[Apples2for10]

Playbill.com has a page devoted to the opening night of The Little Mermaid on Broadway. At the end, this is stated:

"Composer Stephen Schwartz, whose Wicked shares a common demographic with the Chicklet of the Sea, owes a couple of Oscars to Disney films, so one can't help wondering when his Disney-animated film will turn into a Broadway musical.

"I think we're starting up Hunchback of Notre Dame, hopefully, next year. Rumor has reached my ear that it's happening."

I think this will be great, if it gets the greenlight, of course. Although, I also believe that the novelty of Disney on Broadway is wearing off (starting with Tarzan), and it's amazing to me that Poppins is still playing. Only time will tell if Mermaid meets an early demise like Tarzan. But still, this Hunchback rumor is exciting to me, as it was wildly successful in Europe. Still, I'd thought you all would like to know.

[Timmy_Wishes he was Quast]

Poppins still plays because it wasn't an animated classic per-say. So people have little work to do in terms of suspension of disbelief. So that's why it's running. IMO

[Monsieur D'Arque]

Hunchback has an odd demographic that's not the usual Disney crowd... I wonder how that'll play with Broadway.

[The Pirate King]

[dcrowley]

I would totally go and see Hunchback on Broadway... I really enjoyed the Little Mermaid. The one Disney film I would LOVE to see come to Broadway is Sleeping Beauty... it was my favorite.

[musikal_geek]

I don't know how many times I have to say this before Disney listens, but...

ALADDIN.
NEEDS.
TO.
GO.
ON.
BROADWAY.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

The Les Mis crowd, and goths. They love all the dark religious imagery in Hunchback, and the use of chanting in the score. It's all very mysterious and ritualistic, which are two bywords for cool in much of goth culture.

[shakalakababy]

[mastachen]

I think the stage version of Aladdin is good enough for it.

If they try to do anymore to it, it might ruin the show.

I do think the music to Hercules is awesome though.

[Jekkienumber24601]

finally! Hunchback is my favorite disney musical. They better do the german ending though, or the show will lose all credibility.

[musikal_geek]

Oh yeah, and Hercules.

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

[DaddyDiesel]

Hopfully they do not make Hunchback into a overly costumed gaudy mess. I think they could take a new turn and come up with somthing a little down to earth and they would have a hit. The set would have to be grand. But I think it would be easier than what disney has down with Mermaid and Tarzan.

I have always believed hunchback to be the best film to stage option in the recent disney vault. The score itself would be great for the stage. The overature/prologue is captivating and mysterious. Iv ouls imagine the crowd getting blown away just by the first ten minutes of the show if done correctly. You have the Jester doing his narrating bit. He explains the back story with some pantomime on stage. It builds and builds. Then bam you have the the company comes in "With the bells, bells, bells bells, Bells-of-notre-dame. OH OH OH, OH OH oh, oh oh oh oh oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Blackout. Almost like hitting the audience in the face with a jack hammer of sound.

And "Hells fire" is a great song that I would love to see put on the stage.

[Melindaisy]

[Borb]

Yesssssssss! Finally!

I rewatched this movie about a week ago. It was the first time since I was about 10. I was blown away by both the score and the story.
The whole time I was sitting there wishing it was on Broadway. Now I come on and see this!

I can't wait to hear Hell Fire live. Frolo is one of the past parts in the show.

[pish123c]

This is one Disney show I'd actually see (It was a favorite when I was a little kid). If they do do it I hope they don't butcher it.

[Orestes Fasting]

For anyone who doesn't know, there actually was a full-scale musical adaptation of Hunchback--in Germany. They did a really good job with it; the new songs were gorgeous, the design was brilliant, and the ending was much darker and closer to the book. Last I heard, there were essentially two obstacles to bringing it to Broadway:

1. Disney has been in a protracted argument with the creative team over the ending, which was decidedly not kid-safe. (Esmeralda died and Quasimodo pushed Frollo off the tower, for god's sake.) There was enough parental outcry over how dark the original movie was, so Disney wants some major revision even if it's at the expense of artistic integrity.

2. The sets as they were in the Berlin production would make it prohibitively expensive to mount on Broadway. They had to practically rebuild an entire theatre in Berlin to accomodate the raising and lowering platforms that made up the stage and helped recreate the soaring architecture of a cathedral; to do so on Broadway would be next to impossible.

[DontDoSadnessxx]

[mastachen]

[Orestes Fasting]

[DontDoSadnessxx]

ive watched videos on youtube of him
godd
he was perfect =]
He really is quite talented. I did enjoy seeing him as Grantaire the first time I saw the les mis revival and I saw him as Javert the second time.

And as Armand he kicked major butt. So if they were to bring hunchback to broadway, he should totally be quasimodo!

[Orestes Fasting]

Here's a video of the stage ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3zhl2nUlpU

[musikal_geek]

I think I saw this on the special features for Aladdin... but there was a Disney stage adaptation somehwere. It looked pretty cool, from the five seconds they showed on the DVD.

[mastachen]

[DaddyDiesel]

What a great ending!!! That is much more powerful. Ihave lways loved the line "What makes a monster and what makes a man?" But since she dies, in this version, the line becomes much more powerful.

After watching some of the videos I think this would be great on broadway. A great turn for disney if they keep most of it like the german version. It might turn some familys off with the death ending but it would pull agreat adult audience I think. I love the choral background in some of the vids its powerful.

[musikal_geek]

[mastachen]

[Orestes Fasting]

The reason to bring Hunchback to Broadway rather than Aladdin or Hercules is that Hunchback already has a fully-realized stage version (not the one-hour theme park staging of Aladdin) that was very successful in its out-of-town tryout. I don't know why Disney's so leery of bringing the darker version to Broadway; Europe may be less subject to "we must protect the children!" hysteria than America, but the success of the Berlin production is still a pretty good indicator that they could find a market for it.

Some links:
A fairly detailed review of the Berlin production and cast recording
Technical article on the sound, set, and lighting design
A fansite that includes the English versions of the stage lyrics

[Apples2for10]

[Monsieur D'Arque]

George Hearn = Frollo much?

[Sweeney Hyde]

I would love to see a musical of The Hunchback of Notre Dame...however...I would MUCH prefer if it was based on the book and not the Disney film...Disney's is just so...I dunno...I'm pretty sure I've talked about this on this site before...

[musikal_geek]

[ilovebway]

As much as I love Hunchback, I really want Aladdin to get its chance on Broadway first. Mostly because I adore the film and think it has a lot of potential to make a wonderful show. Yeah, there's the Disney park show version, but I really think that it could do very well.

[krisavalon]

I can imagine that songs like 'Hellfire' and 'Out There' would be pretty chilling and intense to see performed on a Broadway stage, and I do think that Hunchback is one of the more underrated Disney films, so I'd definitely like to see that. Anything is better than Tarzan.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

Wow. I had some great casting ideas in my head, and they've almost all disappeared.

Frollo = George Hearn
Clopin = Raul Esparza (Paul Kandel's probably too old now?)

[ActingDude17]