Notre Dame de Paris

I saw the show in London and didn't like it at all. It's a pop concert with chic costumes and makeup, fancy lighting, rather bizarre sets including a giant rock-climbing wall, a parade of gargoyles, a huge cage and a suspended steel girder. The music is mostly prerecorded and since the chorus is made up of acrobats, they lip-sync the songs (which was glaringly evident in a few scenes when they would forget to move their lips). It's the only show where I literally fell asleep during the second act. The flying dead Esmereldas at the end were especially interesting.

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I suggest the CD in English. It's good, the song "Belle" is awesome!

I have the DVD

The music is OK but the staging bit it. Maybe with costumes & sets but on a bare stage - I think not

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Everything that Mister Matt said. I didn't like the show at all, the only redeeming quality was the rock-climbing wall, that was pretty crazy.

Notre Dame de Paris was the first show I saw when I went to London.. I really liked it, the songs were pretty good, but it wasn't really a show - more like a pop/rock concert..

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I agree with Mr Matt - it was really awful in London. It had the emotional depth of the Eurovision Song Contest with a weak narrative tacked on - there are only so many spanish guitar songs I can take!! There was little to no effort at acting and all the songs just merged into one long euro-pop mess. The choreography was the only interesting thing in it, and even that began to get a little repetative towards the end. All I can remember of the set was those pillars that followed the priest around like well behaved dogs, and huge bells with people in them (or did I dream that last part?)

As for recordings - there is the French cast which has woman on the front, and an English concept with a flaming bell on the cover. The latter uses the London cast, but rearranges the songs slightly and has the 'bonus' of a song sung by Celine Dion. There are also numerous international casts (Spanish, Italian etc).

It is without doubt THE WORST show I have ever seen. At least 'We Will Rock You' has decent music . . .

Definitely the worst thing I've seen on The West End, closely followed by The Full Monty!

Ha, it's good to see that Notre Dame continues to divide the 'fronts'. It had a huge following in London and lots of people absolutely loved it but there were just as many (and even more) who hated it from the bottom of their hearts.

Ah, how I remember the days of battle on the Dress Circle board when NDDP lovers and haters were at it... *sigh*

When people say they have never seen a worse show than NDDP I assume they have never seen such shows as We Will Rock You, Tonight's The Night, Good Vibrations, Brooklyn and many more.

Someone mentioned that the show had no dialogue ... If you mean that the show was sung through only then that's correct (there was sung through dialogue) although this has NOTHING to do with the quality of a show. Lots of great shows (and I don't include NDDP in this list before people jump on me) have sung through dialogues (Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Rent, the list is endless).

The show is just very, very different and the producers and the cast knew that lots of people would hate it. After all, it is French, a fact that already had the critics sharpen their knives.

I really didn't like Doug Storm, he was nowhere near the two Phoebus' they had in London. I found him extremely nasal and his performance made me almost laugh (like the very last Phoebus they had in London, an ex-Chippendale who was terrible).

QM

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woah! the full monty is awesome. It is just a great all around show with some great contemporary show tunes.

"Notre Dame De Paris by Victor Hugo has/is no story?"

They said the musical had no story, not the novel. There's a difference.

Actually, I have to agree that the story was virtually non-existent because they really didn't tell the story. There was virtually no narrative and it was not really a sung-through musical in the sense that there was no recitative. For most of the show, the characters don't interact. It is just a series of songs that uses a few lyrics here and there, but mainly relies upon the costumes and sets to tell its story.

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Weeee! i searched for a while to find this thread!

anywho- a friend just leant me the fancy packaged Notre Dame De Paris FRENCH version which looks VERY VERY cool!! but i agree, it looks odd and maybe dumb

not that i can understand what they're saying

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Updated On: 5/18/05 at 05:34 PM

or Notre Dumb de CaCa as some of us called it

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