[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, at Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas]

A Prayerful Cry from Outcasts

By Tom Wachunas 

 

…There are some days, dark andbitter / Seems we haven't got a prayer / But a prayer for something better / Isthe one thing we all share…

- from the song“Someday” by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz 

 

   Where is it etchedin stone that a work of musical theatre must always cheer up the house? Theseason-ending Players Guild production of TheHunchback of Notre Dame, based on the Victor Hugo novel and with songs fromthe 1996 animated Disney film, is a far cry from the giddy jubilance weexperienced last September in the Guild’s dazzling production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. There were momentsthroughout Hunchback when the famouspassage in T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men,” crept into my head: “…This isthe way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”  This is the way the Guild’s season ends?

   As a theatricalwork, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (book by Peter Parnell) is a mercilessly contemplative story – somber, brooding, andseemingly hopeless in its complexity – and arguably flawed by anover-indulgence in expository narrative passages muttered or chanted by robedpriests, choirs, and statues. Yet there’s something ineffably spectacular –even courageous - in how director Jonathan Tisevich has effectively let lightshine through such a dark tale.

   It’s a light bothsymbolic and literal, revealed in many ways, starting with  the impressive set designed by JoshuaErichsen, in conjunction with the resplendent lighting design by Scott Suttonand offstage live orchestra conducted by Steve Parsons. All of it evokes the ritualizedmajesty and mystery of Gothic cathedrals in 15th century Paris.Throughout the proceedings, these hallowed halls and shadowy niches oftenreverberate with explosive choral performances from the ensemble, capturing theglorious polyphonic pomp and solemnity associated with the High Holy Mass ofold. The Latin texts and chants, peppered with Kyrie eleison ( Greek, actually, for “Lord Have Mercy”) and Dies irae (Day of Wrath), constantly portend trouble ahead.

  Archdeacon Frollo, played here by JimGraysmith, named his bastard nephew Quasimodo (meaning ‘half-formed’) andregards him as a simpleton to be disciplined in the ways of the Church. Frolloraised him from infancy and forcibly confined him to Notre Dame’s bell tower tosupposedly shield him from a morally corrupt world. Graysmith gives us a robustportrait of Frollo’s hypocricy and malevolence, beginning with hisguilt-riddled lust for the alluring young gypsy woman, Esmeralda.  After being soundly rebuffed by her, hecondemns her to die as a witch and embarks on a murderous campaign to purgeParis of its sinful gypsy population. While the clarity of what Graysmith issaying is often diminished when he sings in his gristly lower register, there’sno mistaking his palpably sinister intent. Chilling.

    Matthew Heppeplays Phoebus, a cathedral soldier employed by Frollo. He’s a carousingwomanizer when we first meet him, but is soon drawn to Esmeralda enough topursue her in earnest. Just how earnest,exactly, is a lingering question, as his cavalier demeanor feels a bit tootentative at times. Interestingly, one could reasonably wonder if Clopin, theenergetic leader of the gypsies, might be the more sincere suitor. Or is hisinfectious passion more about loyalty to his community at large? In any case,Sean Flemming brings delightful ebullience to that role.

   And speaking ofebullience, there are some notable passages of mirth and magic amidst thedarkness, including the gypsy joie devivre evident in the ensemble numbers choreographed by Michael LawrenceAyers. And a particularly enchanting scene in Act Two transpires in the song,“Flight Into Egypt,” wherein a statue of the martyr, St. Aphrodisius, played byJake Sustersic, comes to life and directs Quasimodo to rescue Esmeralda. In aclever illusion, Sustersic appears to be holding his decapitated head in hishands as he sings.

   The undeniablybrightest lights in this story are the electrifying performances by DesireeHargrave as Esmeralda, and David Holbert as Quasimodo. What began asEsmeralda’s simple act of mercy in rescuing Quasimodo from the cruelties heapedupon him by Parisians during the annual Feast of Fools becomes a profoundlyincorruptible bond of hope and love between societal outcasts. Indeed, whenHargrave sings “God Help the Outcasts,” it’s a soaring, cathartic focal point,a gripping pledge of sympathy and an otherwise bittersweet melding ofselflessness, resolve, and achingly real supplication. And whenever Holbertsings, he sheds his contorted posture and slurred speech so that his voicebecomes a strong, piercing presence, invested at some points with boyish wonderand joy, at others with a compelling sadness and urgency.  

  The story ends as itbegan, with a question: “What makes a monster, and what makes a man?”  We might just as well wonder: What makes lustand what makes love?  While the end isnot a happily-ever-after one by any worldly measure, it’s certainly not awhimper. It may be, for some, a dour finale, a mournful tolling of bells in aninapproachable tower. But the larger, more sobering realization here is ineffect a Divine revelation – a ringing reminder that the purest love is nothingif not sacrificial. It’s not so much a matter of Dies Irae as it is one of KyrieEleison.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame / THROUGH June 3, 2018 / PlayersGuild Theatre,  1001 Market Ave N,Canton, OH /   Single tickets:  $29 / 17 and younger:  $22 / Seniors:  $26 / Order tickets : Box Office  330-453-7617, or at  https://www.playersguildtheatre.com/  

   For other reviewsand commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the performing and visual arts in thegreater Canton area, please visit is blog, ARTWACH, at www.artwach.blogspot.com  

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