Ithaca High School, in upstate New York, was to stage the musical, based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo and the 1996 Disney animated film, in mid-April. In Hugo’s book, it is unclear whether both parents of Esmeralda are Roma. Also known as Gypsies, Roma are descendants of migrants who arrived in Europe from India more than a millennium ago. They have historically been disparaged across the continent, with many remaining impoverished to this day.

And while two productions of the new musical — its premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in California in 2014 and one in 2015 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey — gave the part to a woman of color, Ciara Renée, the casting calls for those shows invited actresses of all ethnicities to audition for the role. Music Theatre International, the licensing company that holds the rights to “Hunchback,” says that Esmeralda is a female, aged between 20 and 30, and that she is a “beautiful and free-spirited gypsy who possesses the strong sense of justice and morality.”

But in the Disney film, Esmeralda has a dark complexion. And that is the version that Ithaca High School students grew up watching. That depiction, plus the precedent of Ms. Renée’s casting, led some to believe the part would go to one of the high school’s students of color, who make up 34 percent of the student body.

Maddi Carroll, a 17-year-old African-American senior, said the high school’s staging of “Hunchback” was initially exciting to her “because we didn’t feel like our high school usually put on productions with women of color in starring roles.”

“We were talking about us being younger and thinking about Disney princesses we had to look up to. For us, we really had Jasmine and Esmeralda,” she added, referring also to the “Aladdin” character.