The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Paper Mill — Page 13

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.

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.

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.

Now I wish it would transfer without him.

"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..

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.

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.

Oh please...

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.

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.

"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

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.