Summer 2023: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Peter Parnell
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by David Möschler and Phillip Harris
Choreographed by Pam Crane
Based on the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo and the Walt Disney Animation Studios film of the same name
El Cerrito Performing Arts Theater, July 14–23
Soaring and gothic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame sweeps us away to late medieval Paris, where the deeply pious Archdeacon Frollo has his ward, deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo, locked away for life in the bell tower of Notre Dame. Quasimodo yearns to know the world outside the stone walls of the cathedral. He and his master, Frollo, both fall for a beautiful and independent Romani girl, Esmeralda. As Frollo’s desire for Esmeralda and his hatred of “gypsy” outsiders grows, Quasimodo is forced to choose between the safety of his sanctuary or facing a world that will not accept him in order to protect the one he loves. Hunchback – a retelling of Victor Hugo’s novel set to Menken and Schwartz’s epic score – is a haunting story of isolation, racism, belonging, and the true nature of faith.