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Composer Alan Menken Wants to Develop a Live Theatrical Musical for Disney’s ‘Hercules’

Who put the glad in gladiator?  Hercules! And he just happens to also be the star of the latest Disney animated film to be getting the live theater treatment joining the ranks of The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast.  That’s right!  It looks like Disney’s Hercules might be heading to Broadway!  That is if Oscar and Tony Award-winning composer Alan Menken gets his way.

Menken mentioned the news to the Orange County Register late last week.  Clearly not a stranger to Disney productions, Menken has previously worked on Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Newsies, Aladdin and more.

He told the Orange County Register:

“I have a very strong belief like Newsies, Hercules is going to have a moment that will surprise people.  Actually, I’m working on a stage version of Hercules.”

The article then says, “Menken’s manager, Rick Kunis, said Alan is working on creating interest sufficient to move forward with a production of ‘Hercules’ but that has not yet happened.”

Hopefully, Menken will be successful in creating enough buzz surrounding the project to get it moving forward because, how awesome would it be to see Pegasus, Hercules, Meg and all our other favorite characters from the film come to life on stage!  This needs to happen!

Even though Menken might have an idea worked out, a spokesman for Disney Theatrical Productions has denied that any such project is in the works saying, “Hercules is one of many great Menken scores, but no stage adaptation is in development at this time.”

Written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, the 1997 Disney film included a vocal cast of Tate Donovan as Hercules, Danny DeVito as Phil, James Woods as Hades, and Susan Egan as Meg, as well as Broadway’s LaChanze, Lillias White, and Roz Ryan.  Menken, along with lyricist David Zippel, was nominated for an Oscar for the song Go the Distance which was featured in the film.

What do you think?  Would you like to see a live theatrical adaptation of the Disney film Hercules?  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

Composer Alan Menken Wants to Develop a Live Theatrical Musical for Disney's 'Hercules'

Source: Playbill