Schwartz: HUNCHBACK Next for Broadway?- Page 3

[PRFRMR20]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 5:10pm

I would love to see Drew do this on Broadway. One of my favorite performers in a great show... and like everyone else has said - I hope they keep it as close to the German production as possible.

Fingers crossed to being his replacement! :)

[musicaltheater1]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 5:19pm

I didn't realize Drew Sarich played Quasimodo in the German production with Ruby Rosalez. I do hope this production pushes through for a Broadway bow.

Updated On: 1/13/08 at 05:19 PM

[secret-soul]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 7:48pm

they would have to gut a theatre and have the same team on it for it to really work i think. that, and they'd have to not screw with the script. neither version is the novel, but the film is a wretched representation of Hugo's masterpiece compared to Glockner.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 7:59pm

I'd love to see Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frollo, but that's just me.

[secret-soul]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 8:19pm

drew wants bob bob bob cuccioli. lol

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 1/13/08 at 11:53pm

Cuccioli would be great too.

So is this happening before or after Aladdin? Isn't that one certainly going as well?

[PRFRMR20]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 12:02am

Well...

They all ready have a full stage version completed and having been produced of Hunchback (German production) so that technically has been done first.

There have apparently been multiple issues regarding script (and other creative issues), the size of the German production (and other financial issues) and just plain disagreements amongst Disney and the other forces that be.

I am "praying"! We'll see...

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 12:21am

I just believe it deserves to be on stage. Finally Disney would have something geared towards older people. I think it would be smart of Disney to bring it to Broadway. I know it wont happen in the near future.
Just based on reviews, I have yet to see TLM, but I don't see any other Disney show closing before TLM. After that I think Hunchback would be the number one choice to bring to Broadway.
I can also see Mulan being great on stage, They could do so much with that. It can be Disney colorful, light, happy, then dark and serious. The design elements of it... what I picture, WOW!

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 7:45am

Well, the show won't happen here if they make too many changes from the German production. Both Schwartz and Menken and one point or another has said they'll pull out if they restore the original ending (I assume that means more people die.)

On a somewhat related note, I will cry if Michael Arden gets the role of Quasimodo, over someone who doesn't over-emote. (Hey, it's mean, but it's true, he over-emotes.)

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 7:45am

Hunchback in Germany was a dark, gothic thriller, which is what the film basically was, in watered-down form. Having James Lapine come in to work on the book and direct really helped focus the show into what it should have been.

With Sweeney currently picking up steam in a major-league fashion (just won two Golden Globes), I think the time will be ripe in the eyes of many producers for dark musicals to make a return to Broadway, in hopes that they will get residuals from the films for mounting first-class revivals that were then a major rights purchase in Hollywood (agents negotiate things - look at Tom O'Horgan getting "conceived by" credit on JCS when it was actually written a year before he knew about the project). In that environment, Hunchback would not only survive, it would be an extremely wise move on Disney's part.

Other producers are interested in dark musicals, which also makes the environment good. Leonard Soloway is interested in Tanz der Vampire, for example, though hopefully that will come to fruition a while later, when DOTV is a forgotten memory.

[ElFantasma14]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 10:48am

As long as they don't try to change the show like they did when Dance of the Vampires came over, I'm down. I frickin love the cast recording, I'd go see it in a minute.

[Justin D]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 1:36pm

On a technical issue, I think the other main problem is an available theatre. Hunchback in Germany was a HUGE production, with almost the whole stage filled with hydrolic platforms and more platforms waiting in the wings. SO you need a theatre with a basement, huge wings and wide stage; none are available at the moment and the best ones probably won't be free for a while:
Winter Garden, nice and wide
Hilton, could work if YF does not last (but probabl;y will)
Gershwin, perfect (although the stage is shallow) but wicked isnt going anywhere.
Broadway would work if TCP closes
Palace, maybe

and thats really about all that can work well.

New Amsterdam does not have much room and other theatres like the Lunt and Rogers and Imperial are just too small, unless they reconcieve the comcept, which would be a shame.

but in the end, wasn't Tommy S. quoted as saying that this would probably NEVER happen?

[EganFan2]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 2:35pm

I like dark, gothic thriller musicals. I hope it wouldn't be Disneyfied (stupid gargoyles, I'm looking in your direction).

[showbiz287]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 3:11pm

Just as long as they transfer what they had in Germany, and switched to the English language...it would be amazing! (or maybe even for some "concept" do the show in French...lol)

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 3:12pm

The gargoyles were in the German production and they were anything but Disneyfied if I remember correctly. They were creepy and still, the bottom have of the gargoyle was a set piece and an actor fit into the top half being able to move their arms and heads and when they were brought to "life" by Quasi, the actor could leave the set piece part and walk around. It was all rather eerie..and very darkly done.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:50pm

After watching some clips you-know-where, I would absolutely love that version of Hunchback to come to Broadway. I always thought it was one of Disney's most theatrical scores, and the darker ending is beautifully tragic. I got chills watching it! I really, really hope it happens here. Disney, don't be stupid for once.

~Steven