skygiants | Entries tagged with notre-dame de paris

Those of you who have been around here for a while will remember how much I love the French musical Notre-Dame de Paris. I love it SO much that when

genarti and I went to go see the 20th-anniversary version in Montreal this weekend I could answer all her plot questions about blink-and-you-miss-it plot events in the show, despite the fact that she speaks French and I don't.

(Notre-Dame de Paris the musical does not care about plot. Notre-Dame de Paris the musical cares about FEELINGS and DIGRESSIONS. Gringoire and Frollo singing philosophically about architecture and the printing press gets four and a half minutes; the trial of Esmeralda takes ninety seconds.)

Anyway: it was amazing? Our Esmeralda was SO GOOD, I could have just sat and listened to her sing the whole dang thing. And, unlike the original cast Esmeralda, she occasionally danced!

In most ways, the production looked essentially identical to the recorded version, which I have watched many times and lovingly picspammed a few years back because, again, I have a lot of feelings about this show. Any changes were pretty much small and cast-driven. A few disconnected notes:

- our Gringoire played much more hapless than the original Gringoire; Gringoire Classic mostly succeeds at being an ironic commentator on events except when Clopin turns the joke on him in "Cour des Miracles," and this Gringoire was Trying a Lot Harder at being on top of events and Succeeding Less
- Esmeralda, in addition to just being a wildly charismatic actress, played younger and more naive, which I liked a lot; Fleur-de-Lys, in contrast, played older, which I did not like, as it made her seem very much in control of her whole situation, when the whole point of making Fleur-de-Lys textually fourteen in the musical rather than the grown woman she is in Hugo's novel is to emphasize how much she too is a victim of Phoebus (in specific) and The Patriarchy (in general) but lashes down (at Esmeralda, a woman with less privilege) instead of up
- so many cute little Esmeralda and Clopin moments in this production! They high-five during "Les Sans-Papiers," he helps her get water for Quasimodo and then encourages her when she's scared, it's ADORABLE
- as a sidenote, this Clopin was good but not as good as Luck Mervil, who is just charisma on wheels
- seeing the show live makes it very clear how weird the pacing is -- like, there's all this high drama of Esmeralda's trial and torture and imprisonment and then! everything stops! so Frollo can sing a sad song!
- honestly THREE Frollo songs about his boner for Esmeralda is WAY too many and at least one of those should be replaced with some actual Frollo-Quasimodo interaction
- I did remember the gyrating Speedo-clad men who appear spotlit in the background to illustrate Phoebus' emotional state during "Déchiré;" I did not remember that there were FIVE of them! It's like the part when the glistening Jason Stathams start multiplying in that one music video!
- Frollo getting attacked by scenery during "Tu Vas Me Detruire" is pretty much exactly the same onstage (though

genarti thought the scenery was SLIGHTLY less aggressive in the live production) but remains hilarious no matter what

All gyrating Stathams and attack scenery aside, a thing I do want to reiterate is that the creators of this show took an iconic but deeply racist and sexist nineteenth-century novel and transformed it into a call for justice for refugees and undocumented people, like, that is the most important theme in this musical; I've been wanting to see it for the past fifteen years but 2018 is definitely A Time to do so.

December meme, Day 2:

aquamirage asked me about moments in musical theater that fuck me up every single time!

I'm pretty sure she asked me this because at the time we were watching Into the Woods and I was complaining vociferously about the fact that they cut "No More" from the upcoming film (THEY CUT "NO MORE" FROM THE UPCOMING FILM, ARGH); as you all know I have many, MANY feelings about Into the Woods, but for whatever reason "No More" is the song that, in fact, fucks me up every single time. I think it's because there's no bombast to it; it's the total resignation that gets me.

In other really obvious news that is obvious, I always think I'm cool and totally over it as I sit down to see a production of Les Mis, and then the first chords of "Look Down" strike up and NO, NO, I WAS WRONG, I'M NOT COOL, I'M NOT COOL! ALL THE FEELINGS ARE BACK. I'm pretty sure it's not even anything specific about "Look Down," it's just a Pavlovian response! Pavlovian feelings! Hello, fourteen-year-old Becca, I see you're back again!

But, OK, let's try for something slightly less obvious. "I Don't Care Much," Cabaret -- that's another one where the total resignation of it is much more effective for getting me to feel a lot of complicated things than anything else would be. (The ending of Cabaret also really shakes me up if it's done right, but it's not always done right, and I've seen it done well enough often enough that a mediocre production won't do much for me except irritate me about the fact that it isn't better.)

A short list of other songs that make me feel feelings in shows, although not always the same feelings: "Easy as Life," Aida. The "Johanna" reprise that Sweeney Todd sings in Sweeney Todd. "Les Cloches" and "Liberes" from Notre-Dame de Paris. And, of course, ever and always, "Confrontation" from Jekyll and Hyde, a moment in musical theater that I CANNOT EXPERIENCE without getting totally fucked up with hysterical laughter. NO, NEVER! YES, FOREVER.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/396898.html

So much as I enjoy The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as a totally ridiculous novel, secretly I think that the real reason for its existence is to serve as the basis for Notre-Dame de Paris the French musical, which I love with a TREMENDOUS AND FIERY PASSION.

Don't get me wrong: Notre-Dame de Paris is exactly as cheesy and ridiculous as you would expect. But I love the music deeply and unironically, and I even more I love how it manages to put all the social conscience that Hunchback doesn't actually have back into the story, and turns a deeply racist book into a story that does its level best to grapple with racism, and exile, and exoticization and diaspora. I kind of love that a lot.

. . . I also love the fact that it earnestly fits in songs to go along with all of the lengthy Hugo digressions that have nothing to do with the plot -- imagine if Les Mis had done that! We now pause this musical so Gavroche can sing a song about argot! HOW GREAT WOULD THAT BE -- and the completely over-the-top staging and nonsensical dancing. I LOVE EVERYTHING, OKAY.

( Under the cut, a play-by-play with screencaps, you guys know the drill )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/341141.html

So most people who have not read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame think that Quasimodo is the main character, or maybe Esmeralda, or possibly Creepy Frollo, Stalker Priest.

This is not true, because the book has no main character, and what's fascinating is that the book is a completely different story if read through any of their perspectives. The main cast is as follows:

ESMERALDA: A beautiful singing dancing symbol of exotic beauty
DJALI: Her adorable pet goat
CLAUDE FROLLO: A stalker priest, with a crush on Esmeralda
QUASIMODO: An unfortunately disabled and deaf bell-ringer, with a crush on Esmeralda
GRINGOIRE: A failure poet and Esmeralda's fake husband, with a crush on Esmeralda's goat
PHOEBUS: A douchebag soldier, on whom Esmeralda has a crush
JEHAN FROLLO: A douchebag student, who is Frollo's baby brother
THE SACK WOMAN: A nun buried in the floor who spends all her time either screaming or staring at a tiny adorable baby shoe
NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS: A cathedral, with a crush on Quasimodo

My personal favorite version of Hunchback is the story you get if you read it through Gringoire's perspective, because it is the least depressing of the lot. A tale, indeed, of true love triumphant in a WORLD GONE MAD!

( Fake Husband of the Love Interest of the Hunchback of Notre Dame )

Much to my delight, the introduction of the edition I was reading firmly agrees with me about the importance of Gringoire/Djali in the story. "It's the only happy marriage of two living things in the entire book," says Elizabeth McCracken. "Do not scorn the love of a goat: it is a powerful, touching thing, at least in Hugo's hands." INDEED. Elizabeth McCracken also believes that "the central couple of the novel is not Quasimodo/Esmeralda, but Quasimodo/the Cathedral of Notre-Dame," which I hope she has entered properly as a tag on AO3.

Okay, all that aside, I do have some other thoughts on my reread of the book, unrelated to pure and true goat love but possibly related to Les Miserables.

( Some other thoughts about Hunchback, unrelated to failure poets but possibly related to Les Miserables )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/340280.html

First of all, your regularly scheduled reminder:

fma_ladyfest signups are closing in two days! We have a multitude of awesome prompts already, and will continue to be ridiculously excited about this upcoming round until you are all sick of hearing about it and probably for a while after that. :D

Second, the last of

moonyazu9's top five requests for me: top five musicals,

( cut for embedded video! )

And now that I have talked at great length about my deep and true and slightly embarrassing love for musical theater, I find myself curious. I know there are some of you reading this who love musicals like I do, and there are some others who find it a completely inexplicable passion and are judging me AT THIS VERY MOMENT. Therefore: a poll! (I promise I will not judge you whatever you answer.)

Go to the LJ crosspost to vote on your feelings about MUSICALS.

If you want to talk about your favorite musical, that also would be welcomed!

My school English department has just instituted a wonderful program wherein they give those who sign up free books to read over spring break, and then set up a discussion about them with a professor over the next quarter. The professor picks the book, you pick the book+professor (or plural, if you are so inclined) and then go collect the loot!

As you all will be shocked to hear, I heard about this and went FREE BOOKS? *GRABBYHANDS!!!!* which is how I came to read E.M. Forster's A Room With a View during my five-hour wait for the bus to Bowdoin on Monday. (How I came to miss the first bus to Bowdoin is a long and not terribly interesting story involving much panic-stricken running with luggage that I will spare you all at this time.) My Jacobean Tragedy professor, who is leading the Room With a View discussion, had described it as a.) very much in the romantic-comedy vein but b.) better in his opinion than Forster's Howard's End, which I read this summer and loved. Having now read the book, I agree with a.) but respectfully disagree with b.). A Room With a View was entertaining, but it also frustrated me a great deal, a large part of the reason for which can be boiled down to

( the ending. ) However, I am all the same looking forward to the discussion. Also, the book gets points for naming a tennis ball after Vittoria Corombona, Adulteress of Badass Awesome, from The White Devil.

In other news, I made the mistake of getting the filmed version of the Notre-Dame de Paris musical from Netflix to watch while I was home. This is a mistake because now that I have it my ridiculous and unreasonable love for the music has been rekindled, I cannot resist the urge to watch it over and over and over again, so if I suddenly break out into streams of dramatic French song, that is why! It is not my fault! And now I am going to go bake, because if I cannot stop singing loudly in French, at least I can fulfill the image of wacky domestic bliss and be productive while I do it.