Friday, October 5, through Sunday, October 14
The Spotlight Theatre, 1800 Seventh Avenue, Moline IL
For its first musical presentation in the venue's first year of operation, the operators of Moline's Spotlight Theatre will take advantage of their venue's locale – the former site of the Scottish Rite Cathedral – with an ideal production for the architecturally grand space: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the lauded stage adaptation of Disney's Oscar-nominated hit running October 5 through 14.
Based on Victor Hugo's 1831 Gothic novel that told of the unrequited love between the bell-ringing pariah Quasimodo and the Gypsy street dancer Esmerelda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has enjoyed numerous film, television, and theatrical adaptations over the decades, with Disney's 1996 animated feature boasting an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for composers Alan Menken (Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King) and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell). With the composers adding new songs to their film score and Tony winner James Lapine providing the book for the tale, the musical version of Hunchback premiered in 1999 in Berlin, Germany as Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (The Bellringer of Notre Dame). Produced by Walt Disney Theatrical, it was the company's first musical to premiere outside the United States and ran for three years, becoming one of Berlin's longest-running musicals of all time.
The subsequent American version of the musical, which found Broadway playwright Peter Parnell composing a new book featuring verbatim passages from Hugo's novel, opened at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse in the fall of 2014, after which it moved to New Jersey's esteemed Paper Mill Playhouse in the spring of 2015. With touring productions in recent years landing in cities such as Tokyo, Budapest, and Stuttgart, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has wowed international audiences and critics alike, with the Hollywood Reporter praising its “uncommonly complex, classically influenced score” and AM New York calling it “an unusually dark and chilling piece of musical theatre.” The Paper Mill cast recording of the show, meanwhile, debuted at number-one on Billboard's Cast Albums chart in 2016, ending the 17-week run of former chart-topper Hamilton.
The Spotlight Theatre's co-operators Brent and Sara Tubbs will co-direct their venue's first musical presentation, with Brent also serving as lighting and set designer and Sara as costume designer. Megan Warren serves as music director while the New York-based Tommy Wallace choreographs, and two Quad City Music Guild veterans portray Quasimodo and Esmerelda: Adam Sanders (Catch Me If You Can, A Christmas Carol) and Heather Herkelman (Mary Poppins, West Side Story). They're joined by more than three dozen fellow castmates, among them familiar area-theatre veterans including Andy Curtiss, Abbey Donohoe, Becca Johnson, Gage McCalester, Joanna Mills, Brant Peitersen, Ian Sodawasser, Nancy Teerlinck, Christopher Tracy, and Joe Urbaitis.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame's October 5 through 14 run will feature 7:30 p.m. performances on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays, admission is $20, and a cash bar will be available an hour before all show times. For more information and tickets, call (309)912-7647 or visit TheSpotlightTheatreQC.com.
