Review: Jekyll and Hyde

Constantine Marouli, Deborah Cox (PHOTO CREDIT: CHRIS BENNION PHOTO)

This is the Moment . . . When Things Start to go Wrong
Like its namesake, this Jekyll & Hyde has a bit of split personality

by Stuart Munro

Jekyll & Hyde is one of those shows I’ve never been sure what to do with. The score is peppered with some of the most memorable songs that the 1990s added to the musical theatre canon, but Leslie Bricusse’s book and lyrics are so overwrought and Frank Wildhorn’s pop score is so repetitive that I’ve always found the material impossible to sift through and find something coherent enough to build a show out of. So imagine my surprise last night when the curtain came up on a somewhat subdued and restrained treatment of this famously over-the-top show. The opening mob-like scene has been replaced with an upstairs/downstairs look at London society and, along with what I’m sure are some new orchestrations, there is an almost restrained and chamber quality to the first two-thirds of Act I. Sure, some of the 90s pop-ishness still comes out in the score, but it’s not nearly as brash as previous incarnations of this piece have been.

Sadly, all that hard-earned subtlety comes to a crashing halt as soon as Mr. Hyde appears, and the show quickly descends into the over-the-top ridiculousness I tend to associate with it. The climactic confrontation between our two titular characters has been reduced from an intense battle of the wills to a 1980s Def Leppard music video, and the show’s finale is laden with enough heavy-handed Christian imagery sure to leave even the most pious among us confused.

The stand-out for me was Teal Wicks as Emma Carew, Dr. Jekyll’s fiancée.

Having said all that, there are several things about this production to commend itself. As far as stunt casting goes, there are worse choices to make than Constantine Maroulis as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Deborah Cox as Lucy, the object of his (mostly platonic) affection. Mr. Maroulis is a decent enough actor, and his more rock-inspired voice helps to set him apart from the uptight London elite that surround him. Vocally he struggles with the lighter material, and the nasal quality of his voice makes some lyrics difficult to understand. He nonetheless has some real power when singing “This is the moment,” probably the most famous tune from the score. His transformation into Mr. Hyde however, while initially dramatic, quickly loses steam, becoming little more than a question of whether or not his hair is tied back. Deborah Cox has a raspy and soulful voice, but fails to give Lucy the heart she really needs to allow us to connect with her. At 38, Ms Cox may simply be too old to play the wounded-bird effectively. To be fair, most of the audience leapt to their feet when she came out for her bow, but their subdued applause throughout the rest of the night, I think, tells a truer story. The stand-out for me was Teal Wicks as Emma Carew, Dr. Jekyll’s fiancée. Her Emma is the perfect picture of English respectability and devotion, but never becomes a caricature. Her rich voice makes her just as easy to listen to when belting as when she sings the softer, more legit material.

almost nothing about Dr. Jekyll’s battle between himself and Hyde makes sense

There are, in all honesty, no bad performances in this production, which leads me to the problems of the show itself. This incarnation of Jekyll & Hyde has seen a few small changes from the previous Broadway version – most noticeably the restoration of “Bring on the men” to replace “Good ‘n’ evil,” and a dropped subplot between Emma and Simon Stride. Both of these things are improvements (in fact, “Bring on the men” has been completely and wonderfully retooled) and while Leslie Bricusse’s lyrics lack some subtlety, Act I, by and large, works rather well. Things are a little more problematic in Act II. Bricusse’s book (which includes such winning one-liners as “Bad news from God”) quickly becomes little more than a lame excuse to tie together a handful of uninspired songs (the only real exception being the duet between the two ladies, “In his eyes”), and almost nothing about Dr. Jekyll’s battle between himself and Hyde makes sense. What little plot and character development there is here is quickly tied up in the aforementioned Def Leppard scene (which comes out of nowhere) and the wedding that follows right after it.

Director Jeff Calhoun (represented on Broadway currently with Newsies) starts out with some wonderful ideas on how to approach this difficult material. The restrained touch off the top was a welcome surprise, and there was a real ease and flow between scene and song – nothing was too bombastic or exaggerated. It’s a shame he opted to go in the other direction with the show’s Heavy Metal-inspired finale, thus robbing the second act of the one chance it had to redeem itself. The flow of the first act is aided by Tobin Ost’s design, easily one of the smarter sets I’ve seen in a long time. With a handful of chairs, movable walls, rotating mirrors, and (mostly) clever projections by Daniel Brodie, we are moved from locale to locale with ease. Only occasionally does he bring in a downstage scrim to conceal a more elaborate set-up behind it (a bit of a pet-peeve of mine). Mr. Ost’s costumes are a beautiful collection of Victorian finery, and the lighting by Jeff Croiter helps with the seamless transition of location.

Apart from the ridiculous music video climax, most of the decisions made for this production appear to be the right ones, and yet the show still doesn’t really work the way it should. There are simply too many problems with the book and score, especially in the second half, that nothing short of a major overhaul will fix. Wildhorn and Bricusse have attempted to create a kind of gothic operetta, but unfortunately neither the score nor the book live up to that goal, and the result is a confused mess of a story that never gives the audience what it needs to connect with it.

Jekyll and Hyde runs to November 18