New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse will be holding the second-ever staging of the musical adaption of the Disney Animated film Hercules early next year, according to TheaterMania.
What’s Happening:
- New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse is set to hold the indoor premiere of Disney’s new musical, Hercules, in the upcoming 2022-2023 season.
- Originally premiered in 2019 during the Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater, Hercules will run at the Paper Mill Playhouse February 9th – March 12th, 2023. This marks the second-ever staging of the stage adaptation of the original animated film. Lear deBossonet is set to return to direct the musical, with a new book for the production by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Robert Horn.
- The musical will have a score by Alan Menken and David Zippel, with Michael Kosarin serving as music supervisor with direction by Alvin Hough, Jr.
- Like many Disney productions before it, the musical is based on the animated film of the same name, released back in 1997. That production was directed by the legendary pair of John Musker and Ron Clements, which was written by the duo alongside Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw, and Irene Mecchi.
- The 2019 production starred Jelani Aladdin, Roger Bart, Jeff Hiller, Nelson Chimilio, James Monroe Iglehart, Ramona Keller, Tamika Lawrence, Krysta Rodriguez, and Rema Webb. At this time, casting for the Paper Mill production is to be announced.
- Hercules is the latest high-profile Disney Theatrical productions to find a home at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Newsies made its world premiere at the New Jersey theater in 2011 with a production that became a surprise hit and transferred to a successful run on Broadway in 2012. Paper Mill also co-presented the U.S. premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 2015 with La Jolla Playhouse, though this production did not make the jump to Broadway proper. Broadway aspirations for Hercules remain unclear at this time.