Hercules: The Muse-ical

Hercules: The Muse-ical (also known as Hercules: A Muse-ical Comedy) was a stage show on Disney Cruise Line's Disney Wonder ship. It is a "Vaudevillian salute" to the 1997 Disney film Hercules, and features some of its songs. "It had its final performance in 2008 to make way for Toy Story: The Musical."

Show summary
The Muses ’ are telling the story of Hercules but they require some help so they recruit the acting talents of “The Parthenon Players,” an acting group who are very interested in the story of what makes a true hero. The comedy of the show was geared more for adults but the sets, lighting, and singing were definitely children driven. I will give it to Hades though. He took the spotlight in true deity form and did a bit of stand-up just for the kids.

One of the Parthenon Players was recruited to be a muse but unfortunately for him they didn’t have a male muse outfit so he had to be one of the girls until the end when he was given a real outfit and raised to full muse status.

The show itself followed the animated movie’s outline only vaguely. It wasn’t confusing to watch but some of the story was lost. In particular Pegasus wasn’t present in the cast but the overall interpretation was very humorous.

Trivia

 * Not taking itself seriously for a moment, Hercules‘ sea voyage was practically half musical, half stand-up comedy.
 * Hades, Pain and Panic (the latter two both portrayed by women) especially packed a humorous punch, infusing relevant pop-culture references into the script.
 * Hades often changed to keep up with current trends, much like Genie’s jokes in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, a former performed at Disney California Adventure.