Confined to a bell tower in Paris, the hunchback Quasimodo lives his life on the sufferance of his uncle Frollo, performing his daily duties of ringing the bells and losing some of his hearing in the process.
And then he meets Esmeralda, the girl fighting for the rights of her people known as gypsies, which his uncle Frollo wants to see run out of town and his life changes dramatically. It’s Disney‘s The Hunchback of Notre Dame now on stage at the Wortham Theater Center in a special three week run from Houston Broadway Theatre.
With book by Peter Parnell, the musical set in 1482 is based on the Victor Hugo classic novel with songs from the Disney film.
Veronica Otim who plays the part of Esmeralda says she was first attracted to the beautiful score with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. It’s also her chance what she calls a truly unique heroine.
As soon as Esmeralda enters the scene she catches the eye of every man around. But as Otim sees it, “She’s not your typical Disney princess. She is more than a pretty face. She’s fearless and charming and cunning, stubborn and strong-willed. She’s unique in that she’s a true advocate for justice and protecting the oppressed and the voiceless.
“As a character she embodies true sacrificial love. She bursts onto the scene in this show and as much as she captivates all the people around her, the men around her cannot change her or control her.
“Who wouldn’t want to play her? And, she has some of the best songs to sing,” says. Otim (Redwood (Original Broadway Cast), & Juliet (Original Broadway Cast).
As for Quasimodo, she describes him as: “He is a pure-hearted loving and maybe almost childlike. [man]. A little bit naïve to the ways of the world because he’s been locked up his entire life. He’s inherently also very trusting and he wants to believe the best in people.
“He’s got a physical deformity and that causes a lot of conflict and chaos to the other people who perceive him but at his core he is a human being. People might perceive him as a monster because of his physical appearance, because they’re not necessarily seeing through to the heart of the person that’s there.
“He embodies a lot of sacrificial love as well which is a trait that he and Esmeralda share.”
Like many other musical theater performers, Otim, who grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia, got her start at a younger age singing in the school choir. Her dream at an early age was to become a recording artist. But with the encouragement of a middle school teacher and later a performing arts high school teacher, she became involved in the musical theater program and took off from there.
Initially, Otim says she struggled in her musical theater training. She couldn’t get her head around singing and dancing at the same time. But her mother urged her to stick it out.
When she says it really clicked for her was when she went on a school trip to New York and saw Pippen, her first Broadway show. Besides seeing what she’d been training for in her high school classes, she got to see a Black woman in the lead role. “Now I’m seeing myself on that stage.”
In Hunchback audience members will have a chance to be swept away by the story and music, including that rendered by a choir of Houstonians put together just for this production.
Although this Hunchback is based on the Disney movie of the same name, Otim says the stage version is “a little bit on the darker side. We’re also looking at society’s perception of internal beauty versus external beauty and which of those carry more weight.”
“I think [the audience] will leave with a little bit more than they bargained for.”
Performances continue through July 5 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information call 800-982-2787or visit houstonbroadwaytheatre.org $52-$195.
