SILOAM SPRINGS, Arkansas (Oct. 26, 2026) — John Brown University's music & theatre department invites you to the musical “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” on Oct. 30 and 31 and Nov. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m., and Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. All performances will be held at the Berry Performing Arts Center on the Siloam Springs campus.

Like many Disney films from the 1990s, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was quickly identified as having strong potential for a stage adaptation. As the adaptation process began, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz saw an opportunity to revise the storytelling and tone to bring it closer to the original source material, Victor Hugo’s classic novel. The result is familiar (and new) music and characters in a darker and more serious context. The sidekick gargoyles, colorful antics and standard Disney happy ending are left behind. Instead, we return to Hugo’s original central theme: the Cathedral herself.

"From the first sounds of the musical — the soft tolling of the bells — we are called to church. The sanctuary of the Cathedral becomes the stage, the choir provides the liturgy and the congregation tells the story," said Liesl Mindeman Dromi, associate professor of music (voice) and chair of the music & theatre department. “The Cathedral is where we are confronted with the evils of the fallen world: oppression and corruption, abuse and control, discrimination and injustice.”

The musical acknowledges these realities and does not provide easy answers. Rather, it points us to antidotes: light, love, beauty and hope. The show begins and ends with the song "Someday" (first introduced in Latin and later sung in English). In the face of great suffering and evil, this song expresses an unyielding hope for and belief in a better world, one that does not yet exist but certainly must exist in the future.

You can purchase tickets in advance at jbu.edu/tickets or at the door the night of the performance. Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for seniors and JBU employees; $7 for children under 18 and $3 for JBU students.

John Brown University is a leading private Christian university, training students to honor God and serve others since 1919. Arkansas’ top-ranked regional university (U.S. News) and Arkansas’ No. 3 university (The Wall Street Journal), JBU enrolls more than 2,600 students from 35 states and 58 countries in its traditional undergraduate, graduate, online and concurrent education programs. JBU offers over 50 undergraduate majors, with top programs including business, nursing, family and human services, engineering, teacher education, psychology, computer science, construction management, biology, Bible and visual arts. Seven graduate degrees are available in business, counseling, outdoor program management and cybersecurity.

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