Ring the Bells for The Hunchback of Notre Dame performances
Costandinos “Gus" Pappas as Quasimodo
Signature Productions is presenting Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Summerlin Library Performing Arts Center from March 29 to April 29.
The performance is a wonderfully scored retelling of Victor Hugo’s epic story of love, acceptance, and what it means to be a hero. Based on the novel and songs from the Disney animated feature, The Hunchback of Notre Dame showcases the film’s Academy Award-nominated score, as well as new songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Peter Parnell’s new book embraces story theatre and features verbatim passages from Hugo’s gothic novel.
The musical begins as the bells of Notre Dame sound through the famed cathedral in fifteenth-century Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer who longs to be “Out There,” observes all of Paris reveling in the Feast of Fools. Held captive by his devious caretaker, the archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, he escapes for the day. He joins the boisterous crowd, only to be treated cruelly by all but the beautiful Romani woman, Esmeralda. Quasimodo isn’t the only one captivated by her free spirit. The handsome Captain Phoebus and Frollo are equally enthralled. As the three vie for her attention, Frollo embarks on a mission to destroy the Roma, and it’s up to Quasimodo to save them all.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was first published as a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo in 1831. The Hunchback of Notre Dame has also been released as an animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1996.
Dr. Karl M. Larsen, a local optometrist and attorney Victor J. Austin began Signature Productions in 1989 as a nonprofit community theater company. Its goal is to provide young performers, designers, and technicians a venue to grow and develop their natural abilities while veteran performers, designers, and technicians teach and inspire. They launch two to three major productions annually; usually, musicals requiring approximately four months per production. The auditions have drawn as many as 350 aspiring artists to audition. For more info, visit signatureproductions.net and follow on Facebook @ signatureproductdionslv.
Signature Productions will present Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Summerlin Library Performing Arts Center, 1771 Inner Circle Drive, from March 29 to April 29. Check out the calendar by clicking here for show times and to purchase tickets, visit hunchbacklv.com.