First International Production of Aladdin to Premiere in Tokyo

Disney Theatrical Productions and Shiki Theatre Company announce the first international production of Disney’s Aladdin, the smash Broadway musical comedy. Performances will begin in May 2015 at The Dentsu Shiki Theatre Umi in Tokyo.

“The heart and wit of the timeless tale of Aladdin, the Genie and those three wishes are beloved by cultures across the globe,”

said Thomas Schumacher, president and producer, Disney Theatrical Productions. “We look forward to bringing Casey Nicholaw’s joyous, spectacular production to Japan in partnership with our valued friends at Shiki.”

Produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions, Aladdin opened to critical acclaim at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 20, 2014. The show features music by Tony Award® and eight-time Oscar® winner Alan Menken, lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman, three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice and two-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin, with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw. Lyrics will be translated into Japanese by Ms. Chikae Takahashi, who worked on the Japanese translation for Disney’s Frozen. The Tokyo production will be cast locally in Japan and will be performed in Japanese.

Aladdin will mark the fifth collaboration between Disney Theatrical Productions and Shiki Theatre Company following the successful and current runs of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, AIDA and The Little Mermaid. Sixteen million people have seen a Disney musical produced by Shiki, resulting in cumulative runs of nearly 5,000 performances for Beauty and the Beast and a staggering 9,000 performances for their two concurrent productions of The Lion King.

Damon Lindelof Helps Phineas and Ferb Get Lost

A mysterious locked capsule falls into Phineas and Ferb’s back yard and they struggle to open it, only to discover they have unleashed something they cannot control.

Meanwhile, Perry learns that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been abducted and tracks him to Seattle where another evil scientist, Professor Mystery, has his own sinister plan.

You might not learn the secrets behind Lost‘s smoke monster or find out who in the heck built the island’s giant four-toed statue when you watch “Lost in Danville,” but this special episode of Phineas and Ferb features a story by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. And it does answer one very important question: Who is Peter the Panda’s nemesis?

Lindelof, a longtime fan of Phineas and Ferb, brought this mystery to the show’s creators and executive producers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, who thought it wasn’t just a provocative question but a story that Lindelof should help craft. Lindelof began watching Phineas and Ferb at the recommendation of his wife and son. “The show invites in newcomers, but it also rewards the people looking at the details. There are just so many Easter eggs packed into each one,” Damon points out, adding, “As a writer, I became totally enraptured in it to the point that I was watching episodes and my son would say, ‘I’ve already seen this one,’ and I was like, ‘I’ll watch it!'”

Writing an episode of Phineas and Ferb most assuredly upped Lindelof’s street cred with his son, but Povenmire and Marsh confess that they felt a bit of a boost from working with the man who introduced Hurley and the Dharma Initiative to the world. “Damon actually came to Comic-Con with us two years ago and moderated our panel, which we sort of kept as a secret because we felt it would be a really fun surprise,” Povenmire explains. “At Comic-Con, that’s quite a get, to have Damon show up for something like that and he was just there asking us questions and stuff. It was really fun.”

“It was just a fancy way to get my questions answered,” Lindelof jokes.

The team behind "Lost in Danville," Phineas, Dan Povenmire, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, and Ferb, poses for a picture. — The team behind “Lost in Danville,” Phineas, Dan Povenmire, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, and Ferb, poses for a picture.

Once Lindelof agreed to come on board, Povenmire and Marsh led him through their process. “He came in and brainstormed with us and we sent him off to do an outline,” Povenmire recalls.

“I think that one of the most exciting times in my career was being in a place where I felt slightly uncomfortable and had to please my bosses,” Lindelof remembers. “I think that when you’re running your own show you sort of lose the thrill of the pitch and you’re just being pitched to.” Lindelof unabashedly credits the Phineas and Ferb writers with doing all of the “heavy lifting” and making all of his jokes funnier, confessing, “I felt like it was going to be really important to be able to laugh at myself and understand that I have a great profound pride in Lost, but to sort of wink a little and have this guy [Peter the Panda’s mysterious nemesis] embody the idea of what are the effects of not revealing your master plan to people was something that we felt was a very rich vein for comedy.”

Lost fans will find much to laugh at in the 11-minute story. “Lost in Danville” includes time travel, a giant polar bear, and an unopenable hatch. Povenmire acknowledges, “We sort of assumed there would be people who watch the episode specifically because of Damon, thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll watch this because I liked Lost.’ And so we put the capsule in. There’s a lot that [Damon] threw in to let us have fun with that.” And in return, Povenmire and Marsh allowed Lindelof to help reveal a key piece of his favorite character’s backstory.

So, while the special episode may not feature the Oceanic 6, the Danville 2 will be front and center when “Lost in Danville” premieres Monday, September 29, at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD.

(Approximately) 101 Reasons Why I Love One Hundred and One Dalmatians!

Follow my lead and you’ll sniff out the reasons I think this classic Disney film is spot-on.

A self-professed dog lover, Walt Disney naturally came up with a doggoned good film when making a movie all about his beloved mutts. On more than one occasion, Walt appeared on his TV show with a canine co-star, and on the February 12, 1961 installment of his Walt Disney Presents series, Walt charmingly related the story of the film to a Dalmatian puppy with whom he had a purebred dog lover’s rapport. Like Walt himself, I’m a “dog person” and in a film entitled One Hundred and One Dalmatians you can be sure there are plenty of pooches for pooch lovers to love. Beyond stalwart Pongo, sweet and sensible Perdita and their 99 pups, the film boasts a cavalcade of canines, especially in the sensational Twilight Bark sequence. In fact, don’t blink (or bark) or you might miss several stars from another Disney dog-and-puppy show, Lady and the Tramp (1955), making cameo appearances, including Lady herself. But One Hundred and One Dalmatians doesn’t disappoint even if you are a cat person, thanks to the stalwart Sergeant Tibbs, who happens to be at the center of my favorite sight gag in the whole film: one skinny tabby trying to hide 99 dogs behind his back!

Lady and the Tramp guest appearance in 101 Dalmatians — “In fact, don’t blink (or bark) or you might miss several stars from another Disney dog-and-puppy show, *Lady and the Tramp*.” (1955).

As fur-raising as so many elements of the film are — the suspense, the British spy thriller sensibility, and Marc Davis’s brilliant Cruella De Vil — I also love the film for its charm and that most elusive quality: “heart.” Best example (and certainly one of my best-loved scenes): the “Pongos” (as the Dalmatian clan is called by other critters) cozily watching TV, brilliantly observed by directing animator Eric Larson. “I just thought of what regular kids would do as they watched TV and took it from there,” Eric said. “One of the pups sits directly in front of the set blocking every else’s view. Another is constantly hungry. Their emotional attitudes were the attitudes of youngsters. With the parents, I tried to reflect back on how my parents treated me. It was a lot of fun doing that scene.”

One of the true joys of this sure-footed film is savoring the outstanding work of Eric and other members of that elite animation team known as the Nine Old Men. Milt Kahl was specifically assigned by Walt Disney to both redesign and animate Dalmatian devotee Anita, and the master animator based his design in part on Julie Andrews, then-famed as the star of Broadway’s My Fair Lady, little realizing that in just a few years Julie would be at the Disney Studios herself, starring in Mary Poppins (1964). Milt also used his fellow Nine Old Men team member, piano playing Frank Thomas, as a model for songwriter Roger Radcliff.

Piano playing Frank Thomas used as a model for songwriter Roger Radcliff — “Milt [Kahl] also used his fellow Nine Old Men team member, piano playing Frank Thomas (pictured above) as a model for songwriter Roger Radcliff,” Jim says.

There can be no denying that I am 101 percent in love with One Hundred and One Dalmatians. A large part of my admiration goes to the artisans who painstakingly positioned all those spots on all those Dalmatians. “Each dog’s spots were thought of like a constellation of stars,” explained art director and production designer Ken Anderson. “There was a pattern on each side of the dog and it had to be anchored by a key spot. It was like applying a moving decal that would fit the perspective changes as the animal moved. But by working out a constellation, something that looked good in every position, we’d pick out one that would be a focal point. We’d know that this one spot always goes here. Then this next one is only so far from it, and the next is only so far from it, and the next is only so far from that and so on. It was an enormous job!” According to Disney publicity, there is a total 6,469,952 spots on the Dalmatians in all 113,760 frames of the film. It all adds up to why this canine caper is so special to me (and so many others) — and one instance in which seeing spots never looked so good!

Meet the Founder and President of the OMD (Organization of Muppet Dogs)

By Jim Fanning

He was the very first Muppet television star

. . . but he’s not green and he’s not a frog. He’s brown, furry and a dog—Rowlf the Dog.

The pun-loving pooch, sometimes known as “Ol’ Brown Ears,” was the very first Muppet to break into big-time primetime TV. In 1962, he made his debut as the star in a series of dog food commercials, followed by a stint as the wisecracking canine sidekick to country singer Jimmy Dean on the ABC variety series, The Jimmy Dean Show. The floppy-eared Muppet was so popular that he received more fan mail than the show’s star.

Rowlf was designed by Jim Henson, who considered calling the character Barkley, Woofington and Beowolf before deciding on Rowlf. In early sketches, Rowlf even had a lower set of pointy canine teeth. But since his creation, Rowlf has not changed a bit; he’s still the same old hound we know and love today.

Following his successful run with Jimmy Dean, Rowlf went on to host his own summer variety show on CBS in 1967, stealing scenes from such stars as Woody Allen and Carol Burnett. As a regular on The Muppet Show, Rowlf first demonstrated his incredible piano playing prowess, performing with the likes of Liberace and Victor Borge. More recently, he jammed on the keyboards with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and has even tickled the off-key ivories of Ma Bear’s antique upright (“I love out of tune pianos!”).

Friendly, furry, and very much his own man uh, mutt, Rowlf can speak dog (“yeah, bark, bark”) as well as human, and is the founder and president of the OMD (Organization of Muppet Dogs). Back in 1973, when the lovable pooch guest-starred on ABC’s The Julie Andrews Hour, Jim Henson told Julie that Rowlf was one of his favorite Muppets. Ours too.

Painting of Spots Huge Job in Producing Disney’s Dalmatians

The spots belong only to the dog.

Those on the man, Roger Radcliff, are from the pen of a dognapper hurled at him in this scene from Walt Disney’s feature-length cartoon comedy, 101 Dalmatians. Adapted from the Dodie Smith novel, this is the hilarious story of an ultra villainous woman who steals Dalmatians for the wonderful fur coats they will make. The color by Technicolor film is re-released by Buena Vista.

In all, there are exactly 6,469,952 spots on the back of 101 heart-warming dogs and puppies as they appear in 113,760 frames of brilliant color by Technicolor.

Join us at The Walt Disney Studios for 101 Dalmatians: An Afternoon in the “Spot”-light on February 8

Pongo, the cartoon canine lead, wears 72 spots while his love, Perdita, has 68 on her coat. The spots and all other color effects required 800 gallons of very special paint weighing nearly five tons, enough to dress the exteriors of 135 average homes.

Using a secret process, the studio has always mixed its own color in its own laboratories for all Disney cartoons. For 101 Dalmatians, 1,000 different shades were produced, 100 of them especially for that picture to achieve the subtlety and variety needed to handle the dogs and humans as they move through interiors and exteriors in summer and winter.

Producing the “white” for the dogs alone— Dalmatians are white under the spots— required enough very light gray paint to make this category the predominant one in the picture’s broad spectrum. Pure white, of course, would have been too garish, too difficult to define, especially against snow.

From the 101 Dalmatians 1979 re-release press materials.

Watch a New Clip from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

In theaters October 10, Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day follows 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life—and soon learns that he’s not alone when his mom (Jennifer Garner), dad (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

This Weekend on ABC

Shark Tank (Friday, September 26, 8 p.m. ET/PT)

Shark Tank is back for a sixth season, with the Sharks continuing the search to invest in the best businesses and products that America has to offer. The two-hour season premiere airs Friday, September 26 (8–10:01 p.m. ET), and the show returns to its regular time on Friday, October 3 (9–10 p.m. ET). In “Episode 601,” a couple from Ft. Worth, Texas, turned tragedy into inspiration and devised a unique way to swaddle a baby, which could be a sanity saver for exhausted parents; a gentleman from Los Angeles, California, wants to put the “man” in manicure with his nail salon for guys only; two men from New York believe they have designed a better version of the athletic sock; and two college students from Harrisonburg, Virginia, invented a way to stay recharged with their free mobile phone charging station. In “Episode 602,” Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O’Leary renew their vows of “Shark Love” when two men from Las Vegas, Nevada, pitch an innovative way to tie the knot with their mobile wedding service. Two young women from Palo Alto, California, hope to empower the next generation of female engineers and innovators with their inspirational toys. A family man from Mooresville, North Carolina, believes that an investment by the Sharks in his elegant and functional porcelain coffee mug will mean a better future for his family. Two men from Oceanside, California, and Chandler, Arizona, pitch their design of a finer, more precise golf putter.

20/20 (Friday, September 26, 10 p.m. ET/PT)

What started out as a normal middle school sleepover took a horrifying turn when one 12-year-old girl was stabbed 19 times by her two best friends and left for dead in the Wisconsin woods. The girls’ motive and the miraculous recovery of the survivor made headlines around the world since the May attack. Now, for the first time, the parents reveal to David Muir the chilling details of the incredible sequence of events that, against all odds, led to their daughter’s survival. Where and how did she get the strength to fight off death? Plus, meet the 12-year-old girl who has transformed from victim to the ultimate survivor, recently returning to school just months after the brutal attack. Muir’s exclusive report also includes interviews with the first responders and doctors who helped save her life, as well as the bicyclist who found her—and who takes 20/20 back to the scene.

Once Upon a Time (Sunday, September 28, 8 p.m. ET/PT)

In the season premiere episode, “A Tale of Two Sisters,” a scared and confused Elsa finds herself in Storybrooke and, fearful of the intentions of its residents, creates a powerful snow monster for protection. With Robin Hood’s wife, Marian, back in the picture, Regina wonders if her “happily ever after” with the former thief has been completely quashed; while on their honeymoon, Mr. Gold finds an intriguing object that makes him question whether or not he should officially give Belle control over the dagger that makes him The Dark One, and Hook is dismayed to discover that Emma seems to be avoiding him while she tries to help comfort Regina after being the one responsible for bringing Marian back from the past and into Storybrooke. Meanwhile, in Arendelle of the past, as Elsa’s sister Anna’s wedding to Kristoff nears, Anna discovers that their parents—who died on-ship during a violent storm—were heading to a mysterious destination in a quest that may have held the secret to containing Elsa’s out-of-control Ice powers. And against Elsa’s wishes, Anna wants to finish their journey to find out what they were looking for.

Resurrection (Sunday, September 28, 9 p.m. ET/PT)
Bellamy awakens alone and abandoned at Arcadia’s outskirts, missing a week of his life. As his memory returns, he has a shocking revelation. Meanwhile, Arcadia welcomes one more returned, Margaret Langston (guest star Michelle Fairley), the powerful matriarch of the Langston family, dead for over three decades.

Revenge (Sunday, September 28, 10 p.m. ET/PT)
As Emily plans to host her most surprising party ever, Victoria finds a way to turn her greatest setback into a dangerous advantage. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them both, David Clarke plans his next move.

It’s OK To Play With Your Food If It Looks This Cool When You’re Done

Like the Disney bento box above? Well, there is more where that came from. Follow OMGIRI on Instagram immediately.

D23 met up with this Disney fan and Instagram sensation on our Fanniversary trip to Philadelphia. His name is Mike and he is super-talented, even though he says he is “not an artist.” OMGIRI has created more than 200 Disney-inspired bento boxes and has set a goal to create one a week. Here he is showing off his latest creation at a Disney park—even Disney Villains like his work.

“My interest in food art started with our trip to Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland in May 2012,” Mike says. “I was amazed by the adorable and creative food both resorts served. It was springtime and Tokyo Disney had sandwiches shaped like Donald Duck’s feet, melon buns shaped like Mike Wazowski, and sweet mochi chicks in Donald egg cups.”

Michael was first inspired when he ate at the Crystal Lotus. “It’s home to the most amazing character-shaped dining experience,” he says. “They offer dim sum-shaped characters, including the Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, Duffy the Bear, and the Little Green Men from Toy Story.”

While in Japan, Michael bought a couple of bento boxes to motivate him to take his lunch to work. “I had a bad habit of eating out of the vending machine, or worse, skipping lunch all together,” he says. “I wanted to see if I could start packing myself a healthy lunch. The first bento I ever tried to make was an Oswald. It was fun to make the bento, but what really got me hooked was how fun it was to have the character bento for lunch.”

In the beginning, Mike made whatever came to mind. “I’d make all sorts of characters,” he says. “I’d share them on Facebook. Eventually I found other bento makers on Instagram and really started becoming part of a community. Over time my interest in Disney took over and now I find myself doing all Disney characters. Bentos shaped like characters are referred to as kyaraben or charaben.”

“My bento style is to make an onigiri character,” he says. “Onigiri are normally a triangle or round ‘rice ball’ filled with fish or pickled ginger. They sell them in convenience stores like they sell sandwiches in the U.S. They are balled up rice with a filling. I’ve changed it up a bit, avoiding raw fish. Instead I fill them with cooked tuna or salmon mixed with a little mayo and spices. My favorite filling is a crab and cream cheese. I also use leftovers for filling. Leftover curries make perfect filling. The black lines are cut nori (roasted seaweed). I also accent with vegetables and cheeses, sometimes colored with food coloring.”

Mike decided that he needed a creative outlet in his life. “I work in an IT office, which just doesn’t fulfill my creative side, he says. “I spend my days being technical and very logical. Bentos are giving me a chance to explore my creative side before I go into the office each morning. Plus, it helps with my insatiable need for Disney in my life! I am horrible at planning, so most of my bentos start with me looking up a picture of the character online. I normally start from a photo or two of the character. Then I just sort of play around.”

Mike themes his bento creations on weeks celebrating the holidays, new movie releases, Star Wars May 4th celebrations, Disney park events, and more. “Sometimes the idea comes from a post I saw the previous day,” he says. “I also am really inspired by Disney artists like Jerrod Maruyama (Mickey Mouse Artist). I’ve made quite a few bentos inspired by his cute take on Disney characters. I love finding older Disney characters and forgotten friends, like Humphrey the Bear, too. I’m extra lucky that Disney now includes Marvel and Star Wars, which opened up so many more characters for me to make.”

His favorites are those bentos that show characters with a lot of expression. “I enjoy making fun facial expressions, like Olaf grabbing at his tiny carrot nose or a seriously, disgruntled Maximus,” Mike says. “The expression tends to be extremely challenging, but when it works out they are the most interesting to look at. Villains are also a joy to do, because they have such interesting designs.”

“One day, I hope bento gets popular in the U.S. and I could make bentos at a Disney Park for a living,” he says. “Until then, I’ll make them for my lunch.”

Disney/ABC Television Group Launches Next Generation of its WATCH ABC Services

Disney/ABC Television Group has re-launched its industry-defining WATCH ABC services with enhanced social sharing features that provide fans with an even more personalized experience. With a complete redesign of the user interface and user experience also included, this re-launch is the most significant update to the service since its debut.

The new social features include:

FastShare: Whether it’s that laugh-out-loud joke, an unbelievable plot twist or can’t-miss moment, the new FastShare feature allows fans to easily access and share clips of their favorite and most shareable in-show moments, all while staying within the viewing experience in the app. Fans can also share the entire full episode.
Social Lens: Integrates fan’s personal Facebook and Twitter into the WATCH ABC app so they can watch the content they love while they socialize with their friends.
Multi-Cam: Offers fans exclusive access to backstage/venue cameras during live events.

In addition to added benefits for fans, the new features present powerful sponsorship opportunities for advertisers who want their messages to reach fans while they are watching and socializing around their favorite shows. WATCH ABC’s dynamic ad serving technology ensures clips shared using FastShare include targeted advertiser messages and Social Lens position their brand in the context of fans’ personal social spheres—and are viewed while fans are watching the shows they love.

The overall look and feel of WATCH ABC has also been updated to include a heavy emphasis on bold, simple graphics and content hierarchy that reflects the most popular shows, as well as the inclusion of short-form video that enhances the show experience.

The WATCH ABC app can be found in the App Store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

Why Patrick Page Is Excited For You To See The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Since 1999 when Der Glockner von Notre Dame debuted to smashing success in Germany, Disney Theatrical fans have clamored for an American musical theater adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Next month, the show makes its debut at La Jolla Playhouse (to be followed by a run at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey next spring), and the dream of hearing the bells of Notre Dame live on stage will become a reality.

Disney Theatrical veteran Patrick Page, whose credits include Scar in The Lion King, Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and The Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, will bring to life the villainous Frollo. After just one week of rehearsals, Patrick sat down for his first interview about the role (and about being a lifelong Disney fan) with D23.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn’t your first work with Disney. Were you a fan before you became involved with Disney professionally?
I was kind of obsessed with Disney as a kid. We lived in Oregon and every year I would ask my parents if we could go to Disneyland, because we used to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, and you would see Disneyland on the show and it was just so magical. I wanted to go and every year I would ask, and every year I think my parents would genuinely try to see if they had the time and the money to take us on a trip there. And so every year I would think we were going to get to go, but it wouldn’t happen for one reason or another. Things were pretty tight in those days.

Finally, one year I said, “OK, if I earn the money, then can we go?” and they said, “Yes,” thinking that there was no way I could do that. But I held a garage sale—and I’m sure I didn’t make enough money to make the trip—but I earned enough to make a difference, and so we finally went and it was completely magical for me in every way. Probably more so, because it was something I had wanted to do, and it had been put off for so long, it seemed like it was going to be impossible and then we finally did it. It was just extraordinary.

Did you have a favorite attraction on that first visit?
You know, I was quite obsessed with the macabre in those days, so I loved Haunted Mansion. It was something that didn’t exist when I was really little, and so it was one of those ones that became a new attraction. You would see Walt Disney on an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, and he introduced Haunted Mansion. I guess that would have been the one for me.

Some of your most memorable roles have been baddies like Scar, The Green Goblin, and now Frollo, but you were also Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast. Was it fun to get in touch with your lighter side, pardon the pun, in that role?
Yes—my wife loved that role for that reason, because so often I get to play the bad guys, and that’s where we met, on the first national tour of Beauty and the Beast, so she loved that side of me. That’s just such a beautiful role to play because he really is literally and figuratively the light of the production. He’s always bringing energy and light into the scene, so it was really wonderful fun.

You mentioned you met your wife [Paige Davis, former host of TLC’s Trading Spaces] in Beauty and the Beast. Can you tell us about the beginning of that love story?
She was in the ensemble when we began, and it was the very first national tour of the show in 1995. We rehearsed in New York and we opened in Minneapolis, and we started hanging out when we were on the road as friends. We were both coming out of other relationships, so we were friends first, and then we just kept hanging out! We’re still hanging out! It was a very romantic way to meet.

How did you come to be involved with The Hunchback of Notre Dame?
In this particular case, I had done The Lion King and I was also involved in a workshop of Newsies before it had its first performances. So I know all those people and they know me, and I had been with The Lion King off and on for a period of about five years. I think when this came up it was just one of those things that felt right. They called me when they were doing the first in-house readings of it and they asked me if I would come and read, but I wasn’t able to because I was out of town. I felt so devastated. But then finally when they were doing the lab last year, they called and asked again, and I enthusiastically said, “Yes!” It went well, and here we are.

How familiar were you with Disney’s animated film version of Hunchback before you became involved?
I saw it when it came out, and as an actor, of course, you sort of know what you’d like to play, and I immediately felt that with the role of Frollo. First of all, there are so few roles written for a bass-baritone singer, so I immediately felt that it would be something that I would like to do one day, having no idea if ever a show would be made of it.

With the film, as I said, I was very into the gothic and the macabre as a kid and so I was a big fan of the novel and of the movie with Charles Laughton; and so for me the film straddled two worlds. On one hand there are some Disney aspects to it, like the gargoyles that are Quasimodo’s buddies, but on the other hand, it’s quite dark—you have Frollo singing about “Hellfire.” It was a remarkable achievement, and clearly something that wanted to move forward into another medium.

You mention your love of the film’s darkness, and it is certainly darker than previous films that Disney has brought to life on stage. Is there a different creative process with this show than something with more levity?
No, because my job is always the same, which is to try to be as truthful in the situation as I can possibly be. What’s nice about this material is it’s very deep and very rich, like an oil painting where all of the details are filled in. In that way, it’s very rewarding to play.

Fans of your work with Disney Theatrical might not know that you’re also an incredibly accomplished Shakespearean actor. Does that classical training come into play with a character like Frollo, who’s almost Shakespearean in his inner torment and complexity?

It absolutely does. In fact, Shakespeare wrote a character, Angelo, in Measure for Measure, on which I’m quite sure Hugo partially based Frollo. Hugo was a great fan and reader of Shakespeare. Angelo is a man of extreme moral rectitude who finds himself passionately in love with a young girl named Isabella, who’s a novice in a nunnery, and that conflict between the view he has of himself as a righteous, moral man and his instincts tears him and all the people around him apart.

What aspects of the show are you most excited for audiences to see?
I think they will be excited and very moved by how much this has become a stage representation of the novel, with the extraordinary score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. It took a step in that direction in Germany, and it’s taken a further step in that direction. I think all movement in that direction is a good thing.

Last question: With Scar, Lumiere, and now Frollo, you’ve brought a trifecta of legendary Disney characters to life on stage. If you could play another Disney character onstage, even one whose story doesn’t have a Broadway adaptation yet, who would it be and why?
Good question. It’s sort of obvious for me, but I think Shere Khan.