Disney goes the distance to bring Hercules to the West End with Disguise
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Disney’s theatrical shows have long been renowned not only for their ability to capture the magic of the studio’s classic films, but also for delivering lavish production values and groundbreaking new ideas.
For the West End production of Hercules, the show’s creative team were excited to use the power of technology to drive their immersive storytelling and bring the world of Ancient Greece to life, with an innovative mosaic-inspired design. With Disguise having powered a number of past and present theatre hits including Redwood, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Disney’s Frozen, video designer George Reeve and video system designer Mogzi knew where to turn to help them fulfil their vision and ensure Hercules would run reliably and smoothly on the West End, night after night.
The challenge
“Hercules is a fun film to adapt to the stage as it’s all based on Ancient Greek mythology”, explains video designer George Reeve, who had previously collaborated with Disney Theatrical Group on their production of Tarzan in Germany. To connect audiences to this classical setting, Reeve decided to create vibrant animated mosaics, used as a dynamic storytelling device that could be incorporated into the stage design itself.
As well as offering a huge creative opportunity however, these mosaics also presented a challenge for Reeve, who needed to be able to easily adapt content on the fly as the show came together - potentially one small mosaic tile at a time.
On top of this, the video team required a simple solution that would enable their content to be displayed on a complex stage, made up of an LED back wall with 928 video tiles, LED legs on either side, and eight revolving Doric pillars that move around the stage throughout the performance. It was crucial that the projected visuals hit the rotating pillars with absolute precision - but with the projectors mounted onto the circle rails of the old theatre, a lively audience could unintentionally cause misalignment.
The solution
Reeve knew that the first port of call for his project was Disguise, having worked with the technology on a number of his previous productions. “It’s a fantastic piece of kit, and something I will keep in my pocket wherever I go,” he says.
Over the course of just three months, Reeve collaborated with video system designer Mogzi, associate video designer Kevin Buysse, and animator Gustaf Lindström to design elaborate moving mosaics that could be easily and quickly manipulated to meet the needs of the Hercules production.
The show runs on five Disguise EX 3+ servers, which Reeve enjoyed pushing to their limits. New features in Disguise’s Designer software became fundamental to the development of the show, including the new Colour Management on the EX range. This allowed the video team to have projection and LED on the same display surface, whilst achieving the detailed look usually only reserved for projection. The team also cite Designer’s new Coloured Layers feature and the ability to add key frames as core components of their workflow during the short development period, helping them keep their Designer timeline clean and easy to read.
“A big challenge we faced was how to create the world of mosaics, being able to manipulate them and create them quickly in tech, whilst delivering the final looks which were desired,” Reeve says. “Using a workflow in Unreal Engine and Substance, we were able to create assets made from the mosaics, light them in the 3D world, and then pass these assets back through the After Effects pipeline and render for Disguise playback.”
The flexibility of Disguise’s pre-visualization tools allowed the team to make real-time adjustments in the theatre itself, enabling the director to offer feedback on the work in progress and see the changes just seconds later. “It used to be the case that the director would ask us to try something and we’d have to say ‘Come back tomorrow’, and then render the new idea overnight,” Reeve says.
It saves so much time to be able to show these changes immediately with Disguise - to test things in the moment and instantly demonstrate what it would look like on a digital model of the stage.
Video Designer, Disney's Hercules The Musical
The team’s visuals are projected onto the set’s moving columns by six 4K projectors. To ensure these projections remained steady and perfectly mapped, the video team used Disguise’s OmniCal projection calibration system, enabling them to ensure complete recalibration of all six projectors in under a minute - the perfect solution to any movement caused by the audience from the previous night.
It also made the initial design process all the easier. “Having Disguise be able to receive native tracking data from the STS automation system enabled us without fear of hesitation to be able to say ‘yes’ to any desires for tracking and projecting onto any moving parts smoothly and cleanly,” Mogzi says, “and with OmniCal calibration data we are confident in the pixel-perfect projection calibration allowing for seamless blending across multiple projectors.”
The results
Hercules opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End in June 2025, and immediately captured the hearts of fans. For Reeve and the rest of the video team behind the production, there was no doubt that Disguise had helped them realise an ambitious and vibrant vision. The complex design of the show, from projections onto moving scenery to the swirling animated mosaics that help tell the story, appears seamless and effortless onstage. Like the demi-god status that gives its protagonist his superhuman strength, the dazzling and intuitive designs behind Disney’s Hercules empower the show to deliver its knock-out punch.
Image credits: Johan Persson
