Rough Tough, Real Stuff

KIRA: Incoming transmission. [He's] sending over a document. EDDINGTON: It's a book. One of my favourites. Les Miserables. SISKO: Thank you, but I've read it. EDDINGTON: Recently? If not, you should read it again.

Absolutely unhinged thing to tell somebody. Although the episode (deliberately?) draws on the misconception of the book being About the obsession Javert has for catching Valjean, I choose to believe it was a space-PDF of a completely unabridged version of the story, digressions and all

KIRA: Incoming transmission. [He's] sending over a document. EDDINGTON: It's a book. One of my favourites. Les Miserables. SISKO: Thank you, but I've read it. EDDINGTON: Recently? If not, you should read it again.

Absolutely unhinged thing to tell somebody. Although the episode (deliberately?) draws on the misconception of the book being About the obsession Javert has for catching Valjean, I choose to believe it was a space-PDF of a completely unabridged version of the story, digressions and all

Isopod

~

So, having seen the sexless and joyless Frollo in the current Finnish outdoor production of HoND, and having then read the director's mini essay in the programme where he says that even though this version of the story gives Frollo comprehensible motives, we do not have to agree with said motives or relate to them, and that Frollo is scary because people like him really exist... I just feel like shaking everybody involved and yelling YOU DON'T GET IT at them. And it's not the first production like this I've seen, either!

To me, it feels like the people setting up these productions are so worried about appearing like they're endorsing Frollo somehow, they refuse to give him that spark of likeability (whatever that might be in Frollo's context – personally, I think giving him a moment or two of comic relief silliness works pretty nicely, as long as the actor is talented enough a comedian to pull them off) that's the key of creating a truly great, memorable, entertaining villain.

It's like they think this show is such Serious Business, there's no way the audience is expecting to be entertained by a Disney fairytale with fearless heroes and villains we love to hate, clearly they're all here to observe a true-to-life cautionary tale about why sexual harassment is wrong and bad... so you get these serious, one-note, boring Frollos that don't even have the sickass hat from the movie going for them.

Also. Here's something else I think many people setting up this musical either genuinely don't understand, or feel too uncomfortable about to acknowledge: some girls like bad boys, and Frollo is the baddest/worst of them all.

I mean this: to some of us, Frollo is a fantasy and a tumblr sexyman, and (for the majority at least, who am I to kinkshame if someone feels otherwise) it's not because we think it's good that he stalks, assaults and ultimately kills Esmeralda – but because the thought of a very powerful man falling so completely in love/lust with you that he literally goes insane about it, abandons his faith and burns all of Paris for you is, well, kinda hot.

Imagine that you were Esmeralda, but unlike her, you thought Frollo was a bit of a hottie and were willing to play his game. You would have the man wrapped around your little finger, doing your bidding as your willing slave. If you agreed to be his, he'd direct all that destructive energy outwards and annihilate anyone and anything that tried to get between the two of you. Of course, irl, none of that would happen, he'd just be abusive and awful, we all know that – but in the realm of fantasy, our love could fix him enough that he'd be eternally loyal to us, but not so much that he wouldn't still be insane about it.

I'm sure that you won't believe me when, after having written all that, I'm now going to say I'm too asexual for all that personally. I am though! But I do enjoy the idea of it. When I watch the scenes with Frollo and Esmeralda, I want to feel the vibe that were she to choose him, there'd be a small but existent chance that it wouldn't be pure torture for her, that she could maybe even enjoy being with him. And I can't feel that when the character is portrayed as a one-note caricature of an abuser without a single redeeming, interesting or entertaining quality!

In short, I don't want Esmeralda's choice to be quite as simple as live with a 100% horrible man vs. die. I want it to be ~75% horrible vs. death – and for that to happen, the actor and the director have to put in the work to make Frollo more three-dimensional and charismatic than he is in the script.

I don't feel too optimistic about ever getting to see a production with a Frollo like that again. I feel like as a whole, this musical is getting past its best before date here in Finland at least, the musical's very stereotypical depiction of the Romani clashes rather uncomfortably with the fact that racism against the Finnish Roma is a common and ongoing problem here... so I don't think I'll be getting too many more chances, and even if I do, the likelihood of them getting Frollo right doesn't seem all that high.

Even so, I shall manifest:

Agreed on everything, especially the hat. And sometimes the villain is just your favorite character... and that's OK. And a nuanced villain? Even better. Frollo I think is the best part of Hunchback of Notre Dame, so it's a shame if he lets you down. And Hellfire is an amazing song. Speaking of... how do you feel about Hellfire being sung all from one spot? Because the one I saw last week, look... Frollo had a great voice, a true bass it sounded like (which, thank God, for casting an actual bass in a bass role; it's not something that happens as often as it should) , so the song was beautiful and excellent. But he sang the most of it while on his knees? I could have used some more... movement? I dunno. Seemed wrong. To be clear, I blame the director not the actor. The theater posted a pretty long excerpt of it, though, so please enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-EpW_KmYY

Ah! The park & bark Hellfire, as I believe opera enthusiasts would refer to it, should they ever deign to see a Disney musical... That's such a good question, thank you for further activating my Frollo neurons by asking it!

In short, I'm pretty torn on static Hellfires.

On the one hand: especially if a production is unsure of what to do with the scene, I think it's not a bad idea to have Frollo just stand and/or kneel in place and sing it. It's not merely a strong enough song that no one's going to get too bored while listening to it – it's the centerpiece and the loadbearing motif of the entire score. In that sense, I believe the productions that ask us to pay attention to the music via dialing down the action are justified in their approach. (Also, it's good whenever the staging doesn't actively distract us from the musical highlight of the show by, say, visually making the argument that Frollo literally thinks his suffering is on par with Jesus's, and by then turning the scene into a BDSM striptease. Oh well! Each to their own.)

On the other hand: the way the movie visualises the scene is SO striking and iconic, and the word hellfire itself conjures up such vivid mental images, it's very hard not to feel like something's missing if the scene is very static onstage. Personally, while I understand where the static approach is coming from, I'm much more interested in a Hellfire where something happens – and, in my opinion, featuring a seductive fantasy version of Esmeralda is a pretty good way to enliven the scene. Of course, having fire turn into a woman is much easier to do in an animated movie... but I think having some kind of a dream vision of her there for some portion of the song can add both sexual tension (as a treat for all the Frollo girlies in the audience) and just general visual interest into the scene.

Though of course, because I'm a shameless Frollo girlie myself, I think that for the Fantasy Esmeralda approach to work, the choreographer needs to include a moment or two where Frollo and Esmeralda are close enough to each other that they might touch, even if they never really do. Too bad that the Finnish outdoor production disagrees with me on this!

I just mean... come on, the movie had this. Please let them almost touch fingertips onstage.

Okay but what about the person who brought this injured dragonfly to a wildlife rehabber