Hercules: Disney musical is a 'blast' for kids – but lacks imagination

Family-friendly show has a 'larky' panto feel and 'radiant gospel-driven score'

Cast of Hercules dancing on stage
Stage adaptation is 'definitely not going to go down in legend'
(Image credit: Johan Persson)

Back in 1997, Disney "literally made the most successful musical of all time", said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. For the stage version of "The Lion King", virtuoso director Julie Taymor satisfied the Mouse megacorp by including "all the dumb stuff" from the film – "farting warthogs, basically" – but veered radically away in other respects to create an "audacious" production that is still pulling in audiences today.

Yet Disney failed to learn from this success, and its subsequent efforts, including "Aladdin" and "Frozen", simply plonked the film on stage – and have enjoyed far shorter runs.

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