OGUNQUIT — It’s a legendary tale of love and loss, a critique of modernity and a musical of epic proportions. And Wednesday, Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” will come to life on the Ogunquit Playhouse stage.

Based on the 1996 Disney animated film of the same name, the Ogunquit version is only the third production to run in the United States. It originally premiered in Berlin in 1999, and the English version made its way to the U.S. in 2014 at the La Jolla Playhouse at the University of California.

The show’s second run at Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, New Jersey, in 2015 did not secure its spot on Broadway, although it has been made available for summer theater productions. That’s when director Shaun Kerrison thought to bring the show to the 660-seat Ogunquit Playhouse.

No stranger to Ogunquit, Kerrison has made waves as the director of shows such as “Mary Poppins” and “South Pacific” at the playhouse. He said his inspiration for the musical came directly from Victor Hugo’s novel itself.

“(Hugo) saw the words etched in the bell tower, and that word was ‘fate,’ and he spun a tale out of this word and what poor soul felt the need to leave their mark with that sad word,” Kerrison said. “That, coupled with his obsession with the state of the cathedral after hundreds of years of change and neglect.

“He saw the grand history of Paris just disappearing through fashion. So he wrote a novel called ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ about the cathedral. It’s a love letter to the people who live and work and reside and die within the confines of the cathedral itself.”

The musical stars F. Michael Haynie, known for his performances in “Wicked” and “Holler if Ya Hear Me,” as Quasimodo, the title character. The gypsy girl, Esmeralda, is played by Sydney Morton, who came to the public eye as part of the original cast of shows such as “Memphis” and “Evita,” and who toured nationally in “Jersey Boys” and “Flashdance.”

Christopher Johnstone, who’s also no stranger to Ogunquit, will play Captain Phoebus, and Bradley Dean, of “A Little Night Music” fame, takes on the role of antagonist Claude Frollo.

Besides an acclaimed cast, one of the show’s most prominent components is a newly-designed set made of wooden beams and sprawls of hanging fabric that Kerrison says will act as a bridge between the audience and the cast.

“The set is like a piece of sculpture. It’s a completely three-dimensional space of wooden beams and staircases,” Kerrison said. “We cannot represent Notre Dame Cathedral on the stage. I wanted to start in a place that was under restoration, under wooden scaffolding and cloth, and tell the story from the viewpoint of the people who live and work there as it’s undergoing restoration. All tell the tale of the legend.”

The audience should expect a play driven by the actors, who were carefully selected following a rigorous audition process that included over 3,000 actors vying for a spot in the play, according to Brian Swasey, associate producer.

“It’s actually very much an ensemble piece,” Swasey said last week. “There’s really only five principals, and then the rest of the roles are filled out by the 15 ensemble members, and they’re on stage for most of the show.

“They are kind of the core of the show that connects everything together. Part of that initial process was them becoming a group, and it seems to be gelling well.”

And talk about on-the-job training – because the play is so new, the cast, who have been rehearsing at Chelsea Studios in New York City for the past two weeks, have had to figure out the play’s direction as they go.

“It’s essentially a new musical. It’s not like we’re producing ‘Oklahoma!’ Yes, directors can have interpretation, and choreographers are going to create their own work, but you know what ‘Oklahoma!’ is,” Swasey said. “With ‘Hunchback,’ it’s a new thing. It’s a little more organic. We don’t all know it, we don’t all understand it, and so there’s a lot of creation in the room with the cast, with the text and kind of finding our version of the show.”

“The nature of the company’s storytelling means that much of it is created in the room,” Kerrison said. “Musical theater is such a collaborative process that we take on board the spirit of the room and energies of these actors. You launch into a rehearsal of a scene, and it will, despite any preparation you’ve done, transform into something (else).”

That transformation, Swasey said, will come alive before theater-goers’ eyes in something they’ve never seen before.

“I think what people are going to see with this production is going to be very impressive. I think the scenic design and what our shop is doing, in terms of the quality of construction, the quality of what people are going to see, they’re going to be blown away by it,” Swasey said.

“There’s only been one previous production of this version of the show that neither myself, the choreographer or designer saw. Nothing they saw is influenced by anything that’s come before,” Kerrison said. “Our ideas are fresh and human, and we’re trying to play a show with epic ideas, epic scale emotionally, on a very human level.”

Kerrison said the production isn’t all about the cast and crew, choreographers and costume designers as much as it’s about the actors’ connection with the audience.

“The audience are the last cast member. They’re our congregation,” he said. “We need the audience. It doesn’t exist without them.”

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” runs at Ogunquit Playhouse through Aug. 6, with tickets starting at $47. A post-show discussion on the musical with Kerrison and music director Brent-Alan Huffman will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday following the matinee showing.

For more information, visit ogunquitplayhouse.org.

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.