Avenue Q Director Jason Moore Tolls Bell for TV Musical "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

By Ernio Hernandez
March 9, 2004

Avenue Q director Jason Moore has signed on to direct the upcoming ABC television musical "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" featuring a score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

The live-action TV version of the classic story of Quasimodo based on Victor Hugo's novel is being produced by Storyline Entertainment's Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The work is aiming for a 2005 debut, according to a Storyline Entertainment representative.

At a technical rehearsal for Avenue Q prior to its Broadway opening (July 2003), Moore — an emerging director whose previous credits included Off-Broadway's The Crumple Zone as well as TV gigs on "Everwood" and "Dawson's Creek" — told Playbill On-Line that directing an episode of TV's "One Tree Hill" was all that was then on his plate.

The director's calendar has since filled as Moore, prior to his duties on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," will return to Broadway to direct the upcoming revival of Steel Magnolias this fall.

Zadan and Meron are no strangers to screen musicals having produced "Cinderella," "Annie" and "The Music Man" for the small screen as well as the Academy Award winning movie "Chicago." Collaborator Rob Marshall (Cabaret) handles choreography duties on "Cinderella" and served as director-choreographer for "Annie" and "Chicago."

"We haven't found anyone since Rob Marshall we feel more strongly can make that transition (from stage to screen)," quoted Meron to Variety. "He's clever and fresh and inventive, and he knows his way around a musical. With Jason, hopefully lightning will strike twice."

Menken and Schwartz, who scored the 1996 Disney animated "Hunchback," are also penning music and lyrics for the television project. Sally Robinson is working on the script.