Who put the “glad” in “gladiator”? For the past few weeks, the answer to that question has been New York City’s Public Theater, which is currently finishing up a limited run of a new stage musical based on Disney’s beloved Hercules film. The show only runs through Sept. 8, which means that tickets have been in high demand even with a free public lottery. Luckily, the production just released several videos giving a close look at the musical for anyone who didn’t win the lottery or doesn’t even live in New York.
The video above features a montage of scenes from the performances. Any self-respecting fan of Disney’s Hercules will surely recognize some of the visuals. There’s the Muses teasing Meg (Krysta Rodriguez) about being in love with Herc (Jelani Alladin)! There are the three Fates sharing one big eyeball among them! There’s Roger Bart, who originally provided Hercules’ singing voice in the movie, sporting a shock of blue hair as the underworld lord Hades. And, of course, running throughout is the iconic music by Alan Menken and David Zippel — though viewers won’t hear much of the five new songs they wrote for the production. Below, you can watch a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the musical featuring Menken singing “Go the Distance” at his piano.
As part of the Public Theater’s Public Works initiative, the cast is populated with New Yorkers from all across the city. So far, there aren’t any official plans to adapt the musical for Broadway. But as EW’s Jessica Derschowitz wrote in her B+ review, “it’s clear the appetite for it is there, and Disney Theatrical Productions has a solid, heartfelt blueprint for a show that could someday go that distance.”
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