BTG stages a sweeping musical version of Victor Hugo’s gothic novel

By Russ Tarby

Contributing Writer

Forget Charles Laughton. Forget Lon Chaney. This ain’t your grandfather’s hunchback! 

No, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the musical that opens the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild’s 76th season, is something entirely different. 

Yes, it’s based on the famous Victor Hugo novel about a deformed bell-ringer who falls hopelessly in love with a free-spirited gypsy girl. But this high-brow musical treatment is so much more. The epic BTG production, with its cast of 38 singers spilling off the stage and 14-piece orchestra, is less like those vintage films and more like a mix of Handel’s “Messiah,” Mozart’s “Requiem” and Pomerance’s “The Elephant Man” all rolled into one.

Award-winning musical director Abel Searor deftly handles a score from Disney’s 1996 animated film version, featuring music by Alan Menkin with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Pete Parnell. Each number resembles an oratorio as the choir belts out solid support for the principals — Liam Fitzpatrick as Quasimodo, Ceara Windhausen as Esmeralda and venerable local leading man Bob Brown as Dom Claude Frollo. Brown brings a surfeit of gravitas to his role as the manipulative hypocrite, Frollo, who reluctantly adopts Quasimodo before imprisoning him in the cathedral. As vocalists, Brown, Fitzpatrick and Windhausen outdo themselves with power, pitch and passion. The singing soars throughout.

B’ville’s own Josh Taylor plays a devil-may-care pickpocket and king of the gypsies, Clopin Trouillefou, and Paul Thompson impresses as Captain Phoebus, who vies with Quasimodo and Frollo for Esmeralda’s affections.

Derek Powell gives a brief but convincing performance as Jehan, Quasimodo’s ill-fated father. Corey Hopkins makes a statement as the martyred Saint Aphrodisius and Kristina Abbott’s gypsy madam hits all the high notes.

Songs include the anthem of yearning, “Out There,” with Brown’s baritone complementing Fitzpatrick’s tenor, “God Help the Outcasts” showcasing Windhausen’s prodigious pipes, and “Topsy Turvy” featuring a jumping and jiving Josh Taylor. That tune delivers one of the best dance routines of the evening, a high-kicking affair choreographed by Stephond Brunson and dance captain Lauren Puente, who also sparkles in the ensemble.

Taylor’s set design dazzles the eye as he wisely focuses on a towering recreation of Notre Dame’s huge, round North Rose Window with its central medallion colorfully encircled by scores of trefoil images. Stephanie Long’s costume designs also capture the zeitgeist of the 15th century from Frollo’s clerical robes to Quasimodo’s tatters to the gypsies’ glittering dresses.

As Searor points out in his director’s note, the story’s concern for outcasts takes on greater meaning given contemporary American arguments over identity and immigration. All the more reason to let this “Hunchback” ring your bell.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” produced by Korrie Taylor, continues at the First Presbyterian Education Center, 64 Oswego St., at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 2 and 3, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, and at 8 p.m. Feb. 9 and 10. Tickets cost $25, and $21 for students and seniors; pastry and coffee included; baldwinsvilletheatreguild.org; 315-877-8465.