History Theatre / TheHunchbackOfNotreDame

*** His act of arson does not consist of trying to burn an innocent family to death locked in their home to "make an example" of them, but instead, trying to burn down a brothel to smoke out any gypsies hidden there, and locking the doors to call the owner's bluff that there is nobody there. These actions, while somewhat less evil than in the film, are still bad enough to prompt Phoebus' rebellion.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Esmeralda dies of smoke inhalation, despite Quasimodo saving her. After Quasi throws Frollo to his death, he then sings a DarkReprise of "Out There", in which he realizes that while the world is ugly and cruel, it is the only world we have, and there will always be a glimmer of light that sheds through all the darkness (like Esmeralda). The show wraps up with a DarkReprise of "The Bells of Notre Dame", led by a mourning Clopin.]]

** Played with in Quasimodo's case. In-universe, he's as ugly as ever, but this is represented highly metaphorically onstage, with the actor smearing a few abstract streaks of black paint on his face and tying on a pouch to be his hump in full view of the audience. (In a twist on the TimePassesMontage, the pouch and the makeup first show up swaddled into a baby-shaped bundle, used to represent the infant Quasimodo.)

''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (2014) and ''Der Glöckner von Notre Dame'' (1999) are stage musicals based on the [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Disney animated film adaptation]] of the 1831 novel ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' (by Creator/VictorHugo. The 1999 German-language production featured a book by James Lapine, and the 2014 English-language production, which debuted at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, featured book by Peter Parnell. A cast recording has been made, but plans for a Broadway transfer were cancelled. Both musicals backtracked from Disney's take towards the original novel, and are thus DarkerAndEdgier, Parnell's version more so than Lapine's.

** Frollo in relation to his Disney film counterpart, as the American production restores his original role as an AntiVillain. He's much more sympathetic here than in the film, and while he's still ''very'' cruel and sinister, he's genuinely fatherly to Quasimodo, and is shown to have initially had a good relationship with his brother Jehan. His most evil deeds from the film are softened considerably:

** Jehan in the book was an unrepentant [[TheHedonist hedonist]] who cared little for anything but his own pleasure and didn't give two craps about Quasimodo. While he's still a hedonistic frat boy here, he's also depicted as Quasimodo's father and a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold genuinely good person at heart]], expressing great sorrow over the death of his lover and pleading for Frollo to take Quasimodo in and raise him as his own when his own life starts slipping.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzvdeRjhZpVkhPWk_LL8Vnhk0DaZ77Aw5 a direct English translation of the German version]] that was skewed more family-friendly, both Esmeralda and Frollo survive in the end: Esmeralda's survival is taken straight from the Disney movie, while after Quasimodo spares Frollo's life and is willing to give his own to protect Esmeralda, Frollo actually has a HeelRealization and, following one final show of parental affection for Quasimodo, retreats from the church.

* BareYourMidriff: Esmeralda at the Festival of Fools for a different sort of fanservice than the Disney one.

* OddballInTheSeries: Whereas other shows by Creator/DisneyTheatricalProductions are [[SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification near-identical adaptations]] of their respective films, this show is a [[AdaptationDistillation compromise]] between the Disney film and the original Victor Hugo novel, being more faithful to the latter while still taking elements (mainly the songs) from the former.

** Played with in Quasimodo's case. In-universe, he's as ugly as ever, but this is represented highly metaphorically onstage, with the actor smearing a few abstract streaks of black paint on his face and tying on a pouch to be his hump in full view of the audience. (In a twist on the TimePassingMontage, the pouch and the makeup first show up swaddled into a bundle and used as the a representing Quasimodo as a baby.)

** In the stage show, the hideously deformed Quasimodo is played by the rather attractive [[https://www.musicalvienna.at/tools/imager/imager.php?file=%2Fmedia%2Fimage%2Foriginal%2F1039.jpg&width=480 Drew Sarich]] (German version) and [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjMyMTg2Nzc0Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDc0Mzg5OA@@._V1_.jpg Michael Arden]] (English version). The only signs of his deformity aside from his movements are black makeup smeared on his face and a pouch the actors wear on their back to represent the hump.

* AdaptationDistillation:
** The show is an amalgam of Hugo's original novel and the Disney film. Phoebus is more of a womanizer here than in the film (although he's still a pretty good guy), Clopin's relationship with Esmeralda is more established, and the climax of the show mirrors that of the novel's rather than the film's ([[spoiler:Esmeralda dies shortly after Quasimodo saves her, and Frollo is thrown off the roof by Quasi himself]]). The 2014 American production includes even more elements from the book: Frollo is once again an archdeacon rather than a judge, and the rewritten prologue focuses solely on his backstory and the relationship between him and his younger brother, Jehan.
** One production of the show at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre includes several elements from the film that the original La Jolla production omitted, such as Quasi's imaginary ensemble being portrayed as gargoyles (a reference to the gargoyle trio), as well as the inclusion of Djali, played here by an actual goat.

-->"For Quasimodo, the cathedral was not only his home, but his universe. It was people with figures of marble, with kings and saints, monsters and demons. The saints blessed him, and the monsters protected him.

** ''Der Glockner'' portrays Loni (Laverne's counterpart) as a young angel-like gargoyle. In the film, she looks and acts like a snarky old woman.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the stage show, the hideously deformed Quasimodo is played by the rather attractive [[https://www.musicalvienna.at/tools/imager/imager.php?file=%2Fmedia%2Fimage%2Foriginal%2F1039.jpg&width=480 Drew Sarich]] (German version) and [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjMyMTg2Nzc0Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDc0Mzg5OA@@._V1_.jpg Michael Arden]] (English version). The only signs of his deformity aside from his movements are black makeup smeared on his face and a pouch the actors wear on their back to represent the hump.
** The Hungarian production at the Budapest Operetta Theatre uses only a fraction of the already minimal face paint. Instead the actor straps on a [[https://youtu.be/OBnaXQemxG4 leather headpiece]] that matches his hump...which he wears [[MrFanservice bare chested]].

* PlayingGertrude: Frollo is now played by a actor who looks to be middle-aged, rather than as an old man like in the Disney film. On the other hand, Victor Hugo originally stated that the character was still in his thirties, and had the appearance of being prematurely aged.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Frollo is much closer to his book incarnation in this version, being a man who was once genuinely good, but a crisis of faith drives him mad.

* AgeLift: Esmeralda and Jehan were both only sixteen in the book. Here, they're both clearly adults.

* CanonForeigner: Saint Aphrodisius and Lieutenant Frederic Charlus in the American production.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: While more subtle than in the movie, Frollo's CondescendingCompassion towards baby Quasimodo in the prologue established his conflicted nature in just a few choice words.

** The show is an amalgam of Hugo's original novel and the Disney film. Phoebus is more of a womanizer here than in the film (although he's still a pretty good guy), Clopin's relationship with Esmeralda is more established, and the climax of the show mirrors that of the novel's rather than the film's ([[spoiler: Esmeralda dies shortly after Quasimodo saves her, and Frollo is thrown off the roof by Quasi himself]]). The 2014 American production includes even more elements from the book: Frollo is once again an archdeacon rather than a judge, and the rewritten prologue focuses solely on his backstory and the relationship between him and his younger brother, Jehan.

* FingerlessGloves: Quasimodo wears a pair of these, along with ragged red clothes as opposed to green.
** He's back to green in the American production