Jekyll and Hyde on a pre-Broadway tour

It seems to me that part of the fallout from the immense successof Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables has been a renewed interest in adapting literary classics to the musical stage, usually in a semi-operatic format with little spoken dialog. One of the more recent entries in this sub-genre is Jekyll and Hyde , which originated at Houston's Alley Theatre and came through St. Louis this week on what I presume is a pre-Broadway tour. Based on what I saw at the Fox Wednesday night, Broadway audiences and critics are likely to find it entertaining enough, but highly reminiscent of earlier shows that have done the same kinds of things, and usually better.

Jekyll and Hyde is, of course, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella about the idealistic Dr. Jekyll who believes he can chemically separate and suppress the evil side of the human personality so that the good side can dominate. Denied a human subject by the self-serving hypocrites on the hospital board of directors, he experiments on himself, and achieves the opposite of his intended result by freeing his own evil side, assuming a double life as the depraved Mr. Hyde.

The adaptation is by film composer and songwriter Frank Wildhorn, with book and lyrics by the veteran British composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse. Musical theatre fans will probably find much of it familiar, with echoes of Cabaret , Phantom of the Opera, and Oliver (for which Bricusse also wrote the lyrics) to name a few. Personally, I found Jekyll and Hyde 's overall design concept highly reminiscent of Sondheim's Sweeny Todd , with its combination of turn-of-the-century industrial imagery in the settings, detailed period costumes, and dark, ominous lighting. Musically, much of Wildhorn's score is highly derivative of Boublil and Schonberg, the composers of Les Miserables , with a couple of Whitney Houston-ish pop ballads thrown in for good measure. It's serviceable enough, but with the possible exception of "A New Life", pretty forgettable and short on inspiration.

What makes Jekyll and Hyde work are the performances by it's leading actors. Robert Cuccioli is simply brilliant in the dual role of Jekyll and Hyde. He manages the transition on stage, in real time, and carries it off convincingly. The tricks are simple enough - a quick change in body language and almost exclusive use of the low end of his vocal range - but very effective. Matching him in vocal power and intensity is Linda Eder as Lucy, the singer and woman of ailing repute who becomes the object of Hyde's passion and Jekyll's compassion. The character is so sympathetically written and convincingly acted that her murder by Hyde is all the more shocking.

Rounding out the leading roles are Philip Hoffman as Gabriel John Utterson, Jekyll's erstwhile best friend and narrator, and Christiane Noll as Lisa Carew, Jekyll's independent-minded fiancé. Neither role is written with much depth, although Noll has some intense moments in the final scenes, but both she and Hoffman make the most of them.

Director Gregory Boyd and Larry Fuller, who did the musical staging, provide many theatrically effective moments during the show's two hour and forty-five minute running time. The Act II opener "Murder, Murder", for example, details Hyde's crime wave through an ingenious combination of lighting, movement, and Grand Guignol stage effects, and the final confrontation between Jekyll and Hyde makes clever use of pre-recorded sequences and - literally - smoke and mirrors.

In the final analysis, though, Jekyll and Hyde offers nothing new either musically or dramatically. Worse yet, it has turned Stevenson's morality tale into a cynical message about how all humans are basically evil and pretend to be good only because social and legal sanctions force them to erect a moral "Facade" (the title of the opening musical number). Put that together with the way in which sexual desire and brutal violence are both associated with the evil Mr. Hyde, and you have what may be the ideal show for the repressive and paranoid 1990s.


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