Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame — A Musical Adventure: A Tribute

View more photos from this colorful and elaborate show here and here.

by Kenny Cottrell

This story starts more than a year ago. Most who know me would consider me an energetic park Guest, though some just think I'm hyperactive.

For some reason, I got onto a Walt Disney World entertainment kick last summer. It started with the Kids of the Kingdom.

The Kids of the Kingdom were the performers at the Castle Forecourt Stage in the Magic Kingdom. Their stage show was usually revised every time Walt Disney World started a new celebration. But the kick-off of last year's "100 Years of Magic Celebration" brought something totally different to the Castle Forecourt Stage… something *without* the Kids of the Kingdom.

Last summer the stage show went through two changes: first, certain shows were moved to the Galaxy Theater in Tomorrowland. Second, they shifted showtimes to later in the day. For once, the last show during the summer wasn't in the sizzling heat — instead, it was right after the fireworks. Since sizzling heat is something that deters me from watching a show, this timing persuaded me to watch.

I don't recall that I knew in advance when the last Kids of the Kingdom show was going to be, but I do think that I managed to see the last show. This was important, since I like to attend the first or last performance of a show's run at Walt Disney World because of how good those shows turn out to be.

It's common practice for me to take a month-long hiatus between my Annual Passes. Last year this hiatus started in early August. Around the same time, I picked up a separate Annual Pass to Pleasure Island. To get my WDW entertainment fix, I began watching the Pleasure Island Explosion Dancers at their Hub Stage shows and in Mannequins. (The midnight show at PI's West End Stage has always been hokey in my opinion, so I rarely watched it.)

All was pretty much going fine, and I was handling my hiatus away from the parks until 8:45 a.m., Tuesday morning, September 11. Attendance during September at the Walt Disney World parks is always light, but after September 11, Pleasure Island's attendance plummeted, and with that came cutbacks. As part of the cutbacks, it was announced that the Pleasure Island Explosion Dancers were cut from the schedule. I didn't notice it then, but it was the beginning of a trend.

I had heard that some of the dancers were being sent to other shows across Walt Disney World property, so off I went, searching out the remaining shows to see if any of my favorite dancers could be found. For the 2001 Christmas holiday season, some of the PI Explosion Dancers were featured as the lead dancers in various shows, so their "demise" was postponed a bit. And it was really cool to see them in the Cast cafeteria in the utilidor when my handbell group performed for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

After the holiday season, my search continued: to Beauty and the Beast, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Musical Adventure, in the Disney-MGM Studios; and The Festival of the Lion King and Tarzan Rocks in the Animal Kingdom. I actually found some of the ex-Kids of the Kingdom at Tarzan Rocks. And I found out that I continued to enjoy The Hunchback of Notre Dame. So these two shows became my entertainment mainstay at Walt Disney World until summer 2002, when Blast II: Shockwave appeared at Epcot.

During the spring and summer of this year, I made Hunchback a regular stop on my "things to see while at Walt Disney World" list. I actually have followed Hunchback since its inception at the Studios. I had made sure to see the last performance of Pocahontas in the Backlot Theater in 1996, so I certainly had to see the first performance of Hunchback. I was an extremely happy camper on June 21, 1996, when my all-time favorite female WDW entertainer opened the show as Esmeralda. (To this day no one has been able to quite match her singing voice.) I became very familiar with the cast and saw many shows, quite a few changes in cast (usually in the gypsies, but some in the principal roles) and lots of Matt the Juggler.

So it was definitely a sad moment when I learned that the Hunchback's last performance was going to be Saturday, September 28, 2002. I knew when I heard that, that I would make sure I saw the last day of shows.

One Wednesday night during an online chat among Disney fans, a friend of mine named Donna found out I was going to all four shows. She had already made her arrangements to fly down to WDW for that weekend, and was planning on doing the same thing. She admitted that she hadn't really said anything to anyone else because she didn't know that *others* did the same thing! When she learned of my plans, she asked if she could join me. I invited her to join me for all four shows (not knowing that she really was
already planning that — she was still being rather secretive of her intentions).

I set the plans into motion. I decided that I would arrive to the Disney-MGM Studios about 10 a.m. (the first show was at noon) and told Donna that I would definitely be in line by 11 a.m., so she could find me there then. We decided we could watch the shows together and play everything else by ear.

I arrived a little before 10 a.m. as planned, and decided to get in one ride on Rock'n'Roller Coaster before I headed over to the Backlot Theater to see if anything was going on there. At the coaster, it seemed that everybody in line was requesting the back car, so I didn't make a special request as I usually do. They sent me to the front and when I told the Cast Member that I was a single rider, he said he needed me for the front seat. I waited the extra two trains to do that — I wasn't in a total rush to get on
the ride and get out of there.

After Rock'n'Roller Coaster, off I went to the New York Street section of the Studios to see what was going on around Hunchback. I wasn't necessarily expecting anyone to be in line yet, but I wasn't going to be surprised, either. Well, as I turned off New York Street and headed toward the Backlot Theater, I found a line already forming. It wasn't too long, only about 10 people, but I decided it was time for me to get in line, too. On
Wednesday, there had been some folks, myself included, who had been to all four of shows of the day, and one of the men, Len, was in line with a friend of his. A small girl dressed up as a gypsy was first in line, then two girls who had made shirts from pictures they had taken with the Cast, two more mother/daughter teams, Casper and Len, then a young married couple that I lost track of — I don't know if they saw all four shows like everyone else who was there already. None of us really officially introduced ourselves —
I actually recognized most everyone in line anyway. Now, does that tell you that I've seen too many of these shows?

Sarah and a friend arrived shortly after I did. She was part of the Wednesday crew, and I knew she would be there for the last day, too. When Karen, Kyle and Randé appeared, they headed to the front of the line and gave us two books that would be given to two actors who played Quasimodo — we could sign them and give them best wishes if we wanted to. We passed the books around quite a bit during the first two shows and filled them up quite a bit. That trio also brought some signs to hold up during some of the performances. I don't recall if they did that during *all* the performances, but they did for most of them.

We started joking about the line as it grew and grew and grew. The Theater greeter Cast Members had to figure out how to deal with getting the extensions and ropes out to help control the queue. And we started to wonder right then what the final show was going to be like. The stage managers and greeters were very nice and let us in earlier than they normally did. They did this for all four shows, in fact, and it was much appreciated. The Guests all had missions to accomplish, so they all went to their favorite seats — with a lot of people trying to get the aisle seats next to the runway part of the stage. Donna didn't really care where we sat, so I was allowed to go wherever I wanted to. We did the same thing, went for a runway aisle seat on house right. (Over the course of the day, we actually sat three times on house right and once on house left.) We all did a pretty good job of not stepping on any others' toes, as far as getting someone's *favorite* seat.

It was finally time for Matt's first preshow of the day. I really think he was surprised at the crowd reaction, but he accepted it quickly. The audience gave him thunderous applause as he came out on stage. As the day went on, the opening applause got longer and longer, and he always graciously accepted it all. He joked as he noticed that the Guests in the floor seats were reacting differently than those in the bleachers: "The bleacher section has no clue what is going on." And that set the mood for the opening of the last day of performances of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Musical Adventure, at the Disney-MGM Studios.

With so many fans in the audience, Matt had a lot of help with his show. As Matt introduced "The Diablo", a Chinese toy with a Spanish name, he told us, as he always had during the run of the show, that with the help of his Spanish classes he knew that it meant "this thing." The crowd of fans yelled it out at the same time! Matt made each show a little different, as he knew that a larger than normal part of the crowd was returning to the shows all day. During his final preshow, Matt received a standing ovation as he came on stage. For all four shows he received a standing ovation at the end of his performance.

After Matt's preshow, the traditional "stand clear of the runway" announcement was given then red light, yellow light, green light and it was showtime. Here again, for the first show as the four-member gypsy troupe entered from the back of the theater, thunderous applause was given. Now it was the start of the actual show — the start of the first show of the last day.

The adrenaline was running high amongst the Cast Members, the audience was stoked, and the combination of the two really pumped up the Cast in its performance. The singing was top-notch, the dancers hit their cues seemingly flawlessly, and the theater was standing-room only. After the first show was over, without any hesitation and without second thought, the audience gave a standing ovation. The Cast was clearly appreciative and had a hard time controlling their emotions. And this was only the first show of the day.

After the show, Donna leaned over and asked me if I thought the cast was putting more into the show, if the show was better than usual. I told her, "It always is." It is part of the nature of last and first shows.

One show down, three more to go and it was time for lunch. Donna and I discussed our different options. I would hold our place in line while she went to get it (I could tell her in advance what I wanted, so it was easier for her to go and bring it back). Casper wasn't really eager to get lunch yet, but Len wanted to. Donna brought our pizzas back and we ate. Shortly after that, Len came back with pizza and Casper decided to eat since it was there. One thing that caught Casper's and my attention was that there was a sort of "meet and greet" after the show. At this point we weren't sure who it was for, but we knew it was going on.

Throughout the day, each show had slight cast changes, giving as many members of the cast a chance to perform the last day. In the past, the gypsies had played the same role for the first two shows and then some would switch roles for the last two shows.

One of the habits I have when watching entertainment is kind of putting myself into the cast by figuring out which Cast Member I would like to be. It isn't that I am picking a character to play, but figuring out which Cast Member seems to have a personality that closely matches my own. I know… it is strange, but it is something I've done since I was a child. Another habit I have had is making eye contact with the cast, also developed during my childhood.

Because of both of these habits, I had developed a favorite gypsy to watch. He was kind of a swing gypsy and knew almost all of the gypsy roles. Of the 13 gypsy roles, three were female only, nine were male only and one was played by either a male or a female. At one point I figured I had seen my favorite gypsy in eight of the 10 roles. And even one show in the spring he played Hugo, which was a surprise for me. I always liked him in the role of the goat handler. His facial expressions were always amazing and he did that role extremely well. During the previous Wednesday's shows, he managed to play three different roles, one of which was a goat handler. During the last day, he again played three roles and again played a goat handler once. Up until the Wednesday shows, I hadn't thought that the last day of shows was going to affect me. But during the standing ovation during the last Wednesday show, there I was, watching the cast, seeing them start to get emotional, including my favorite gypsy. At that point I knew that if he lost it during the last day of shows, then it would be hard for me not to lose it myself.

Another preshow, another show. Two shows down, two to go, back in line for the third show. We all were getting pretty good at this, although those of us waiting for the next show had determined that we were basically competing against each other for line positions. The queue got longer, earlier with each succeeding show and we began to wonder what the last show was going to be like.

Casper noticed again that someone was holding a "meet and greet" in between shows. I think it was at that point he decided he was going to stay for the meet and greet after the third show. We noticed that it wasn't for specific people, but for whomever stayed after the show. After we were seated for that third show, I ran to the restroom. On my way back into the Theater, I noticed that some of the regulars were forfeiting their seats to stay in line, so they could be first in for the final show.

Another preshow, another show. Three shows down, one to go. Now was the time to figure out the strategy for the last show. Casper wanted to do the meet and greet, Donna wanted to run to the restroom and I was confused as to what should be the priority: the meet and greet, the line… what?

Eventually, Casper and Len stayed for the meet and greet, Donna went to the restroom, and I decided to get in line. We were the furthest back in the line that we had been all day. I kept a lookout for Donna and tried to see where Casper and Len ended up. Not until we were let in did I find them (and Randé, Kyle and Karen). They had gotten their usual aisle seats on the runway, but Donna and I couldn't. I didn't mind too much, but I was confused how Casper, Len, Randé‚ Kyle and Karen managed to get such good seats. Not until after the show did I learn that those who had stayed for the third meet and greet were allowed to stay in the theater and were seated first. I could have hit myself for knowing too much and over-analyzing the situation. Most times it does benefit me, but this once I didn't really know what the outcome was going to be.

Finally, it was time for Matt's preshow. It started with a standing ovation, as I
said earlier, and the applause lasted quite a while. He knew by now that we were going to do this, so he graciously took all the applause. After more than six years of performing
more than 6,000 shows, Matt ended his run at the Backlot Theater on a very positive high note. The theater was filling up again and I was experiencing sensory overload.
So much time spent at Walt Disney World over the last 10 years, combined with my recent entertainment kick, allows me to recognize a lot of Cast Members even when they aren't in costume. I try to picture them in their work setting, so when I see so many at once I tend to have this sensory overload in my mind.

A standing-room only theater, a final runway announcement, a final red light followed by a final yellow light followed by the final green light. The doors swung open, the gypsy troupe started the the Final Show. The cast and audience was pumped up more than ever before. The theater was filled with applause. We started off the show with applause and every singing number ended with applause. We really don't know what it was like backstage between each show, but I'm sure the cast members must have been letting their emotions go. But, amazingly, they managed to control their emotions very well during the final performance. As I mentioned earlier, Randé had held up signs
during all the shows that day to tell the Cast how much their shows had been enjoyed and appreciated. I could see in the Cast Members' faces that they appreciated the signs, especially during this last show. And, as they had for all the shows that day,
they put everything they could into the final show.

As they finished, they were met with another standing ovation. The crowd was rowdy and some folks even stood on their seats for the ovation. The applause lasted long enough for a curtain call from the Cast. It was great and made for a great ending.

Afterwards, the Cast held one more meet and greet for the fans — Matt even came out — and Donna wanted to get her picture taken with the principals. We all made our way out of the theater, and for one last time Len, Casper, Donna, Randé, Kyle, Karen and I managed to get together. Someone (Casper, if I recall correctly) wanted a photo of us all. Donna took the first picture, and then someone nearby volunteered to take a picture of all of us. Of course, then all the cameras came out! As one final tribute to the cast and show, Randé took her signs that she had brought and carefully placed them around the sign of the theater. I asked Donna to take a picture of Randé, Kyle and Karen walking away from the signs. After bidding a few Cast members good luck as they walked to their farewell dinner, we all went our separate ways.