Jekyll and Hyde is a unique musical for a number of reasons. The 1990 show, loosely based on a book entitled The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, did not open on Broadway. The show helped to make Linda Edder a star, but was not initially cast with any well-known performers. In fact, it was a long period of time between its premiere in Houston and its eventual first performance on Broadway- in 1997 toward the end of the decade. In fact, there were a number of US tours before it even reached New York.
Also unusual is that it went through a number of changes, probably due to the fact that the music, while composed by Frank Wildhorn, had a book written by Leslie Bricusse, and lyrics written by three men: Bricusse, Wildhorn, and Steve Cuden. It has over 40 songs in the score, all tuneful-as you would expect from a Wildhorn score. The composer, known for his hit tunes written for singers rather than characters (he told me), for this show has woven through the show recurring motives, phrases that capture a song, a mood, and yes-even a character, not characteristic of Wildhorn’s work. This allows even a show that has so many songs-the opportunity to flow and gain musical/dramatic momentum to the end of the musical.
We have done our best to capture this momentum by designing and building a set that keeps the show moving, changing mostly the lighting and furniture rather than the major stage structures-that often cause the audience to wait between scenes, slowing the momentum.
Finally, perhaps the most unusual subject of discussion in talking about why this play is so unique-is the subject matter. After Sweeney Todd (1979), it has one of the stranger subjects for a musical.
It is about the nature of good and evil in man, as Jekyll is a driven man and must find answers to his questions. He is a doctor who for the sake of an experiment and his own dreams and ambitions is willing to ingest a serum that will separate and expose the evil in him that is waiting to emerge, and that it does. The play is also about love- an unusual triangle that involves a tragic figure. It’s about class struggles between rich and poor. It’s about retribution, and perhaps we are not totally saddened by the demise of the Board of Governors-as the story careens toward the climactic ending.
Mark Ross Clark
Thank you ULM Voice professors - Dr. Claire Vangelisti, Dr. Nancy Carey, Mr. Justin Havard, Dr. Mark R. Clark
Thank you Strauss Theater
Thank you Matt Howse
Thank you Delta Sigma Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma
