A star is born as Bradley Gibson makes his West End debut in 'Hercules'

Broadway’s Bradley Gibson is preparing to make his West End debut, as he returns to the role of hero Hercules in the electrifying Disney musical, starting 29 June.

Summary

• Bradley Gibson starred as Hercules in the Paper Mill Theatre production in New Jersey
• He now makes his West End debut in the role
• Gibson's other credits include The Lion King and A Bronx Tale

Bradley Gibson is going the distance, as he crosses the pond to play the West End’s newest demigod in Hercules. It has been a long and fulfilling journey for the performer from North Carolina, who first sat down to do a table reading for the musical five years ago. “Hercules is this beautiful full-circle moment,” Gibson reflects. “I didn’t know it was going to lead to the Paper Mill Playhouse [run in 2023] and I didn’t know it was going to lead to my West End debut.”

Gibson says that his musical theatre education started during childhood, when he would watch Annie or see Julie Andrews singing in The Sound of Music. He remembers thinking, “Whatever she’s making me feel, I want to make someone else feel that.”

After studying musical theatre at the Boston Conservatory, he headed to the Big Apple. “I was the one in a million who moved to New York and after a month or so booked my first Broadway show,” he says. Gibson was in the original Broadway cast of Sylvester Stallone and Thomas Meehan’s Rocky the Musical, and has gone on to star in the Alan Menken musical A Bronx Tale as well as play Simba in The Lion King, among other roles. He also has an active screen career in films such as Fire Island and has performed in televised concerts like The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl.

Gibson says he has been “rooting” for Hercules since its London premiere in summer 2025, and when the phone call came offering him the lead role in the West End, it was an “immediate yes”. He speaks to London Theatre Magazine about returning to the musical, bonding with Broadway diva Heather Headley, and why he feels it is important for a person of colour to star in Hercules.

Do you have a favourite memory from performing in the Paper Mill Playhouse run?
When I think about Paper Mill, I think about our sitzprobe when we first sang with the orchestra. I had been singing the songs with the piano only, [so it was incredible to hear] that full orchestra play the arrangement of “Go the Distance”, which we found as we built the show. It was a little different from the production [at Delacorte Theater in Central Park in 2019] because of the work that I had done and the things that Alan Menken and David Zippel had found. Hearing and singing it for the first time was so moving.

How far back does your passion for Hercules go?
I loved Disney films as a child. I remember what it felt like to sit in the movie theatre and hear “Go the Distance” being played out through the animation and feeling that rush in my heart. It meant something to me. I had Lion King sheets. I had a Hercules birthday cake. I had the T-shirts. I was a Disney kid of the ’90s. And the second I got the opportunity to start playing Hercules, I realised that the visual of me in the role was so important for younger people.

Tell me more about this.
I knew that it was much bigger than myself [...] because it’s having a huge impact on other people. Seeing my Black body on stage play this character, who is a young man trying to find his place in the world and trying to overcome bullying, but being told that he’s not enough. Knowing that if I do this right, I could be helping to ensure that the role is always in the hands of a man of colour. I know for a fact young Bradley would have benefitted so much from seeing [a person of colour] in this show.

Does it feel different returning to the show a few years on?
I’m obviously older than when I started doing it [...] but I know how to take care of myself in the right ways to sustain this. Live theatre is such an athletic task. Hercules is a show that’s very physical and you’re on stage for a very long time — you have to understand when the bathroom and water breaks are. I’ve learned how to hold it in a more sustainable, healthy way and not torture myself through it. I love routine and I have a rigid nature, which I think is great for this, but it can be your demise because you can be in your head. But now I know how to hold it, be in the moment, and trust where I am right now.

Tell me about a highlight from your career.
The Lion King Hollywood Bowl concert. Moments like that are the things that you can’t strategically dream or plan. I said yes to spending a week in LA preparing for this concert, not really taking in what the experience was going to be, but then getting a chance to spend a week with Jennifer Hudson, Nathan Lane, and the list goes on. My Broadway diva is Heather Headley, and our dressing rooms were right next to each other. We were the only two people in the concert that were Broadway folks. They say don’t meet your heroes, but sometimes you really should meet your heroes!

I never imagined that my two years playing Simba on Broadway would lead to me being part of that concert, embedding me in the history of the show and representing Simba — and all the men who have played him. It’s very important to me because I know quite a few of those men from my years growing up on Broadway.

They’ve become big brothers and uncles, and I know there’s a handful of them who are no longer with us. So I was representing all of us: Club Simba. That was an amazing gift.

Do you have any other dream Disney roles?
I want to play a villain. I’ve played lots of Disney heroes and princes, so the one villain I would love to get my hands on is Gaston. It would be so much fun!

What are you hoping to get up to in London on your days off?
One show I want to see is Paddington. When I see him on my phone [on social media], immediately my heartstrings are being pulled!

What do you hope people take away from the production?
I hope that when you see me in the show that you leave the theatre with that feeling of, “Oh, I can do this.” I want people to ask: “How do I become my own hero?” I hope that there are moments in the show where you really get to see the emotional ride of a young person’s journey to finding and believing in themselves.

Book Hercules tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the June 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Bradley Gibson. (Courtesy of production)