Notre Dame de Paris at ENO

We have everything crossed that a genuine hunchback will be found for the casting of Quasimodo otherwise I fear there could be a right old Ding Dong...

Saw this many times at the Dominion.

She wasn't the best by far. The best Esmerelda was the understudy later in the run. I can't remember her name but seem to remember she was possibly Swedish. Ian Pirie was the best Quasimodo, Bruno Pelletier & Luck Mervil were excellent. Dean Collinson was terrific. Fred Johansan was best Frollo.  I saw lots of different cast members. - Also saw John Partridge standing just inside the stage door wearing nothing but a very very small towel!

Yes Ryan it was Camilla Bard.

Who did I see then? I want to say Fernandes something? Anyone? It was a Sat matinee in the Arena years (I’d just got over Martinegate so found Tina Arena’s alternate less devastating). It was a right old mess wasn’t it? Great tunes but not a clue what was going on...bells...monks...I remember getting the coach from Bristol. That is all.

Hazel Fernandes?

One of the weaker French spectacles I thought. Many of them end up on DVD and Le Roi Soleil was particularly bonkers and looked lovely. The Presgurvic Romeo & Juliet actually had one of the better scores but its sad, puny London production managed to reduce the orchestrations so much you couldn’t tell. Add to that a weak translation and Jane Macdonald wandering aimlessly in and out as though she was passing a couple of hours onshore before getting back to the real job and it was pretty depressing to watch.

This is a musical I'd like to see. I lived overseas when it was at the Dominion so never got to see it but I did have the French recording on minidisc and really liked the music.
Minidiscs, strange little things weren't they.

Yes it was Hazel. I had to dig out my old programmes to look this up. Strange show. Remember treking up from Cardiff as the ex wife wanted to see it. It was big on spectacle I'll give it that

Everything has changed.
Her feelings and her hair
Have all been rearranged.

I was bitterly disappointed by the indisposition of Tina Arena, and didn’t think much of Hazel F I’m afraid.

It certainly was. Wasn't there a bit where Quasimodo was strapped to a big fetish wheel? And Tina Arena did a song in a cage that looked like a block of flats?

And don't get me started when Dannii Minogue took over. Fabulous!

I absolutely love this show, it's so much better than the blandified Disney version and the music is terrific. I think it suffered from a bad-to-mediocre translation in London since the French spectacles absolutely rely on the songs to transport everything. And of course it's a different kind of storytelling. I've seen this show in English, French and Flemish (and Italian on DVD), most recently the Paris revival, which went on tour in France, will be in Quebec in autumn and then in London as well. I can't make the short run in London, but I'm pleased to see it's coming to London - which might encourage other French tours to do the same.

The spectacles are always a bit hit and miss. Some are naff and bonkers, others simply terrific. Among those I really enjoyed were "1789 - Les Amants de la Bastille" set during the French revolution, "Robin des Bois" with the most terrific sets/projections I've ever seen and most recently "Le Rouge et le Noir".

But there seems to be a lull right now - they used to churn out one every year, but Obispo's last about Jesus flopped and a workshop production of Guillaume Tell went nowhere. A 30th anniversary of Starmania had been discussed for 2018 for a long time, but apparently that's not happening. Would love to see it done in French with some new young discovery belting out "S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse".