Released Jan. 22, the recording debuted at #5 on the iTunes Top Albums chart in its first day and was #9 on Billboard’s Current Digital Albums chart for its first week.
Producers released a special "making of" video to coincide with the arrival of the CD. It is linked further down in this story.
Check out Playbill.com's exclusive first-listen track. Listen to the Act I finale, "Esmeralda," which features the principals, Michael Arden, Ciara Renee, Patrick Page, Andrew Samonsky and the chorus:
The album is available on the Ghostlight Records label. The CD comes packaged with a 32-page booklet with full lyrics, photos and a note from composer Alan Menken. You can also get more information by visiting Sh-k-boom.com/hunchback-of-notre-dame. The album is produced by Michael Kosarin, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Chris Montan and executive producer Kurt Deutsch.
The album features Michael Arden (Big River) as Quasimodo, Patrick Page (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) as Dom Claude Frollo, Ciara Renée (Pippin) as Esmeralda, Andrew Samonsky (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) as Captain Phoebus de Martin and Erik Liberman (Lovemusik) as Clopin Trouillefou.
Featured in the ensemble are Julian Decker, Mary Joe Duggan, Ian Patrick Gibb, Beth Kirkpatrick, Samantha Massell, Neal Mayer, Nora Menken, William Michals, Anise Ritchie, Vincent Rodriguez III, Richard Ruiz, Joseph J. Simeone, Jeremy Stolle and Dashaun Young.
See how the CD was made:
Inspired by Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame features a book by Peter Parnell, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The musical was billed as a "dramatic retelling of the famous love story on a grand scale, with a lush, emotionally rich score."
The rights to The Hunchback of Notre Dame are now available for professional theatre productions, licensed exclusively through Music Theatre International at MTIShows.com.
Stephen Schwartz shares the other Disney films he would like to adapt for the stage here.
