Hunchback needs A LOT of work if it's coming to Bday- Page 2

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/16/14 at 7:03am

Okay, seriously, what the hell is everyone's problem with the gargoyles? I get that they were wildly inappropriate in the film, but the film was a mess of funny uneasily piled alongside serious, and they were a necessary evil to inject some levity into a heavy story. The German version toned them down, and made them work the best they were ever going to work. Seriously - look into it.

Even if you don't like them, that's a matter of opinion I can swallow since so many people seem to share it. But replacing them with a "comic" number featuring a headless saint is better? Full disclosure, I haven't seen how they stage it, but it sounds like the kind of bad taste that would rank right up there with just about everything in Into the Light. Why not just add a chorus line of statues of saints singing about their gruesome martyrdoms, and give the Mother and Child a duet spot? (And am I the only one who wonders if St. Aphrodisius' name has anything to do with aphrodisiacs, and how the hell are they connected if so?)

I also understand the desire to go back to Victor Hugo's novel and "really explore it," I mean going back to the coffee table book about his career by Carol de Giere, Stephen Schwartz seems to want to dive in there and really explore some junk and then slap the Disney label on it and say "DEAL WITH IT!" I just wonder if that's really the right thing to do. No matter how high-brow they try to be, it's never going to be anything more than Disney attempting to do a dark musical. This isn't an Alban Berg opera, especially not if you're going to add storytellers who narrate every single second of movement. What happened to Clopin being the narrator? Seriously. Much easier to follow, and he didn't insult your goddamn intelligence.

My opinion, and admittedly an unpopular one?

* Stick with the designs, since for the most part they seem to impress everybody (even me), modifying only what needs to be modified by doing the following. No one's going to rip up a theater on 42nd Street to put in that minimalist cube bullshit, and the main attraction of this version to the execs seems to be that it's a smaller-scale, less lavish attempt at putting on the story. The German Hunchback cost them serious moolah. If you want to massage them a little bit, incorporate some elements from the theme park version(s), move (some of) the costumes a little closer to the film, that's fine, and indeed will probably help people recognize some of their favorite characters from the film who almost fade into the background right now.
* Material-wise, go back to the German version, including everything that was essentially a literal translation of the film. It's not Victor Hugo's novel, just like Jesus Christ Superstar is not scripture. But it hits many of the same basic points that Hugo wished to address, and the story is told in a way that embraces the modern need for brevity and sparkle.
* Drop the gypsy dance in Act Two (which was a concession to instrumental ballets being popular in German musicals at the time), and replace that with "The Court of Miracles," which shouldn't be too hard since it was in the German version in rehearsals and workshops in NY almost up until they moved to Berlin.
* If it's possible to merge "In a Place of Miracles" with the reprise of "Out of Love" (now sadly cut from the show in all its forms, which is a shame, as it gave Phoebus' character more depth), do that, but it's not essential, since they seem to cover the same point.

And then you've got a show.

Updated On: 12/16/14 at 07:03 AM

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 12/16/14 at 7:43am

I think they should bring back the gargoyles and do them in the way the German production did it. Narrators suck. It wasn't even the gargoyles that were the problem in the film, it was the song they sung "a guy like you". The song has been axed so no problem here.

Personally I think doing hunchback as a minimalist passion play is BS. Disney just doesn't want to spend a lot of money on this. They are trying to save up for Frozen. hehe.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/16/14 at 8:32am

And even "A Guy Like You" worked in Germany. So some of the lyrics are cringe-worthy... that's true of nearly all of Stephen Schwartz's newer work. (I love him, but it's true.) You play with the cringe-worthy lyrics, and acknowledge what they are, and move on. (It's like people forget Bob Fosse did that with, I dunno, all of Pippin? Which is not to say the lyrics in Pippin are cringe-worthy, more that Fosse didn't see them as an obstacle to telling the story in the way he thought best.)

Example:

ANTOINE (for so "Hugo" was renamed in Germany)
PARIS, THE CITY OF LOVERS,
IS GLOWING THIS EVENING
TRUE, THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S ON FIRE...
(Off the looks from his fellow Gargoyles, speaking too quickly)
Oh God, that came out wrong, I knew it the minute I said it.
(Quickly moving on)
BUT STILL, THERE'S "L'AMOUR"

It's not that friggin' hard. And since they replaced a comic number with a comic number, they clearly want a light moment there in the midst of the heaviness, so embrace what you did.

Embrace it, you bastards.

Updated On: 12/16/14 at 08:32 AM

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 12/16/14 at 9:51am

I don't mind if there are narrators like the German production. I love that Clopin was the narrator because that was his character in the movie. I get that this isn't the movie, but why can't they keep that? But, I hate that the narrators are done through the style of passion plays. From what I hear in audios, the narrators make it feel like the production is HOND Jr./Kids.