playbill vip

The recipe for the latest concoction from Calliope called Jekyll and Hyde: the Musical?  Begin with a 141-page Gothic novella written in 1886 by famed Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson who penned other adventure classics like Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Black Arrow.  Then, you take the best-selling book and immediately adapt it into a play in Boston featuring famed actor, Richard Mansfield.  When it becomes wildly successful in the U.S., you transplant the production to London where it runs for twenty years despite halting its performance for a time when Mansfield’s chilling portrayal of Hyde frightens the public into suspecting him of being the killer during the Jack the Ripper hysteria.  You distill this through decades of other adaptations for the stage and screen with many well-known thespians taking on the dual mantle of the titular character.  John Barrymore, Fredric March, Spencer Tracy, Jack Palance, Boris Karloff, Michael Caine, John Malkovich and Russell Crowe have all taken on the challenge in various incarnations of the tale.  Kirk Douglas even starred in a rare musical version for television in 1973.  Now, over 100 years later in 1990, with this rich history in place to draw from, you add to the mixture the creative skills of composer, Frank Wildhorn and lyricist, Leslie Bricusse.  Wildhorn brought us the acclaimed musicals, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Civil War, The Count of Monte Cristo and others, and legendary songwriter, Bricusse is renown for Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd, Victor/Victoria, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Dolittle, Goldfinger, and the love theme from the 1978 Superman.  After four years on Broadway, and several tours and revivals, you bring the blueprints of the Wildhorn/Bricusse poetic alchemy to Rochester, Minnesota.  A plucky, hardworking, burgeoning volunteer theater troupe there takes up the gauntlet to resurrect once more the tale of a man of science who strives to unlock and separate the good and evil natures inside of all of us only to discover the dangerous results of turning from our better angels and embracing our darker ones.  We hope you enjoy imbibing in this time-honored elixir set before you.  Drink up!

Greg Miller