Exclusive Photo Flash: First Look at NOTRE DAME DE PARIS at the London Coliseum

Notre Dame De Paris runs at the London Coliseum until Sunday, which marks the 5,000th performance of the show that made its debut in the French capital 20 years ago.

BroadwayWorld has an exclusive first look below!

The musical, based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, uses a mixture of actors, dancers and acrobats to tell the story of hunch-backed bell-ringer Quasimodo and his love for the dancer Esmeralda.

A huge hit in France, the show has toured the world but this is its first return to London since 2000. Angelo Del Vecchio, who plays Quasimodo, first took the part in 2011 and has sung it in French, Italian and English, while Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji, also above, takes the part of Esmeralda.

Producer Nicolas Talar said he was "delighted" to be bringing the musical to London. "We have been fortunate enough to travel all over the world with this fabulous show and we are excited to bring it to London".

Long before Notre Dame de Paris became an international success, the show's composer Riccardo (aka Richard) Cocciante was already established as a successful international artist-singer-composer with more than 40 albums to his name in Italian, Spanish and French. His musical education is self-taught, allowing him to explore a vast range of musical expressions and compositions: from songs to musical operas, from film soundtracks to intimate and rigorous music for the theatre or casting and directing young singers in his "People's Opera". A second career as composer of "People's Opera" becomes obvious to him, and he consequently decided to suspend his singing and recording career.

If there is one name associated with French songwriting around the world, it is without doubt that of Luc Plamondon. This prolific songwriter has written over 500 songs and five musicals, the most famous of which - Starmania and Notre Dame de Paris - have been seen by millions of spectators and sold as many albums around the world. He encountered Diane Dufresne, who became his muse all through the seventies, for whom he wrote 75 songs. He was called on to work for all the biggest names of pop music in Quebec and France. His career reached a peak in 1992 with a tribute album that Céline Dion dedicated to him entitled Dion Sings Plamondon. With composer Michel Berger, he wrote the first French rock opera, Starmania, which premiered in Paris in 1979. An unprecedented success in several languages. His other musicals include La légende de Jimmy (1990). His greatest triumph, Notre Dame de Paris, which opened in Paris (1998) continues to tour around the world.

Photo Credit: Roy Tan

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