The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Paper Mill- Page 13

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:43pm

Were they employed under Equity at Paper Mill or is that a different story? Just curious.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:46pm

I don't believe they were... I'm not exactly sure what the arrangement there was. I may be totally mistaken in either regard, though. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:48pm

"... and Arden is an idiot for tweeting what he did. "

No kidding. What pathetic man he is. It is rare for a performer to be so transparent about how sad and immature he is. Imagine all the people involved in the previous incarnations of the show. He pretty called them a waste of time. 

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:48pm

Kad, I too wonder the definition of "get nothing in return."

What is an actor supposed to "get" other than a paycheck and hopefully some artistic fulfillment? Does he feel entitled to a transfer, or perhaps even a Tony nomination or award! 

If Michael Esper doesn't get nominated for The Last Ship can you imagine him tweeting that he did all this hard work for nothing in return. The sentiment is ludicrous and makes Arden look like a petulant child stomping his feet because he was denied the toy he wanted at the toy shop. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:55pm

Obviously he *did* feel entitled to a transfer. As others have mentioned, that wasn't the first time Arden has whined via Twitter. I remember him complaining about not being able to get jobs in theater. And he wonders why.

Updated On: 4/6/15 at 01:55 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:56pm

I totally understand being bummed out that when your show closes, it's gone most likely for good. It's been a part of your life, it's a makeshift family. But that's the deal with being a performer: theatre is ephemeral for everyone.

To say you've gotten nothing when the curtain closes for good, even if the show doesn't move on to a bigger venue, well... I don't know what you would be expecting out of your career. 

 

[tazber]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:58pm

I just lost all respect for Arden.

I hate whiners.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:01pm

Now I wish it would transfer without him. 

[jv92]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:23pm

Why don't these fans raise the millions of dollars it would cost to bring the show to Broadway instead of petitioning and whining? Put their money with their mouths are. 

Typical instant gratification-era bullsh*t. And I like HUNCHBACK, too. I haven't seen this stage incarnation, but I thought the film score was rather excellent. It's a fascinating idea.

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:29pm

"I just lost all respect for Arden."

 

I hate to say it, but me too a little bit. It's always hard going into a show when the actor playing the heart and soul of the show is a whiner.  But I guess I won't have to worry about it..

[jv92]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:32pm

What ever happened to being a "working actor" who cares about doing good work wherever he can-- be it regionally or in New York? Seems like Mr. Arden is confused about his profession. I wish him well, and I'm sorry that he's disappointed, but that's part of the job, man. Sometimes it sucks, but that's life.

 

 

 

 

 

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:34pm

I enjoyed the show a lot when I saw it in Berlin many years ago. However, I would have to agree with what a lot of other posters are saying: it will struggle for an audience...and with the Disney name attached to it, could initially pull in the wrong audience and suffer from bad word of mouth.

There's something there, though...I mean the 1939 film with Charles Laughton is considered a masterpiece as is the earlier, silent Lon Chaney version. Personally, I loved Disney's animated version, but I think this material, done right, is too dark for Disney. Mmmmmm...maybe they could come up with something like Touchstone Theatricals? That's how they kept the Disney name off of more adult content in their films.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 10:42pm

All of this lip-pursing about losing respect for him for his vented emotion. He's just lost out on a potential B'way job. He'll get over it. What's more startling is the degree to which the company, him included, perhaps prominent, didn't know how badly the show was playing. How wrong-headed the creative decisions were for the prospect of a NY run. Anyone who's attended the thing at Papermill and walked out to the parking lot with other patrons (or stood in a bathroom line and watched all the shaking heads at intermission) knows the word of mouth was not the wet-eyed kvelling on these boards.  Plain old people were put off by the soggy tear-stained wet blanket and thud of a downer it proved to be.

Critically, the show arrives at the llth hour with no viable marketing strategy, clueless as to its target demographic (if there is one; it ain't families), mistakenly believing it is "Man of La Miserables."  It isn't. It needs to be rethought from the ground up, starting with its bizarre first act focus on a nasty, horny priest, whose ugly behavior and Judge Turpin-esque lust overwhelm the storytelling.  The show has no point of view or sustained tone, only a ponderous, dirge-like liturgical context and a blandly uninvolved, oversinging chorus. Start over, and see how you might entertain people. But don't blame critics or the paying audience who don't find a bitter, creepy Frollo carrying half of the musical load worth their money.      

Updated On: 4/6/15 at 10:42 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 11:15pm

This show would have died quickly on Broadway anyway, and no way Arden would have won a Tony for his Elephant Man rip-off performance. Puh-lease. 

[nycgogetter]

Posted: 4/6/15 at 11:47pm

We have no idea the tweet had anything to do with Hunchback . . . 

 

just throwing that out there

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 12:10am

Oh please...

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 2:05am

I assume the choir members at Paper Mill were not members of Equity. (Were they even credited by name?) Not even all the ensemble were Equity members (including Menken's daughter). Obviously, all actors would have to be members of Equity were the show to play Broadway, but I could see the choir striking a deal with Local 802 AFM (the musicians' union) since they are not active enough to be considered actors in the show. Still not very cost effective. I'm sure there is a way to make this score work without a full choir just sitting there and singing occasionally.

[owenblinky]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 2:15am

I cannot emphasize how much i hate the changes paper mill made from la jolla. They took all the bawdy fun out of rest and recreation and added that new passage in the middle about ptsd which doesn't fit the spirit of the song at all. They removed frollo's inner monologue from topsy turvy, which i thought was a stroke of genius.

But most offensive was the decision to reinstate hugo's horrible necrophilliac epilogue. The ending was already too dark after removing der glockner's hopeful reprise of out there and adding that awful minute of dead airtime in the score just so we can hear quasimodo's endless wailing. 

On another note, thanks to Scott Schwartz and his nepotistic father for killing what could have been a great show. Next time stage the stunts instead of having the chorus carry the actors. Show the action instead of having the chorus describe it. Build the scenery instead of using the chorus members' bodies as a wall or a door or whatever. I'm surprised they hired an orchestra instead of having the chorus members sit in the pit whistling the score.  Scott Schwartz is the laziest director ever.

[MagicalMusical]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 2:29am

I saw this in the afternoon the day before Easter. It. WAS. AMAZING. It was faaaaaantastic! Just glorious, gorgeous, perfect art. I even think the idea from the original book of Quasimodo being partially deaf but still being able to sing extremely well worked, because his deafness was only noted in one scene.

I don't cry often, but I came close to crying many times, and finally in the end I cried. And I thought my depression had numbed me to all my emotions!

Michael Arden as Quasimodo did so, so very well. He gave an excellently phenomenal and tender, heart-felt, heartwrenching performance. I really loved and cared for him. Hey, I even thought he was cute (yes, in his "ugly" form), and I thought it odd Esmeralda said she didn't see him as a boy, because he acted very much like a child, which is part of why I loved him. Of course, he did do some very smart and manly and heroic things.

I wish this was going to Broadway. I think it deserves it and would would win and deserve to win Best Musical for sure.

I wonder, when Quasmido says, "There lies all I ever loved", if he is just referring to Frollo, who raised him, or also to Esmeralda. But he was looking down at Frollo. I just think he could have been referring to both since she was lying near him, too.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 2:34am

Good grief Arden, care to tone the whining down a bit? There was no possible way that HUNCHBACK could ever be a long running Broadway show with the random combo of other musicals that have done those ideas/concepts better, MAN OF LA MANCHA being one of them. I would give the argument that this was the weakest, design wise, at least THE LITTLE MERMAID sets were so bad it was glorious to look at; here it's a poor man's version of LA MANCHA meet LES MISERABLES, there's nothing to talk about really.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 8:48am

nycgogetter, we definitely do know, actually. Because he posted it and then deleted it the day the cast was told.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 8:53am

"But most offensive was the decision to reinstate hugo's horrible necrophilliac epilogue. The ending was already too dark after removing der glockner's hopeful reprise of out there and adding that awful minute of dead airtime in the score just so we can hear quasimodo's endless wailing."

Amen.  I've never seen an audience so filled with despair as the one sent out to the parking lot with this as the take-away.  Who thought we'd want to go on this journey and end up ... here?  It's almost offensive, it's so cruelly audience-indifferent. We are dragged through an ever darkening story, no reversals, no hope creeping in, that ends up a pile-up of bodies, without any particular stab at transcendence. It's creepy, the ponderous underscoring of this image for our pre-standing O edification.  It should go into somebody's musical theater textbook as the ultimate Not to Do. 

Updated On: 4/7/15 at 08:53 AM

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 9:38am

As a PR, I don't know why the producers would surrender this announcement to the cast/Twitter/internet rather than manage it themselves.

[nycgogetter]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 10:24am

Why would the producers need to say the show was not transferring when they never said it was . . . it was always just a regional theater production, being developed for future licensing purposes.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 4/7/15 at 10:28am

Clearly they were hoping/planning for a transfer to happen. ^