History Of A Hunchback

In the 19th century, a young French author by the name of Victor Hugo visited a decaying old cathedral in the centre of Paris: Notre Dame. Seeing the neglected state of the ancient building, Hugo soon learned that it was someday to be destroyed. Fearing for the life of the sanctuary, Hugo needed to find a way to bring public interest back to it. Thus, he began to write a novel about what might have happened in the cathedral 400 years earlier. He told the moving story of a deformed gyspy boy who was adopted by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, and kept up in the bell tower. His book was immensely popular, and succeeded in its aim: to rescue Notre Dame from being destroyed.

 

When the Walt Disney Company came to produce their 34th animated feature, they turned to Hugo's classic novel for inspiration. After creating their own story in The Lion King and following a Native American legend in Pocahontas, it was decided that The Hunchback of Notre Dame would be the next animated masterpiece. Unfortunately, this film did not perform as successfully as the previous two movies in the box office, mainly due to the fact that the movie had a dark, gothic edge, which many concerned parents found disturbing. However, it developed a core of faithful followers and, in retrospect, is very well written and acted, and beautifully animated. It is definitely one of Disney's best.

 

The songs and score of Disney's movie lent themselves largely to Broadway-style stage productions. So it came as no great surprise when it was revealed that Hunchback would be Disney's new stage spectacular. What was surprising was that the show would open in Berlin, Germany. Musical theatre had never been big in Berlin, so it was all a great mystery. The show was renamed Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame (Glöckner is sometimes written Gloeckner in English, and sounds like "Glehrk-na") which translates as The Bellringer of Notre Dame. Nine new songs were written and translated into German. What was Disney doing? A great experiment, or a grave mistake...? The show opened on June 5th 1999, and proved to be an incredible success. Not only did the Germans enjoy having such a fantastic show to call their own, but Glöckner become a huge attraction for tourists worldwide. Directed by Englishman James Lapine, the new show delves deeper than the movie dared, providing a much more adult experience and truer interpretation of Victor Hugo's novel.

 
 

So where to from here? Originally, everyone assumed that after running in Berlin for a while, Hunchback would hit Broadway in a big way... It still hasn't. In fact, after playing for a number of years in Germany and since closing, the show still has not opened in another theatre anywhere in the world. There could be a number of reasons for Disney's reluctance to open this show in English. Perhaps it has become a bit too dark, and they don't want to put the "family-company's" name on it. Perhaps they're just waiting for the right time. Who knows? Don't stop pestering them though. This show could have a remarkable future, if only the big-wigs at Disney would give it a chance.