The Bells of Notre Dame Sing Once More

Michael Arden and the Congregation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Photo by Matthew Murphy

Broadway World exclusively revealed last night that the US Premiere Production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame that played at La Jolla Playhouse and the Paper Mill Playhouse is to receive an official cast recording!!!  There's no more details at the moment but given that several cast members have tweeted about it I think it's (hopefully) safe to say that pretty much all of the original cast will be returning for the recording, including stars Michael Arden (Quasimodo), Ciara Renee (Esmeralda), Patrick Page (Frollo), Andrew Samonsky (Phoebus) and Erik Liberman (Clopin).

I don't think I can put into words how happy I was to read this news on Twitter earlier today.  Sure, I'm a little sad as I think this is, for now, definitive confirmation that Disney Theatrical have no intention at all of bringing Hunchback to Broadway.  But, for Disney to take this decision, to produce a full cast recording without any Broadway show to support it, just shows their faith in this material and, I believe, in the fans who have been so passionate in their support of it.  Quasimodo may not get to Broadway, but his story will be heard.  Now, people all around the world will have the chance to hear this masterpiece of musical theatre.  I, for one, can't wait to hear it again!

And since this is an Aladdin blog I just want to give a quick shout out to Samantha Massell who's gone from making her Disney debut in The Muny's production Aladdin in 2012 to featuring on an original Disney Theatrical Cast Recording in 2015!