HUNCHBACK La Jolla Previews — Page 5

The floor is the floor of the church . . .




Floor picture

Updated On: 11/7/14 at 04:36 AM

Gosh, this looks like everything I would've hoped it would be. Pray for good momentum on this, or we'll never get it in London...

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Im totally thrilled this is even happening, listened to those clips last night, one small question for someone that has seen it.

particularly in the bit of the finale, do they really need so much narrative? is it hard visually to tell what is happening that they feel the need for this?
An example would be the whole molten lead thing, everyone knows that happens in the story, is it really necessary for the singers to explain that Quasi is on the roof, he does not know what to do, then he sees the pot of lead and gets an idea?
I just find this narrative/explaining everything comes across as spoon feeding (unless it is not visually apparent what is happening in the scene due to minimal scenery, etc.

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Indeed it has to do with ambiguity because of minimmal set stuff.

Actually, Justin, without giving too much away, the narrative starts from practically the beginning. They're telling the story from start to finish rather than totally letting the dialogue and music carry the whole show. In some places the narrative seems a little forced, I agree. Still I found something mesmerizing about it.

If and when it hits Broadway I will be interested to see how it does.

It's dark, so whether or not it appeals to the parents who are flocking with their kids to the likes of Aladdin, Mary Poppins, et. al will be interesting to see.

Will teens, twenty somethings and adult audiences be drawn enough to keep it going?

I think it's very good and with some tweaks should do well simply on its merits as a rich stage production.

I would simply go in with the expectations of seeing a provocative, richly-done, good show.

I was excited to see them doing this because it takes Disney theatrical to a slightly different place. Don't go in thinking you're going to see something similar to what Disney has done before.

In fact, as of now, their name is not even on the cover of the program.

Updated On: 11/8/14 at 01:43 PM

The Cathedral of Notre Dame is "a church?"

I have a feeling the obsessive narration will be taken out if this gets to Broadway. Hopefully the set changes also.

The last part of the finale just got posted. It sounded much better in Berlin. It sounds disappointing when the pitch is lower. And they really turned down the orchestrations here too

Where are these audio recordings?

My impression, from what I've gathered from people working on the production, is that the choir will be new in New Jersey.

Sounds like it's already getting panned on here before it even really gets started.

I saw it and it was pretty good in my opinion. And in those areas where it needs to be tweaked, I'm sure it will be.

My question though is if this Berlin production was so amazingly grand, why wasn't the same model used here? If it was a production based on the Disney animated feature, as well, it seems like it should have been largely replicated here for its US debut.

For one thing, the Berlin version was massively expensive to produce. It was something of a passion project of Michael Eisner's back in the late 90s, and so there was a ton of money thrown at it. It did very well in Germany, but it was decided by the powers that be that American audiences (at that point in time) would not take to it, so in Germany it stayed. The current production is definitely an attempt at making the show a little easier on Disney's wallet, and therefore more likely to turn a profit (a major feat for any musical these days). That's not to say that this production feels in any way cheap, mind you; on the contrary, I felt all the design elements were gorgeous and lush. The Broadway "Hunchback" is (probably) attempting to get to today is just very different from the Broadway of fifteen years ago, and Disney is approaching things in a way that'll make it more feasible for the show to actually sustain a run.

I personally like the intimacy created by this take on the piece. It allows the emotional core of the material to really become the focus, rather than overwhelming with spectacle (and I am a gal who LOVES her some spectacle, as do most of us who were raised in the era of the 80s mega-musical). The Berlin production was indeed amazing, and I will continue to be obsessed with it forever, but that's never what we were going to be getting over here. This is an entirely different take on the show, completely valid and beautiful in its own right. There are some serious tweaks needed in the book and score, absolutely, but I think the overall production design and direction are spot on.