Hey Notre Dame, Your Hunchback Was Crappy.
So I went to the Notre Dame de Paris musical in Antwerp Thursday evening… And I must say, it was just okay.
Let’s start of with explaining that this Flemish version was a simple copy of the French version… Both in costumes, setting as in text… and that translation was at times very poorly done. Due to the odd translating of things it became pretty dubious sometimes what was actually being meant in the songs, resulting in people sometimes losing track of the story.
Also, there is no way Le Temps Des Cathedrales will ever be translated in an equally powerful version… The french version of that song is just way too epic on its own.
But let’s forget about the fact that this poor copy of the French version was shown and look at the musical itself.
Many people expect the Disney story, but the musical is based on the original story by Victor Hugo, which is pretty different from the sugar coated Disney remake… Causing people to be confused during the musical and not really getting what was going on. A delight to see for people like me who know the actual story, but a sad misconception that could have been made more clear by the press in my opinion.
This story tells you the tale of the invasion of the spiritual church and its care for the lower class citizens and haven of peace by the higher classes and the state as a power entity… With Esmeralda being the seduced lower class bohemian that entails with the higher class, therefor messing with ‘fate’ as the higher class sees it, and Quasimodo being the ‘hope’ that fails at bringing Esmeralda back on the right path. The story ends with only Quasimodo (the Hope, though weakened), Phoebus (the High Class, though broken) and Gringoire (the Low Class, though overthrown) alive, with the church overtaken by the government and freedom for all in doubt. A way heavier story than most people get after seeing the musical, mainly due to the wrong perspective on the story caused by the Disney version as well as the oddly translated lyrics at times.
Now, if there’s one thing I really want to put out there it’s that singers are not musical artists. They hardly ever are. I know it’s great to headline two popular singers, but when they suck at doing musicals you’re pretty much doomed. Gene Thomas for instance plays Quasimodo, but lacks power and drive in his voice, resulting in a very weak and unbelievable Quasimodo. He basically sucked ass. Really. He was bad. Sandrine as Esmeralda was actually good at times, if she was standing still and singing alone so you couldn’t compare her with others. Please don’t let her dance and sing at the same time, because the strength of her voice fades away very easily then. Also, having her duet with Jorien Zeevaart, who plays Fleur-De-Lys and completely overpowers Sandrine’s voice, makes it very clear that she does not have a musical voice. She’s a great singer, but not a musical voice.
It’s painful when you have to sit trough a whole musical where the musical skills are so obviously different between the main characters.
Credit where credit is due though, the musical-focused people like Tim Driesen (Phoebus), Clayton Peroti (Clopin) and Wim Vanden Driessche (Frollo) were great! They lifted the complete show to an enjoyable level and were a blessing to see and hear.
Also lots of credit to the dancers, who were phenomenal at times… Acrobats inc. They made this show worthwhile.
Best moments of the show included the act with the bells and the Déchiré act (I already forgot what they translated that too… Torn apart I guess) with the five dancers in the background. Both acts where it were the dancers that made it such amazing scenes.
What I also found a bit of a downer, but this was already something that bothered me slightly in the French version, was the clothes… They were often too bland. The difference between people was sometimes even hard to notice, and Phoebus’ costume made him actually look equally poor as Gringoire, if not more poor. I know the economy is hard on all of us, but when already using a rather minimal set, please stand out with good costumes that speak for themselves rather than confuse people who are already having a little bit of trouble following the storyline they didn’t really expect.
Okay, I’ve been pretty harsh about this musical, and it might seem like it’s a bad musical, but it really isn’t. It’s actually okayish-good.
Big points go to dancers, acrobats, trained musical artists, as well as the great original tale of the Notre Dame.
Big fail marks go to the poor translation and wrong choice of choosing singers over musical artists.
Should you go see it? Sure, if you want a fun night out. As long as you don’t expect to be wowed.
It’s good… but it’s not mesmerizing.
As a final point I will say that I personally don’t really like translations of great musical, literary, or visual arts… and well, I guess this musical proved it to me once again. If you’ve been to the musical, check out the French soundtrack… you’ll be amazed. If you haven’t gone to the musical but plan to go… don’t check out the French soundtrack yet, or you’ll sing along in a different language in your head.
Fun night out, but I wasn’t impressed. Better luck next time Music Hall.
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You are not the 1st one being lukewarm about this. That’s why I’m skipping this one.
Jammer dat ik geen frans kan verstaan anders wist ik waar het over ging (maar het was indrukwekkend ook al verstond ik het niet)