NON/MINOR SPOILERS

The set design!! Tell me you can watch Frollo and Quasimodo come up at the end of Bells, or when Esmeralda enters the cathedral, and NOT get goosebumps!!

Tauf auf die Zeil/A Balancing Act alone makes it my favorite. That song frankly deserves its whole seperate ramble. The reasons I like it are reflected in the rest of the show as well.

I cannot vouch for its accuracy or sensitivity in regards to the depiction of the Romani, that is not my conversation to have. However, purely from an audience's perspective, the song fleshes them out very well. It explains the situation they're in, how they feel about it (and Esmeralda), why they perform like they do, ect. Again, not saying it's perfect, but it feels a lot more humanizing and grounded that the movie or the rewrite.

Esmeralda has an added backstory, which makes her decision to save Quasimodo so much more impactful. She knows it's dangerous! She is warned three times (backstory, Clopin (technically he warns her twice), and Frollo) to not stick her neck out! And yet she does!!! Because she believes in doing the right thing THAT much. Even though her STATED motivation in Tanz auf die Zeil is to stop rocking the boat, to finally have a place she can STAY, she ends up repeating the same type of action that got her community kicked out of Frankfurt. It makes her kindness and bravery something tragic! She's not WRONG, but she does take on so much risk, knowingly!! Yay for agency and complex characters!

You get a sense of Clopin's responsibilities. He's the one who warns Esmeralda not to fight for other's sakes, because their situation is so delicate. His more serious role fits the tone of the musical very well, and though he disagrees with Esmeralda, you can sense that he's coming from an understandable place.

Esmeralda's dance is less "purple sequins, pole dancing and slit to the hip" and more "Ah. If I were a medieval peasant, I'd lose my mind too". It feels more grounded in the setting, both in choreography and costume.

I also love that it's instrumental, really letting us focus on the dance itself.

The way she interacts with the scarf during the dance makes Frollo's later obsession with it even creepier than it already was. I didn't think that was possible.

The choreography in the entire musical is great tbh, special mention to Topsy Turvy though because it looks so incredibly fun.

I like the gargoyles in this. Listen, hear me out!!

I like that Quasimodo repeats what they say, partially or wholly. It really gives the sense that he's talking to himself.

I think it's a good choice to have them talk and move, even when he's not alone. Why would he stop imagining them, especially when he's stressed?

No lame pop culture references, thank god. Guy Like You is actually bearable now (and better then Flight Into Egypt. That is my subjective opinion but I will defend it if asked.)

You actually get a sense of their friendship, and the kind of thoughts that Quasimodo projects onto them!

Frollo isn't an archdeacon. But I think "judges who use their sense of superiority, rascism and religious zealotry" are uhm. More than valid targets for criticism. This was true in 1999, even more so given today's global politics.

In Topsy Turvy, Quasimodo doesn't get "unmasked" until AFTER the celebrations! This way, he never got celebrated, even ironically. The townspeople revel in "ugliness" during Topsy Turvy, but only if it's the right type of ugliness, one that isn't permanent. It makes the end of the song more tense as the discovery looms, and when they find out that that's his actual face, everything collapses in chaos. It fixes the pacing, because instead of changing their minds three times, the crowd lashes out in cruelty due to anger, disgust and shock, which feels more realistic.

I really really like the dance they replaced Court of Miracles with. I'll say once more that I'm speaking purely from an audience's perspective, but, imo, it humanizes the Romani further, much like Tanz auf die Zeil

LITTLE DETAILS/SUBJECTIVE THINGS/THINGS THAT MAKE ME CLUTCH MY HEART

Frollo being an the absolute worst about the strawberries. Lori urging Quasi to take one quickly (suggesting this happens often), and the way Quasimodo just agrees they were delicious without having any.... I wish to throttle that man.

(I think he does it on purpose. Like testing to see how readily Quasimodo will agree with him.)

In Tanz auf die Zeil, Esmeralda gets pulled into the dance, right as she wishes for a place to belong!

The way Quasimodo curiously reaches out for the tambourine after her performance. But when Esmeralda holds it out for him, he gets shy and leaves.

During the Humiliation scene, one guy cries out "thats for waking us to up in the middle of the night with your ringing!" My guy that's his job 😭 stop being mean to him!!

This is such a small detail and subjective, but: "Anne-Marie, Sofie-Marie, Louise-Marie. Drrrielingen! ÷D" idc, that delivery is just very cute.

Esmeralda kissing Quasimodo's cheek is paired with her wish that someday, he'll escape Frollo's control. That makes the gesture hold so much more compassion than in the other versions (imo).

Quasimodo holding his hand out for Esmeralda to hold!! He can't even bring himself to look back! These acting choices are killing me.

Phoebus and Quasimodo's banter. I mean, that's good in every version.

Overall, I feel like this Phoebus is right on the edge of "kind of a slimeball, but with a good heart" and "book accurate/derogaroty". This is a compliment, since he's still on the right side of that edge.

Compared to the rewrite, this version of Made of Stone has a lot more emotional impact, since the gargoyles have actual personalities.

Also, that song belongs to Drew Sarich now. Sorry, I don't make the rules, his performance is just that good

MAJOR SPOILERS AHOY (mostly subjective)

I really like the added scene where Frollo asks Quasimodo, in genuine confusion, if he knows where Esmeralda could have possibly gone. And THEN he tells his very first lie to protect her!!

(this is absolutely a nitpick, and I don't want to just harp on the rewrite... but. In the 2014 version, Quasimodo literally lies twice in the scene they reused those lyrics in. He says he was talking to his friends, and then that nothing is troubling him. Those are lies. Again, nitpicky, I know, but here the song just WORKS.)

I also loooove the scene where Frollo confronts him about this!! It's so insidious, really getting under his skin without making an outright accusation at first. I had a stomachache of sympathy for Quasimodo.

Then, Frollo forces him to swear on the Bible that he didn't help Esmeralda, which he can't bring himself to do! See, you don't need to make Frollo an archdeacon to make him use religious guilt to a DEVESTATING degree!

(Also in the same scene, Frollo very nearly hits Quasimodo with his own Bible. If that isn't a nauseating summary of his character idk what is..)

Weil du Liebst/Out of Love is a very sweet song, and a very nice summation of the themes of this show. See also: the final section titled "themes".

I've already gushed about Made of Stone, and idk if it's fair to talk about translation lyric changes? But when I read the German version I truly realized how much this is just... Quasimodo fully dissasociating. I'm sure I'm saying the obvious, but it just hits harder for me.

(This might be bias on my end, because German is closer to my native language. But whatever the reason, I prefer the German lyrics, so it makes this list.)

Einmal/Someday feels better as a rousing ensemble number then as a sombre duet. What matters is that Esmeralda inspires the others around her, which is what causes them to stand up in the Finale.

(Also it just sounds better, sue me.)

The Finale.... Oh, the Finale....!

None of the slapstick of the movie, none of the narration from the rewrite. Just pure heart-wrenching goodness and epic chorals.

SANCTUARYYY! SANCTUARYYY! (with the movie-accurate pose!)

The gargoyles, who are in this version explicitly an extension of Quasimodo's inner monologue, repeating "the wicked shall not go unpunished" over and over as Quasimodo attacks Frollo...!

Also, Frollo pulls a dagger, but Quasimodo attacked first!

(Somewhat sidenote: There's an English and German script, and I don't know which is the translation of the other. But there's a line in German that doesn't appear in the English score at all. My German isn't perfect, but from my understanding, it carries roughly the same meaning as "the wicked shall not go unpunished", but a different phrasing, and condemning, more specifically: violence, attacks on the community and sacrilege. It's what Quasimodo cries out right before he attacks Frollo.)

"You don't want to hurt me!" "Oh yes, you do!" AAAAAAAAA

A banger line on its own, and in this version said by the gargoyle that's most associated with Quasimodo's fun impulses, the pleasure seeking part of him! AAAAAAA!!

"You're a good teacher, master Frollo! A very good teacher!" I wish to eat DRYWALL about this line. Because he says that while killing him. After calling him a sinner and lashing out in anger. If Quasimodo could ever be called a monster, it's one that Frollo created.

THEMES/OVERALL STRUCTURE

I recently realized that every single kind action in the show converges onto Esmeralda ending on the pyre. (Her saving Quasimodo -> he helps her escape the cathedral -> she gives him the amulet, with the express hope that someday he'll be his own master (excuse me while I cry) -> he helps hide Phoebus -> Phoebus convinces him to face his fears and warn Esmeralda. I will elaborate if asked, I have a whole seperate rant I could make of this.)

Do you see how they're all good actions? Do you see how, if just one person in the chain had decided to be selfish, Frollo wouldn't have found her? And yet. And yet!!!

This sequence of events is in the movie, too. But because that one has a happy ending, it feels different. This musical has a more nuanced, harsh, yet no less hopeful look on what's "out there".

Each character, in their own way, must choose between safety and taking a stand. Even Frollo, in his own twisted way, went through a similar struggle in his backstory. Sometimes you have the best, the kindest of intentions, only for things to end in loss and sorrow. Like Phoebus and Quasi going to warn Esmeralda, or Esmeralda pulling Quasimodo on stage. Going "Out There" is so much more than just seeing a party. It's risking pain and cruelty, but also finding goodness despite it all. "And at its cruellest, it's still the only world we've got."

As Quasimodo says in his final lines: "Out there, waiting there for me/Love, and fear, and heartbreak/Still, we're born to be out there"

What else can I say? It's gorgeous, and such an enrichment of what was already in the source material.