Hercules musical to have indoor premiere in 2023

New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse will present the indoor premiere of Disney's new musical Hercules as part of its 2022 to 2023 season.

Hercules, which premiered outdoors in 2019, will run 9 February to 12 March 2023 (at the same venue where Newsies had an out-of-town run before moving onto the Great White Way). Lear deBessonet will return to direct the musical, which has a score by Alan Menken and David Zippel, with a new book for this production by Kwame Kwei-Armah (artistic director of the Young Vic here in the UK) and Robert Horn.

Michael Kosarin is music supervisor and music direction by Alvin Hough Jr. It is based on the Disney animated film written by Ron Clements, John Musker, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi, and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker.

Casting for the show is to be revealed – when the piece was originally presented outdoors as part of the Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater, it featured WhatsOnStage Award-nominee Roger Bart – who is currently playing Doc Brown in the multi-award-winning Back to the Future – the Musical.

It was described by our sister site TheaterMania's critic David Gordon as "better than Frozen and Aladdin" in a glowing review. It's expected the show will also be angling at a Broadway run.

When will it arrive in the UK, we wonder? Will it be on the big screen first?

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