Wishful Thinking - HUNCHBACK?

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 7/26/25 at 12:41am

I just saw a BEAUTIFUL production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Orlando and got to thinking about Disney on Broadway's current output.  The shows they seem to be focusing the most on are the Beauty and the Beast tour (which has not gotten great word of mouth) and Hercules (which has now had four major productions and is still getting mixed reviews, especially on its pacing).  This is very much just wishful thinking and not any inside scoop, but with other in-development works like The Greatest Showman still at least a year off, would Disney ever consider doing Hunchback professionally again, whether on Broadway, on tour, or in an out-of-town sit-down run (more likely one of the latter two due to the well-documented financial concerns over hiring the choir as Equity performers)?  So many people know this version of Hunchback as "the darker one where

 

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Esmeralda dies at the end"

but I forgot until tonight just how political it is, with dialogue that feels VERY relevant to discussions being had today about the American immigration system.  (All things that Disney likely wants to avoid joining the conversation about, but a girl can dream.)

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/26/25 at 8:05am

I think given the current political climate, comedy and heart is what audiences want right now. Which is why Maybe Happy Endings and Death Becomes Her are doing well and stuff like Cabaret is closing. I think it’s one of the best scores out there but I don’t think the book works. To me it comes across as a Sunday school storytelling. 

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

Posted: 7/26/25 at 10:33am

Concerning the book, I will forever beat the drum that, while there were elements present from the film that still needed to disappear in that version, they did themselves a great disservice when they threw so much of the baby out with the bathwater by letting go of the James Lapine book from Berlin. It did a lot of heavy lifting without nearly so much of the sturm und drang "Disney's Les Mis" now has.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 7/26/25 at 12:09pm

I saw Hunchback twice at Papermill and love love loved it. I hope they bring it to Broadway eventually. I do agree that there were certain elements of the Berlin Lapine version that were superior-some of the more spectacle based moments (particularly rescuing Esmeralda) rather than relying on narration and my preference of Out of Love and its reprise to how they structure that section of Act 2 in America. Also in Berlin they did it without the “cost prohibitive” chorus and it still sounds great.
 

I also think I prefer Guy Like You to Flight out of Egypt. That said Notre Dame de Paris (a French rock opera adaptation of the book) has a perfect song in that spot Les Cloches. Where essentially Quasi lists all the bells and what they ring for for and the last line is something along the lines of “I’ll ring all the bells if Esmeralda is living, to tell the world how Quasimodo loves Esmeralda”