Originally I was going to do a more broad stroke casting for Eva Noblezada that should be casted as a voice actress for a new Disney Princess type character.
And while I do think that Disney should go back to their roots and cast Broadway talents for their animated characters after doing the Norm Lewis post I do think Eva Noblezada would make a great choice for Esmeralda in the Disney theatrical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
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Read More →I tangently and briefly touched on this casting concept in my post ranking the songs from The Swan Princess, how is that for an introduction?
But in all seriousness there exists in musical theatre three roles from musicals based iconic French literary works where the principal antagonist is motivated by his obsession. Honestly there is more than likely more titles than three* but Javert and The Phantom are from musical smash-hits and The Hunchback of Notre Dame/Notre Dame de Paris is more under-appreciated shows in the musical theater space, at least in North America. Notre Dame de Paris is a little more beloved in other parts of the World.
So if you have guessed the roles are Javert, The Phantom and Frollo or as I call them “Obsessive French Man Musical Trio of Roles” though at first I used the word “triumvirate,” but “trio” as a word works a little better with the music theme.
Originally I had thought there was one performer that had, at least some capacity, played all three role thus completing the trio but alas it turns out I was wrong. One, Joesph Tokarz was in ensemble of a Yeston’s Phantom production and not the Opera Ghost himself. However since I proved myself wrong there I decided to dig a little more to see if there was a Notre Dame de Paris former cast member who fit the criteria and I’m sad to say that we were so close. Wim van den Driessche was cast as Firmin and as one of the Phantom understudies for the canceled Mogador 2016 Paris cast. Could be another performer who has actively played all three roles of Frollo, Javert and the Phantom? Maybe but haven’t found that performer as of yet. But there is also hope that it could happen one day.
For the more well-known version the musicals many performers have played two out the three roles, mainly The Phantom and Javert so let’s go for broke and suggest a musical performer for a Frollo who has also played Javert and The Phantom in high profile productions; Norm Lewis.
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As I mention in my hypothetical casting post for Dasha Grady, there are a few names to come up in the conversations about who should be cast as Esmeralda. One of the names that come up is singer/actress Bianca Mihai
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Lately I’ve been rewatching “The Gilded Age,” which I love. One of the great things about that show is the abundance of Broadway actors that they cast, including Patrick Page who played Frollo for the Disney Musical revision version at The LaJolla and PaperMills Playhouses. Now it’s completely a wild pipe-dream to even think about casting a Broadway actor for a version of Notre Dame de Paris but here we are. So might I submit for consideration for Phoebus from Notre Dame de Paris, Derek Klena.
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If you are like me, you’re probably on the fan-casting side the internet, like such sites as mycast. Anyway if your are on The Hunchback of Notre Dame side of that site, which is more niche too be sure, you would see that one of the most frequent suggestions for Esmeralda is actress/singer Dasha Grady. Typically this is more for the “mythical” Disney live action remake but that’s only because it’s more popular for speculations.
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Since Sunday was “Quasimodo Sunday” or Low Sunday let’s do a Fan-Cast for Quasimodo this month.
There seems to be a few names that get use more frequently when hypothetical fancasts for Quasimodo are brought up and one those names than get tossed around as would-be-Maybe-Quasimodo is Welsh actor/musican Iwan Rheon.
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There is a balancing act to casting a Frollo. Typically Frollo should be played by an actor that could conceivably look older than Quasimodo as Quasimodo is Frollo’s adoptive son.
However while Frollo is 36 years old in the novel, most actors who play Quasimodo are around 40 years ago old which ages up Frollo. So typically when fan-casting Frollo for any type of version Frollo is most often played by older actors.
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A while back I did a collective fan-cast post for various Bridgerton cast members for roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And while I suggested Cressida’s actress, Jessica Madsen, for Fleur-de-Lys, I got a suggestion for Daphne’s actress, Phoebe Dynevor, as a fan-cast for Fleur-de-Lys.
And since it’s the Bridgerton season as well as being a long while since Fleur-de-Lys got a proper Hypothetical casting post let’s analyze Phoebe Dynevor as a potential casting pick of Fleur-de-Lys.
Read More →Since January 26th is canonically Esmeralda’s birthday (from the novel) let’s do a Hypothetical casting for the dancer herself.
Very often when I do these Fan-cast posts I tend to ground them in some kind already establish movie take for an adaptation. Like either a Live action Disney version (which is selfed) or Notre Dame de Paris (which is never going to happen). But for this post let’s just take more by the novel interpretation and consider Bruna Marquezine for the role of Esmeralda.
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While looking through cast options I happened upon Aidan Turner as pick for Gringoire. At the time I was in watching Poldark, which is a great show, and thought why now look into this casting idea a little bit more.