Hello & welcome back to Hercules Week on A Look at Disney and today, we venture back to the world of Disney Cruise stage adaption as we look at Hercules: The Muse-ical. The lat time that I looked at the stage adaption for a Disney Cruise, I had less than kind things to say about it. This is not the case here as I didn't think this musical was as bad and here's a YouTube copy of the musical, so that you can watch it for yourself. And as reminder, we will look at What's The Same, what they kept from the movie, what's different, what changes were made, and also New Music, which I'll have to skip altogether here as there were no new music in this number.
What's The Same
The story is mostly kept the same, albeit condensed. The main story of Hercules is kept faithful to the movie and you'd know it, if you saw it.
What's Different
I have to give this show credit as they took an interesting approach to doing the show as it was self-aware of the fact that it was a show and presented as such and there were a lot of jokes that referenced this such as at the beginning, an actor showed up auditioning because he thought the play needed a moose, when they needed a Muse. And it was in his contract that they had to use him, so this musical gave us a male muse. Or other example was during the One Last Hope number as this one was twofold as the "actor" for Phil didn't show up, so the stage manager had to take over the role. And there was also a transformation of Teen Hercules into adult Hercules. And when adult Hercules comes out, he says.
"I'm grown up now"
And they forget to push the cart that had Teen Hercules off the stage. And he had to do it himself.
Which was actually pretty funny and also as another character substitute, Pain and Panic are played by two women in this production. And they aren't as annoying as their film counterparts. And one of the interesting things is how they handle the gods in the beginning and the Temple of Zeus as they have The Muses use giant bust like puppets to play the gods.
I actually think this was a creative way around the issue of handling the gods. And the fact that the show allowed itself to break the fourth wall and call attention to the fact that it was a musical aided in the enjoyment of the show. As you knew that the musical was never taking itself too seriously. Though this style and pretending that there was a lack of a budget did lead to a rushed third act as the stage manager broke character from Phil to narrate the climax as the action happened onstage behind him. I get what they were going for and it does seem like thy ran into a wall trying to figure out how to handle the climax. And this is really the only big disappointment that I had with this production.
Now, there were some other minor changes such as the character of Pegasus being omitted but I'm totally fine with that as this musical found a way to make the story work without his character.
New Music
Yeah, like I said, there are no new songs in this production. And honestly, that's fine because while this is a musical, the music isn't the star. The jokes are. So for the songs from the movie that are here, I think they they do a good job of emulating the feeling of the musical numbers from the film. And that does make them good. They really don't do much to put a new spin on them or really make them stand out as there own but if you'd like them in the movie, you'll enjoy them here.
My Final Thoughts
I recall when I went on my Disney Cruise about ten years ago, this musical had just been closed down and replaced with Twice Charmed. The gift shop still had some left over merchandise from the show and I said to one of the castmembers that I wish that I could have seen this. She replied by saying that it wasn't very good. Well, I think taste is rather subjective because while I did enjoy Twice Charmed, I think that I would have also liked this musical as it's a loving homage that is willing to be silly and never take itself too seriously. And after the disaster that was Toy Story: The Musical, this was a step up. As Pretty Boy suggested that, should be the slogan/rating for this series, Better Than Toy Story: The Musical. And this most certainly was as nothing in this musical betrayed the characters like that one did. If you are so interested to check it out, I've provided a YouTube copy at the top of the blog, so that you can watch and check it out for yourself. Join me tomorrow as I close out Hercules Week as I look at covers of Hercules Songs.
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