Review: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME at Shedley Theatre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Saturday 12th October 2024.

It’s probably premature to expect Papal dispensation, but it looks like Northern Light has pulled off a miracle with the South Australian premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The Shedley Theatre deserves a pilgrimage.

The global success of Les Miserables prompted someone to investigate the novels of Victor Hugo, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame of 1831 was an ideal choice. There is the emotionally tortured outsider, the couple of young lovers, and the clash of good and evil, when the good churchman is the baddie and the gypsies represent freedom and love and community. The echoes of Les Miserables are very strong.

From the very opening, Director, Gordon Combes, shows off a distinctive theatrical intelligence. A swirling crowd, in hoods and robes, fills the stage, and the principal cast discard their disguises and approach the front of the stage. Sam Mannix, who will go on to break your heart, ties on the disfiguring hump and smears his face with grime. That, so constricted, he displays a superbly supported vocal sound is a tribute to rock-hard technique. Andrew Crispe as Dom Claudio Frollo, Dean of the cathedral and, incidentally, Quasimodo’s uncle, has never sung so well, He represents the power of the church and his degeneration into the love-crazed pursuer is clear and effective. Catherine Breugelmann’s Esmeralda is, bluntly, drop-dead gorgeous. As my father would have said, she could have made a bishop kick his mitre through a stained glass window. When Robin Breugelmanns appears as Phoebus, in his black and silver uniform, even before he sings, he has won the hearts of the audience. Their rehearsals can only have been enhanced by their marriage, such closeness and such intimacy is hard to achieve and impossible to deny.

The versatile community of street people, choreographed by Sue Pole, take on a lively representation of the community, and become gargoyles, statues, and soldiers, each of them confident in their sung contributions. Behind the grille at the back of the stage, a separate and massive choir sing the required Latin, adding a rare and moving sound to the music. Parisya Mosel is a real find as Clopin, leader of the gypsies, mercurial and engaging.

Matthew Rumley’s versatile and highly effective orchestra underpins the success of the show, and a sideways glance to the screens above the audience lets you watch his sweeping gestures and careful cues.

That Disney chose to make an animated movie of this story is remarkable. The multi-award-winning team of Alan Mencken and Stephen Schwartz provided serviceable songs, but missing from the score is one heroic anthem, one big memorable chorus scene. Again, parallels with Les Miserables are hard to avoid.

At least the temptation to create a spurious happy ending was avoided, with Esmeralda surviving and running off with Phoebus to join the gypsies. There are other deviations from the original. Jehan, Frollo’s scapegrace younger brother, in this version, runs off with the gypsies and, dying, bequeaths the baby Quasimodo to Frollo’s care. In the original, he is killed by his son during the attack of the cathedral. Dominic Hodges plays him, and returns as a ghostly observer at the end. The astonishing apparition of St Aphrodisius, the headless martyr, is brilliantly presented by Billy St John.

If I have two little niggles, they are these. Despite the libretto, Notre Dame did not possess a dome, and the little bundle of sticks for the pyre wouldn’t have crisped a sausage. You have to look really hard to find anything at fault in this superbly realised production.