Hunchback of Notre Dame Backgrounder - Gargoyle

Backgrounder by Rachel Rycerz:

Got a chance to talk to Laura right before the show opened. Playing a gargoyle in Hunchback in Notre Dame has brought together three of her favorite things: Disney, Victor Hugo, and the gargoyles at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. She told me, “While the show adheres more to the Victor Hugo book than the Disney cartoon could, it still has the beautiful Disney songs, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

“Victor Hugo has been my favorite author since high school, when I read Les Miserables. His writing is more political than most readers realize, and he makes social commentary on his own country. I also love Hugo because of the surprises in his writing -- you don’t expect certain things to happen. I remember reading the book of Hunchback of Notre Dame in college. For the time it was written, it was a real shocker novel -- I remember gasping out loud at one of the twists in the plot.”

Reading Hugo also began Laura’s love of Paris and all things French -- which led her to the Notre Dame Cathedral itself, and its gargoyles. “I visited the Cathedral, and have pictures of the actual gargoyles -- getting to pretend to be one is fun. And it is concrete for me -- I was actually there.”