(seen at the afternoon performance on 17th August 2025)
Rather like “Hercules” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, this is not a Disney animated feature the monkey is particularly familiar with – a few songs in various Disney concerts and ice shows aside.
The stage version has been through several revisions since its Berlin debut in 1999, and this is the first time it has been seen in London. Director Jonathan O’Boyle and choreographer Mark Smith take up the challenge to bring the show to us in concert form, and partially succeed rather well.
With actors standing at static microphones no longer accepted – we are accustomed to these concerts being at least “semi-staged” and often almost full-blown productions – both material and production face issues animating the action (pun intended).
Ironically, the deeper Drury Lane stage, which allows concert versions of musicals the luxury of space to perform is unavailable due to another Disney musical in residence.
While the Prince Edward Theatre stage is wider, there is not room at the front of it for unencumbered dance breaks. Worse, even with only four benches to accommodate the cast, Alice McNicholas’s outfits accidentally hit other cast members in the face when merely crossing the stage to sit on the wooden pew set.
Just to make things even harder, vivid climactic sequences can only be described. Highly visual boiling lead is splashed around; heroes swing in on ropes and more defenestration than a Muscovite party conference must take place only in our minds. Not even a video projection to assist.
Put another way, the monkey had to check Wiki before writing this to learn exactly how the leading lady died, and what became of her military friend.
Come to that, it didn’t figure out the talking gargoyle thing until several scenes into the show either – it just thought some of the chorus were ‘bigging up’ their roles. Nicely done when it realised, though.
So, a muddle of a Peter Parnell book, a mixed bag of Menken and Schwartz music and lyric, limited presentation opportunities. Fortunately, the team opt simply to get everyone to “sing the hell out of it” as one of monkey’s friends put it. And they do.
The casting (considered controversial by some) is outstanding. Fresh from triumphing in “Shucked” at Regent’s Park, Ben Joyce delivers a lead role of sincere purity, voice clear as a bell and holding the stage enthralled with “Heaven’s Light.” Interpreting him, Oliver Hewing delivers a beautiful shadow enhancing our understanding.
Same could describe Christine Allado as Esmeralda. Fiercely her own person, “God Help the Outcasts” a show stopping definition of character and situation, she makes the very most of playing bravely the expectations of those observing her against them, for the greater good.
Zachary James, already and imposing figure on stage, takes flawed Frollo to great heights. Able to flip our feelings towards him at will, twist morality and desecrate covertly his faith and its teachings, he builds an excellent Disney villain.
By comparison, leader of the Paris underclass, Clopin (Adam Strong) looks positively angelic. At least he is open about his activities, and loyal to his tribe. Strong is another character rather restricted by space but dominating his every scene.
Competing the lead crew, Dec Lee as Phoebus is rather sidelined by the story, but cuts a suitable dash when required.
The time passes agreeably enough, many numbers drawing near standing-ovation responses from the audience.
For the monkey, the show lacked classic or even modern Disney humour – there are no real laughs to lighten the darkness and give us some relief from relentless inevitability.
It does have a few gems in the score, but on this showing, it is easy to see why neither London nor Broadway have a fully-fledged stage version. Spectacle on a grand scale is needed, and the current state of the material cannot really justify that.
Still, this cast can, and as an opportunity to celebrate the film and the message it carries, it is one worth taking if possible.
4 stars.