Dennis DeYoung’s ‘Hunchback’ comes back to musical life in Milwaukee’s Skylight Theater
The long and winding and wildly successful if slightly bumpy road that has been the life of Dennis DeYoung found him one recent morning on the fourth floor of the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee.
It was a large room filled with a dozen people, some in costumes and all in masks. Music came from the piano in the corner and singing from some of the cast members of the upcoming Skylight Music Theatre production of DeYoung’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
“Of course I’m excited, are you kidding?” said DeYoung, wearing a white mask the color of his hair and a black leather jacket. “The nature of this collaboration, all these young talents … watching it come together is a rare pleasure.”
He has been living in an apartment near the theater in this artsy and fashionable Milwaukee neighborhood known as the Third Ward with his wife Suzanne, his childhood sweetheart to whom he has been married for 52 years. They have two adult children, Carrie Ann, owner of a design firm in Florida, and Matthew, who lives in Orland Park and is a lighting designer who supplied the lights for “Hunchback.”
The DeYoungs, who have long lived in a lovely home in Chicago’s western suburbs, have been here for weeks and will remain through the show’s opening on Friday and perhaps through its run.
“It’s so nice to get out of the house,” Suzanne said. “We’ve been more or less locked up for two years.”
You likely know DeYoung as the founding member of one of the most successful rock bands in history, Styx. He and it burst forth from the Roseland neighborhood more than half a century ago, first called Trade Winds, then TW4 before settling on Styx. Comprised of DeYoung and teenage pals, it would become one of the biggest bands of the 1970s and 1980s. He was its lead singer, keyboardist and principal songwriter, writing such hits as “Babe,” “Lady,” “The Grand Illusion,” “Come Sail Away,” and more.
During those years, DeYoung was interested in theater. Indeed, some of Styx’s albums and concerts took on a theatrical flair, especially the later albums “Paradise Theater” and “Kilroy Was Here.” When not on the road, playing in front of millions of people, he was a frequent local theatergoer. In 1993, a producer attending the wedding of his sister-in-law invited him to play the role of Pontius Pilate in a touring production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” When the show played Chicago, Tribune critic Richard Christiansen praised the way “DeYoung cleanly blasts out Pilate’s limited role.” It was while on the road with that show that DeYoung began writing songs for what would be “Hunchback.”
As he embarked on theater work and a successful solo recording career, Styx started to come apart. Some will tell you that it was because of personality clashes on the band’s tours in 1996 and 1997, after DeYoung returned after a few years away; band member Tommy Shaw badmouthing DeYoung in interviews; the death of drummer original member John Panozzo; a controversial episode about Styx on VH1′s “Beyond the Music”; and DeYoung’s struggles with a rare disease that caused severe sensitivity to light and fatigue.
Band members James Young and Shaw put together a new Styx and carried on without him. It remains active, with a new album and upcoming tour dates, including a June 4 concert in Tinley Park. On the band’s website Young says, “Dennis led the charge to the top of the charts. He’s an incredible singer, a motivated writer who wrote some great lyrics, and one very strong keyboard player. He just didn’t want to be part of a democracy. We truly wish him well. We did some incredible work together, but there’s no basis for us to work together again.”
OK, then. DeYoung was in Milwaukee, in conversation with Michael Unger, the artistic director of Skylight, director of “Hunchback” and a longtime fan.
Unger grew up in Highland Park and says he helped paint the walls of the basement where Steppenwolf Theatre was born. “And I was a huge Styx fan. The first time I saw them was when I was in seventh grade and they played Alpine Valley,” he said. “I have been fighting for nearly 30 years to get this show on stage.”
Then he explained how he met DeYoung on the sidewalk after a Steppenwolf show in the mid-1990s. He was invited to DeYoung’s house to hear him play and sing the entire “Hunchback” show. He would visit many times, once returning in the company of Steppenwolf’s Gary Sinise.
“‘Hunchback’ wasn’t ever the right fit for Steppenwolf but I loved it,” Unger says. “I told Dennis then that if I ever got the chance to run a theater, I would do his show.”
As Unger went on to fashion an estimable career in theater, “Hunchback” had its world premiere in 1997 at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre and in 2008 was mounted here by Bailiwick Theatre.
I saw that production and was not the only person to be impressed. My colleague Chris Jones, reviewing the show for the Tribune, wrote of DeYoung’s “brooding power ballads,” “thrilling melody lines,” “infectious musical passion” and went on: “Very few composers can write such seductive hooks. And the theater needs ‘em all ... [DeYoung] could help put Broadway back in touch with some of its hardest-working customers.”
The musical won a Joseph Jefferson award for best midsize musical in 2008, an accolade DeYoung said he “cherished as much as any I have ever won.”
That was followed by his joining, as composer, the creative team of “101 Dalmatians,” a stage musical that had nothing to do with the famous Walt Disney movie version of the story. It was directed by Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks and toured the country to generally favorable reviews.
“My first and last love will always be rock ’n’ roll,” he says. “I started playing the accordion as a kid and that started my Beatles-dreaming. The theater fascinates me and the challenge of writing for it is one that all songwriters would love to explore.”
He kept making music, becoming a chart-topper in Canada and releasing “26 East, Vol. 1,” which refers to the address of the two-flat in which he grew up at 26 East 101st Place. And he kept in touch with Unger who, after being named artistic director at Skylight in 2019, told DeYoung that he would open his inaugural season with “Hunchback.” But then came the pandemic and life and theater were put on hold.
There was a palpable excitement and easy camaraderie in the fourth-floor rehearsal room in Milwaukee. Among the performers was Unger’s wife, Janet Metz, an accomplished actress who is playing the role of Mahiette in “Hunchback.”
She was joined by Alanis Sophia, a 21-year-old who was a finalist on “American Idol” in the 2021 season. She is to play Esmeralda, while Ben Gulley, a formidable physical and vocal presence, will be playing Quasimodo.
“It was always my intention to cast this show locally,” said Unger. “We had more than 700 people audition for the seven roles in the show.”
The biggest name in the cast is Kevin Anderson, a longtime Steppenwolf ensemble member, most recently seen there in the 2017 world premiere of Tracy Letts’ “The Minutes,” the Broadway production of which was recently nominated for a Tony Award.
Anderson plays the lead role of Frollo, Archdeacon of Notre Dame and the adoptive father of Quasimodo. Born and raised in Gurnee, he now lives nearby. Maybe you saw him in Steppenwolf’s now legendary “Orphans” in 1985 or later on Broadway as Biff in “Death of a Salesman”; on TV as Father Ray in “Nothing Sacred,” or the movie “Sleeping with the Enemy” with Julia Roberts. He is a fine actor but less well known as a singer, though he performed as Joe Gillis opposite Patti LuPone in “Sunset Boulevard” in 1993 in London.
“I wasn’t at first sure if these songs were in my wheelhouse but they certainly are,” he said. “They are great songs and I can’t believe this show has not been on Broadway. Dennis is a great songwriter and his music with Styx helped get me through my young adulthood.”
DeYoung often smiles when he hears such memories and he hears them often, the pleasant result of having sold more than 30 million albums as part of Styx and on his own. He looks back at his rock ’n’ roll years without regrets. “Being a rock star is the best job in the world,” he once told me. “And the reasons are simple: It takes the least talent, makes the most money and has the most enthusiastic fans.”
He still performs and is set to go out on the road later this year.
But “Hunchback” is now firmly his focus. He is enthusiastic, hopeful. Any criticism of previous productions tended to focus on the musical’s book, which is the nonmusical script. As Jones put it, “The book is barely a book … in this simplified version of the Victor Hugo novel.”
DeYoung took such criticisms to heart and head.
“Michael and I have been working like crazy for two years,” said DeYoung. “The musical is a complicated beast, so many pieces must come together. I think we’ve solved what were some troubles, fixed some things that left the audience in the dark. This now has the potential to be as good as anything I have ever done.”
After that?
Who knows? The road goes on.
“Hunchback” opens Friday and is scheduled to run through June 12 at Skylight Music Theatre, 158 N. Broadway in Milwaukee; 414-291-7800 and www.skylightmusictheatre.org