Putting a power-ballad-heavy spin on Victor Hugo’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, this 1998 hit musical occupies a very, very special place in French culture. When I saw it in Paris earlier this month, the crowd were pretty much in raptures, swaying and singing its big hit ’Le Temps Des Cathédrales‘ like they were four-pints-down at a Meat Loaf gig. And yup, the songs are unquestionably amazing (assuming you’re into a certain set of late ’80s rock reference points), which means that despite the weird datedness of the whole affair, its week-long stint revelling in the immaculate acoustics of the London Coliseum makes a kind of sense.
Composer Richard Cocciante’s songs mix undeniable catchiness with operatic levels of surging emotion and life-and-death struggle. Quasimodo (sung with wonderful, throaty power by Angelo Del Vecchio) is surrounded by equally well-realised characters: Esmeralda and Fleur-de-Lys are locked in conflict over their love for Phoebus, while Clopin stirs up the people of Paris in rebellion. Unfortunately, all this drama is totally undersold by director Gilles Maheu’s production. Mostly, the performers just grab the mic and belt their numbers from centre-stage. And this concert-style approach feels a bit naff given that they’re accompanied by sugary-sweet pre-recorded tracks. At the Coliseum, this will be supplemented by some live musicians, but it’s hard to imagine it’ll be enough to give the kind of authenticity and spark that music lovers are normally after.
What dramatic moments there are come from the hugely energetic chorus. Unlike ‘Les Miserables’, which totally failed to wow French audiences, this vision of the Paris underworld is resolutely twentieth century. Instead of grotty medieval peasants in rags, we get a troupe of dancers and acrobats who float and tumble across the stage in cheesy ensembles of asymmetrical drapery. This is Hugo’s seething underworld reimagined as the ‘sans-papiers’, or the undocumented migrants, who surge against metal barriers, fighting against Frollo and Phoebus’s lethal religious and government tyranny.
There are definite 2019 political parallels but this production doesn’t sell them. It looks stuck in the past, from the ill-advised costuming of Quasimodo to the two wobbly giant gargoyles that are the set design's only attempt at capturing the city that brings these characters together. What it does do is leave you with its songs ringing in your ears: and for ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ hardcore francophone fanbase, that's more than enough.