By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Perrysburg Musical Theatre’s production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” embraces the audience with music.
A chorus of Paris inhabitants is on stage for much of the musical, and a 27-member choir lifts their voices and sings from the balcony. The cast boasts big, expressive voices in all the leads, as well as in featured solos sprinkled throughout the score.
The musical “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is the closest Disney has come to opera, and that includes a body count worthy of Puccini. Those numbers, of singers and deceased, explains why the show after a long intercontinental development process never made it to Broadway.
It has found a place in the hearts of companies such as the Perrysburg Musical Theatre that are willing to take on a challenge. PMT shows it is up to the challenge, managing to shoehorn the cathedral and Paris onto the cozy Beck Auditorium stage. That stage is populated with a cast, both leads and support, bursting with talent.
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” was adapted from both the Victor Hugo novel and songs from the Disney animated film by Alan Mencken, music, Stephen Schwartz, lyrics, and Peter Parnell, book.
The PMT production is on stage at the Juliet Beck Auditorium, 140 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg, Friday Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. and Sunday Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. Click for tickets. The show is directed by Marshall Kupresanin with music direction by Charles Ligus, choreography by Brittany Kupresanin, set design by Dave Bermudez, and artistic direction by Julie Bermudez.
Unlike other Disney adaptations, “Hunchback” is shorn of comic relief. The plot starts with death — Jehan (Ryan Walsh) delivers his deformed son to his devote brother Claude Frollo (Bradley Baker) just after the child’s mother, a Roma, has died and just before Jehan himself expires.
The sanctimonious Claude tells his dying brother: “This is God’s judgment on you!
The cleric’s first impulse is to kill the child, but then he relents seeing the baby as a test from God, “my cross to bear.” He names the child Quasimodo or “half-formed.’
Then we cut to years later. Frollo is now archdeacon of the cathedral, a cleric of great power. Quasimodo (Michael Barlos), is ensconced in the tower where he rings the bells. Those bells, the statues of saints, and the gargoyles are his friends with whom the half deaf man consults. Barlos delivers a fully formed portrayal of the troubled hero. Barlos’ Quasimodo is confused by what he sees around him, but heart-bent on doing what is right, even if it means overcoming his own self-doubt.
From his perch in the cathedral he views all that goes on.
The city is approaching the Feast of Fools, when social order is turned “Topsy Turvey.”
It is a time when the Roma, referred to as gypsies in the musical, are allowed in the streets.
This upsets Frollo, who despises the Roma, and he plans to have the feast abolished.
But Quasimodo wishes for once to go into the street, and disobeys Frollo, who is a harsh master, doling love in a single strawberry.
There we encounter the King of the Gypsies, Clopin (Jeffrey Agan Jr.) and the star attraction, the dancer Esmeralda (Alexis Abou-Arraj). She entrances all who see her as she performs “Rhythm of the Tambourine.”
That includes Frollo who spies her from a distance and Phoebus (Daniel Schultz), a solider back from the front where many of his fellows lie buried in unmarked graves. He wants respite, “Rest and Recreation.”
When Esmeralda rescues Quasimodo from the crowd after he is crowned king as the ugliest person, he too is smitten.
The plot spins out as the three men vie for her affections, and Frollo seeks to use his power to enforce his claim. While Esmeralda accepts her role as an outcasts, she also understands that she like everyone else is a child of God.
All this plays out in song, well enunciated song.
Frollo is torn between his lust for Esmeralda and his duty to his God. He expresses his tortured soul in “Hellfire” and “Esmeralda.” Baker’s Frollo is majestic in his depth and darkness. There is nothing cartoonish about his portrayal.
The stalwart Phoebus abandons his role as head of the cathedral guard because of his love for Esmeralda. They sing of their hopes for a time when they could bridge the social gap between them in “Someday.”
Matthew Badyna as Phoebus’ friend serves as a contrast. He does his duty, turning against his friend for a taste of power.
And Quasimodo sings of his hopes for love in “Heaven’s Light” after his hopes of love with Esmeralda is kindled in the duet “Top of the World.”
Throughout the chorus, in various guises, the choir, and 12-piece orchestra create a dramatic soundscape that propels the action forward.
“Hunchback” dares to eschew the forced happy ending. The forces of bigotry and repression are too strong.
