Disney's Hunchback back in Berlin

Is this based on the original staging they did? I'd love to see it and will certainly aim to. The choral work in Someday sounded amazing.
And when you said "recent", I wonder if you meant that production circa 1999, i.e. 17 years ago

Like Michael said, by "recent" I meant the new staging at La Jolla/Papermill which had obviously been hoping to reach Broadway but didn't.

Germany/Holland seem to be the Last Chance Saloon for Disney croppers. Tarzan was a big flop on Broadway, but did (does) very well in the Netherlands and Germany. The Little Mermaid at least got a Dutch tour but didn't make it across the border. I assume that if Hunchback becomes a moderate success in Germany it will also go to the Netherlands (so I'll see it there for half the price).

Come 2017, Stage Entertainment will have 5 Disney productions playing in their 8 commercial theatres: Lion King, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Tarzan and Hunchback. It's apparently the only kind of bright colourful musical Germans are still willing to fork out the ludicrous prices for.

Agh..Felix Martin. Not what I had in mind for Frollo.

Was the La Jolla version that bad? On Broadwayworld everyone puts blame on Schwartz supposedly in inapt son, who they all claim is the biggest failure as director.

I was sick on the day I had a ticket to the La Jolla production, so was unable to attend.  But I caught the Glenn Casale-directed Hunchback last year in La Mirada.  From what I've heard, it fixes some of the problems with the La Jolla/Papermill version.  Unfortunately, it is still far from perfect.

(FYI, the film is one of my favorites from Disney's Renaissance, despite all the distortions to the source material.)  

The good news is that the stage musical is far closer to the book than the movie.
The bad news is that the stage musical is far closer to the book than the movie.

The ending is vastly improved, with the fates of the characters resembling those in the book.
The beginning is needlessly drawn out, with an extended prologue about Frollo and his brother being ultimately superfluous.
(I couldn't help feeling that Hunchback wanted to be like that other musical based on a novel by Victor Hugo.)

The score is (a) glorious, and (b) monotonous.  It features some of Menken's best work, but there are far too many choral passages.  At times you feel as if you're listening to an album of Gregorian chants.

Too often the score just reiterates what we can see.  For example: Quasi and Phoebus sing about searching for the Court of Miracles while we watch them search for the Court of Miracles.  (Columns move while the actors skulk, sing & look around. And it's boring.)

"Hellfire" needed to be much more dynamic.  It's stunning in the film, and staging it simply with Frollo on his knees confessing really didn't cut it.
The big special effects scenes, like the pouring of the molten lead, were not licked.  Red, fluttering cloth really didn't do it.

The BEST thing about the La Mirada production was the casting of John McGinty as Quasi.  He's a deaf actor, and spoke the dialogue beautifully (in a powerful, slightly hollow-sounding voice).  His singing voice was provided by Dino Nicandros, who played one of the gargoyles (which also served to make their inclusion in the piece thematically sound).  

I still get chills recalling their joint rendition of "Out There".  McGinty's signing/miming + Nicandros vocals = Pure theatrical magic!

In the end, I'm very glad I saw Hunchback. There was much to like, but also much to critique.  I really think there's a great musical in there; it just hasn't been brought out.

A short video promo of the production:

It actually opened in Berlin (where the world premiere took place in... I wanna say 1998?) yesterday. Will be a limited run though, then tour as producer Stage Entertainment seems to have understood that people don't travel for musicals anymore, so they have to bring the musicals to them.

I didn't like the first version at all, perhaps this new version is better, no idea. Didn't even make it to Broadway. Will take a look when it tours to my neck of the woods eventually.