Chicago Reader Hunchback Review

[mendelstyx]

Not so positive

 

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stor...reviews/080529/

 

An Ill-Proportioned Hunchback

The score has its moments, but Dennis DeYoung’s new musical wants a stronger book.

 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

David G. Zak

 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Bailiwick Repertory

 

By Jack Helbig

 

May 29, 2008

 

We live in the age of the composer-lyricist—a time when musicals are believed to be the creation of one Great Person like Andrew Lloyd Webber or Stephen Sondheim, surrounded by a host of lesser beings (directors, actors, choreo­graphers, musicians, and all those faceless backstage people) who exist merely to ease the artistic birthing process. This hero worship may sell tickets. It certainly builds brand identity. But it also distorts what really goes into the making of a musical.

 

The best musicals are the result of creative partnerships. It took Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and director Rouben Mamoulian and choreographer Agnes De Mille to transform Lynn Riggs’s play Green Grow the Lilacs into Oklahoma! My Fair Lady was the brainchild of Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Moss Hart, and George Bernard Shaw (not to mention Ovid). Sondheim may get cultish adulation for his work, but he makes a point of working with great directors, talented choreographers, and writers who know how to tell a story.

 

Dynamic collaboration is necessary because musicals are complex things: a melding of at least three performance genres to create something more enter­taining than the sum of their parts. When one person dominates—or worse still, creates alone—the end result usually seems off balance. The story’s weak, or the characters are undeveloped. The show doesn’t feel finished somehow.

 

That’s the problem with Dennis DeYoung’s musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the classic 1831 novel by Victor Hugo about doomed love in 15th-century Paris. A gifted songwriter, former Styx front man DeYoung has packed his adaptation with power ballads and soaring anthems. But he desperately needs a stronger book to set the scene for each song and give the characters context.

 

Certainly the elements for a good show are there. Hugo’s three central characters are as fascinating as they are iconic. Quasimodo is physically deformed but beautiful on the inside. Frollo, his guardian, is a religious man who’s taken a vow of chastity but now finds himself sexually obsessed. And then there’s the beautiful, contradictory femme fatale Esmerelda. DeYoung’s music goes a long way toward giving them life. Dana Tretta’s Esmerelda stops the show when she enters singing “When I Dance for You.”

 

That’s not to say the songs couldn’t use some work: Many of them come across as a pastiche of material from other sources, including The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and ABBA. And many of them, of course, are reminiscent of Styx (although not as much as you might think: watching this show makes you realize how much the band’s sound depended on guitar work and the specific voices of DeYoung and Tommy Shaw).

 

But even with its flaws, the score is far superior to the book. DeYoung’s characters don’t develop gracefully—they either fail to change or change suddenly. Take Frollo, for instance. In one scene he’s a wise father, in the next he’s murderously jealous of Esmerelda’s lover; in the third he’s suicidal.

 

The weakness of the book ultimately compromises the songs by forcing DeYoung to weigh them down with exposition and character development. This makes it harder for them to do their true job, which is to express those feelings that can’t be expressed any other way. That’s a shame, because if DeYoung’s songwriting for Styx demonstrated anything, it’s how much a rock ’n’ roll song can evoke.

 

Director David Zak has given this po­ten­tial­ly powerful but problematic material as good a production as one might reason­ably expect. George Andrew Wolff communi­cates both the likable and freakish sides of Quasimodo. And even if Jeremy Rill’s Frollo never convinces us that he finds Esmerelda attractive enough to kill for, Tretta succeeds in making her both a beautiful damsel in distress and a strong, independent woman.

 

But without a decent book, the show becomes little more than a glorified cast album. Ironically, DeYoung has already released a CD of songs from Hunchback, sung by him and Dawn Marie Feusi—and it’s more moving and dramatic than this production.

 

At the opening I overheard DeYoung in the lobby telling someone that though he thought the show was good it will be better in two weeks, and better still two weeks after that. He may be right. But this Hunchback will never achieve its full potential until DeYoung finds a real book writer to partner with. v

 

Through 7/6: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM, no show Thu-Fri 7/3-7/4, Bailiwick Repertory, Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-883-1090, $25-$45.

 

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Comments

[Ron]

Even though this (and a few others) give a negative vibe towards the show, they all tend to admit that it has potential. I would interpret this as a reviewer saying the show was okay, but needs some work to take it to the next level and make it a great show.

I do not know that much about the performance theater, or what would make a good book as opposed to a bad one. I understand the flow of the story and the emotions of the characters, but am unaware of the amount of hand-holding that the performance (and story) need to do with the audience to be able to bring them along; especially for some of the complex emotions involved with Hunchback.

Of course, I don't trust the motives of reviewers, either.

[mtlfan]

Needs a stronger book??? It's only been a classic for the past 150 years ....

 

This guys' review is total irrelevance, IMHO.

Edited May 29, 2008 by mtlfan

[ladybugking]

I believe the reviewers have universally liked the music. The book is something that can most certainly be fixed, as I feel it is secondary to the music in this production.

 

I like the use of the gypsy to carry the story, and the actress who played her at the Bailiwick was marvelous. I think that has potential for expansion in future productions.

 

I think the music is a rock-solid foundation for this work, though.

[mendelstyx]

In the case of the word book here...it refers not to the novel, but to the story as written to enact the play. In that regard, the musical is weak. Certainly not unfixable, but there are places where it could be punched up and strengthened. It is very faithful to the novel but does leave gaps in the story and its movement.

 

Personally, I very much enjoyed it and hope it continues its run and Dennis can take the criticism of his book and improve on it.

 

 

Liz

[mtlfan]

In the case of the word book here...it refers not to the novel, but to the story as written to enact the play. In that regard, the musical is weak. Certainly not unfixable, but there are places where it could be punched up and strengthened. It is very faithful to the novel but does leave gaps in the story and its movement.

 

Personally, I very much enjoyed it and hope it continues its run and Dennis can take the criticism of his book and improve on it.

 

Liz

 

Ah ha, gotcha! That's what the reviewer meant by the book. Thanks for explaining that to me - I will add it to my "learned something today" list. I add at least one thing a day, but usually it's a new old Quebecois saying! LOL!

 

As to the gaps, I haven't seen the play and I'm certainly no theatre student so I can't comment, but when you're dealing with time limits of a play and/or production costs, gaps would not be unheard of in an attempt to keep the story going? I think it would be a challenge for any playwright. Or am I just blowing smoke here? (I'm not being a smartass, I honestly don't know!!)

Edited May 30, 2008 by mtlfan

[Ron]

Actually I have been wondering how the critics and performance theater people take to newcomers to their genre. Are they willing to accept "people from the outside" (especially a rock and roller) or are they very close-knit and unwilling to accept material from someone who "is not their own" no matter how good it may be, or how strong audience appeal would be for such a production?

Unfortunately I think the further success of this production lies in the answer to this question. Hopefully the strong performance that is currently being put on at the Bailiwick will help the show overcome this potential hurdle.

[mendelstyx]

Actually I have been wondering how the critics and performance theater people take to newcomers to their genre. Are they willing to accept "people from the outside" (especially a rock and roller) or are they very close-knit and unwilling to accept material from someone who "is not their own" no matter how good it may be, or how strong audience appeal would be for such a production?

Unfortunately I think the further success of this production lies in the answer to this question. Hopefully the strong performance that is currently being put on at the Bailiwick will help the show overcome this potential hurdle.

 

I think that particular obstacle isn't a big one nowadays. There has been such an influx of rock and roll personalities writing musicals that land on Broadway that I don't think there is that stigma anymore. I think the bigger question here is how willing Dennis would be to allowing a collaboration to improve an already very good musical. Just as I strongly think that not getting it staged elsewhere right on the heels of the Bailiwick show is a big mistake. Word of mouth goes a very long way.

 

Liz