“At present, this production’s greatest asset is Patrick Page’s brilliant, multi-layered performance as Dom Claude Frollo, the priest who adopts Quasimodo and raises him to be Notre Dame’s bell ringer. “Of particular note is Page’s Frollo, whose nuanced performance makes “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” Frollo’s tragedy just as much as it is Quasimodo’s.” “Patrick Page with his outstanding voice is equally impressive as Dom Claude Frollo, the villain Archdeacon of Notre Dame and Quasimodo’s protector” Unable to accept his lust for Esmerelda, he turns his rage on the world, displaying an almost psychopathic urge to destroy in the number ‘Hellfire.'” Even in stillness, his posture impeccably erect, his eyes focused on some distant shore, the actor’s face conveys the inner battle between impulse and control when, in the number “Sanctuary,” he instructs Quasimodo in the treacherous ways of the world, we are given an elegant lesson in the twisting of an innocent mind.
Possessed of both classical technique and solid musical theatre skills, Page puts his enormous presence and low rumble of a voice to sinister use, creating a man torn between rectitude and desire, using his best silken manner to seduce those who stand in his way, and furiously condemning them to hell when persuasion proves fruitless. “Arden’s fine work is more than balanced by Patrick Page’s Frollo, a holy man whose soul has been distorted by frustrated love and suppressed passion. “Patrick Page, whose deep, rumbling voice itself seems to convey villainy - particularly when intoning a line like “We are all born sinners” - is vividly horrifying as Quasimodo’s uncle, father figure and tormentor, Frollo” His singular bass-baritone vocals (put to use in the earlier Disney shows “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” as well “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and numerous Old Globe shows) also are suited perfectly to the part.”
And yet against all odds, Page elicits at least a little sympathy for this seeming monster of a man, a fact that’s crucial to making the show work. Of course, he decides it’s she who must be purified in a “Hellfire” (the title of Frollo’s disturbingly stirring signature number). As his righteousness curdles into lunatic cruelty over carnal feelings for Esmeralda (whose hated Gypsy heritage makes her particularly forbidden), Frollo becomes like a one-man black hole, sucking away Paris’ light and life. “The show’s center of gravity (with a capital G), though, lies in Page’s intensely affecting portrayal of the tormented Frollo.