in the breeze behind him. Remember that last year the Public Works’ Twelfth Night returned as one of the full Shakespeare in the Park productions. Fingers crossed that the same happens for this supercool new Hercules.
Hercules opened Aug. 31, 2019, and runs through Sept. 8 at the Delacorte Theater. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
