Photos courtesy of CASA 011
Reviewed by Amanda L. Andrei
Casa 0101
Through December 22
RECOMMENDED
There’s a new cathedral in Boyle Heights, and it lives and shapeshifts in Casa 0101’s impressive remounting of The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical.
Adapted from the 1996 Disney animated film, which in turn is an adaptation of French novelist Victor Hugo’s seminal work, this musical returns to the darker source material of the novel while expanding Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s original music and lyrics and including a book by Peter Parnell.
In fifteenth century Paris, hunchbacked cathedral bell ringer Quasimodo (CJ Cruz) longs to take part in the public festivities of the Feast of Fools, but Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo (Jack Bernaz) (who also happens to be his uncle), denies him the privilege on the basis that the world is an ugly and cruel place. When the young Roma (gypsy) dancer Esmerelda (Bimei Flores) appears, she captures the attention of Quasimodo, Frollo, and military captain Phoebus (Drew Maidment), leading to tragedy as suppressed desire, xenophobia, and religious fanaticism clash in and out of the famed Notre Dame cathedral.
Cruz as Quasimodo is a jewel, deftly switching between a prismatic singing voice, slurred speech when talking to humans, and clear boyish conversation when chatting up gargoyles and saints. As the villainous Frollo, Bernaz likewise matches his charge’s intensity, and his deep rendition of “Hellfire” with Alejandro Lechuga’s creative costuming impresses an unforgettable stage image of roiling patriarchal authority. Flores’ Esmerelda is a wide-eyed romantic, caught in circumstances beyond her control as she croons her doomed hopes with a diva-esque voice. And in this adaptation, Phoebus gets more backstory than in the Disney film, which Maidment portrays with earnestness in soaring ballads.
Two other standout performances include Christopher J. Thumé as Clopin, a trickster who alternates between narrator, king of the outcasts, and a jester-type figure, and Ethan Trejo in a member of the choir who doubles as King of France and an unnamed priest during the Festival of Fools. Thumé has a gaze and a voice so sharp that, if materialized, they could cut stained glass. Trejo’s cameo-like appearances provide a sassy edge — a touch of hilarious camp from Rigo Tejeda’s direction that makes the musical their own.
Indeed, director Tejeda has a monumental task of coordinating a cast of 23 in this epic drama, and he pulls it off beautifully, suffusing the black box theatre with the majesty of Notre Dame and the frivolity of its alleyways and nooks. Marco de León’s flexible and economizing set, complemented by Alejandro Parra’s dazzling light design of multicolored rosette windows, creates a sense of intimacy as well as spaciousness, especially with its moving staircase. It’s to stage manager Joaquín Madrid Larrañaga’s credit that all the technical details run so smoothly that full attention can be devoted to the lofty performances.
Quibbles with the production rest primarily on the story itself. Frollo is introduced as Quasimodo’s uncle (a twist on Hugo’s novel) and the bellringer never gets to grapple with this revelation. Phoebus and Esmerelda’s relationship, which never made much sense in the animated movie, still seems strange in this adaptation, and the chemistry between the two lovers in spoken moments feels slack.
Casa 0101 makes a bold and admirable choice in presenting this grim classic during the holidays. Winter — though Los Angeles may not feel it as strongly — is precisely the season when grief, depravity, and despair resonate. Despite the sunshine, there is a need to retreat into the darkness and shadows of a sanctuary. There’s no moral, no tidy bow to comfort an audience. Instead, something better. Awe.
Casa 0101 Theater, 2102 East First Street (at St. Louis Street); Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm dark Fri., Nov. 29; thru Dec. 22. www.casa0101.org Running time: Two hours and thirty minutes with a 10-minute intermission.
