Luke Brady and Mae Ann Jorolan on going the distance in 'Hercules' in the West End

As Disney’s spectacular musical adventure Hercules arrives in London, we meet Luke Brady and Mae Ann Jorolan, the stars bringing these two heroic characters to life.

We’ve been holding out for a hero and it looks as though we’re in luck, as performer Luke Brady flexes his muscles — and his vocal cords — to take on the title role in Hercules in the West End.

Warming up for our photoshoot at a gym in east London alongside his co-star Mae Ann Jorolan (who plays the witty and independent Meg), a chiselled Brady certainly looks the part of a Greek hero — although he says the biggest character trait he shares with Hercules is goofiness. “I know what it is to be human, I can’t even imagine what it is to be a demigod,” he laughs. “But I’ll give it a good shot.”

This month, the musical heads to the West End’s beautifully restored Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which was recently home to another Disney screen-to-stage show: Frozen. However, Hercules’ journey to the London stage actually started six years ago at Central Park’s open-air Delacorte Theatre in New York. A revised production was performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey in 2023 before esteemed director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw joined in 2024 for its German-language premiere in the country’s musical theatre capital, Hamburg.

The show’s all-star creative team includes book writers Kwame Kwei-Armah (Young Vic artistic director) and Tony Award winner Robert Horn, as well as the composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel, who have written new songs for the musical. “Alan Menken is a master. We're truly in the presence of greatness,” Brady says, teasing that his favourite song from the show is a new one called “To Be Human”, which encapsulates Hercules’s journey of self-discovery.

Leading lady Jorolan, who has just flown in from Germany to begin rehearsals, having starred in the Hamburg production for the past year, says she can’t wait to perform “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” in English, because that’s the version she listened to growing up. The original language of the 1997 animated movie feels like “home”.

After a year playing Meg — Hercules’s companion in the battle against Hades — how does she feel about her character? “I think we would be very good friends,” she proclaims. “She’s guarded, but at the same time very vulnerable — she just doesn’t show it. Whereas I’m softer.”

Researching Meg led Jorolan down a fascinating rabbit hole. “She was very much based on the femme fatale of 1950s Hollywood,” she explains. “I took a lot of inspiration from the movie, of course, as well as interviews with Susan Egan [who voiced Meg in the animation].”

Brady, who is right at the beginning of his journey with Hercules, recognises the film’s legacy but is excited to put his own stamp on the part, almost 30 years later. “They've taken all this time to marinate the show, and I think there's no shortcut to this. You have to give it that detail and time and attention.” On performing at the titanic Drury Lane, Brady adds: “I don’t think there’s a more fitting venue to be the home for Olympus, the underworld, and everything in between. A story of this magnitude demands it.”

The venue’s cavernous stage is unlikely to intimidate Brady, who has performed in shows at some of London’s grandest venues, from Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi Theatre to The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion. It was in the former that he received a lasting piece of career advice from stage and screen star Imelda Staunton (currently in Mrs Warren’s Profession in the West End) who played Mrs Lovett.

“From the first day of rehearsal, she would walk in with really fine-tuned choices and make everyone in the room breathe with her. When we got to the performances, I took her to one side and asked, ‘What is this magic that you're tapping into?’ She said, ‘I don't leave anything to chance. I'm all about the detail, I plan everything and present it. It might not work, but at least I go in with something.’” Staunton suggested Brady consider training and he enrolled at RADA, which she had also attended. While Brady recognises this route isn’t for everyone, he believes “it was the most valuable advice I could take”.

This discipline and preparation will be key to playing Hercules. “Doing eight shows a week, we are athletes — to keep that consistency and a standard that doesn’t dip,” he says. Brady is also a lifelong fan of Disney and, being a child of the 90s, he grew up with the films on VHS. “We all feel a sense of ownership with these stories,” he says. “It taps into our inner child. At the heart of it, we’re all just big kids in suits, trying to get through [life]. Disney has a really beautiful way of simplifying things whilst making really important, poignant points and messages.”

Jorolan is also a huge Disney enthusiast. She recalls performing scenes from Pocahontas, Aladdin, Hercules, and even The Hunchback of Notre Dame in her living room while growing up in Switzerland.

After building her musical theatre career in Hamburg, Jorolan is thrilled to make her West End debut. It’s a long way from the beginning of her working life as a nurse. “Both of my parents are Filipino, very traditional, and they always said, ‘Before you do anything with the arts, you have to have a diploma,’” she says. “I worked in that field for a while, and then I wanted to explore other things, so I worked in a call centre. On the side, I had jobs at bars and I was also the wedding singer in a cover band at the weekend. I was 26 when I started drama school.”

She has since starred in Hamilton and Nicholaw’s production of Aladdin, and is thrilled to collaborate with him again on Hercules, this time in London. “Casey knows exactly what he wants — he’s a visionary,” she says.

Jorolan continues: “You can expect a night full of Disney magic.” In fact, with this divinely talented pair in the leads, it should be a West End musical fit for the gods.

Book Hercules tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Luke Brady and Mae Ann Jorolan. (Photos by Michael Wharley). Inset: promotional image by Matt Crockett, production image courtesy of production)

This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.