✭✭✩✩✩

music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, Frank Wildhorn & Steve Cuden, book by Leslie Bricusse, directed by Jeff Calhoun

Mirvish Productions, Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto

November 14-18, 2012

Chorus: “Life is terribly hard – When your life’s a façade.”

Frank Wildhorn’s musical Jekyll & Hyde from 1990 has finally made it to Toronto.  When the musical went on tour in 1999, it stopped in Edmonton and Ottawa, but not Toronto.  So here for only a short run is the musical that ran on Broadway from 1997 to 2001 and spawned fanatical admirers who saw the show multiple times known as “Jekkies”.  For collectors of well-known musicals, this production of Jekyll & Hyde will be a must-see even though the goal of the present tour is to open on Broadway in April 2013.  For others this production has both good and bad points that do not conceal flaws in the musical itself.

Jekyll is so loosely based on the famous novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson that “inspired by” would be more accurate.  The musical’s book by Leslie Bricusse has kept the notion of Dr. Jekyll, who performs an experiment on himself of separating the good and evil sides of his personality.  To the world he is known as the philanthropist Dr. Jekyll.  But under influence of the serum his evil personality is known as Mr. Hyde.  Bricusse also keeps John Utterson as Jekyll’s lawyer, Poole as Jekyll’s servant and Sir Danvers Carew as a client of Utterson. 

The rest, however, is completely fabricated with numerous suggestions coming from the many film versions of the Stevenson’s tale.  In the musical, Jekyll is engaged to Emma Carew, the daughter of Sir Danvers Carew (as in the 1931 movie by Rouben Mamoulian).  Speaking to the member of the board of St. Jude’s Hospital, Jekyll brings his idea of splitting off the evil side of the personality as means of curing the insane (one of whom is his father), but the board, each one a hypocrite, utterly refuses its permission.  Thus Jekyll is forced to experiment on himself.  The music hall that Jekyll first visits in John Robertson’s 1920 film is demoted to a brothel in the musical where Jekyll is fascinated by the cabaret artist/prostitute Gina, here called Lucy.  As Mr. Hyde he returns to the brothel and begin an affair with Lucy as in the 1941 film by Victor Fleming and the 1960 film by Terence Fisher. 

Rather than the random killings in the original, Bricusse has Jekyll-as-Hyde pick off the board members one by one who voted against his project.  This rather defeats the notion of Mr. Hyde as a mad terror of London, since it places him on a personal vendetta against a group who stupidly don’t notice the pattern of his killings.  Why Jekyll-as-Hyde doesn’t also target the secretary of the board is unclear.  In the 1941 film, Jekyll-as-Hyde kills Ivy, the Lucy equivalent, because he finds her celebrating her freedom from Mr. Hyde.  In Bricusse the mere thought that Jekyll has given Lucy means to escape Hyde is enough to rouse his anger. 

Although Bricusse has added a love interest for both sides of Jekyll’s personality as per the films of 1941 and 1960, he is unable to make either one of them compelling.  Also, for a tale about unleashing one’s evil side, it is remarkable unfrightening.  The murders in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (1979) or in the recent Canadian musical Bloodless (2012) by Joseph Aragon are much more disturbing.  How the murders are staged has much to do with Jeff Calhoun’s listless direction, but then Bricusse doesn’t give him much to work with. 

Also missing from Bricusse’s version is a critique of society as a whole.  Bricusse give the five Board members the song “Façade” to suggest there is a division between their public and private personae, but he never broaches the subject whether apparently wholly good people like Utterson or Emma Carew and her father also have an evil side.  If they do, we never see it.

As for Wildhorn’s music it blends the operatic style of Andrew Lloyd Webber with the easy listening style of popular ballads of the 1980s.  In general, his music is too soft-centred for the subject matter.  “This Is the Moment” that Jekyll sings just before his fateful transformation is a ballad not unlike Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” that is full of affirmation but has none of the fear or anxiety one would expect.  Lucy’s introductory song in the cabaret/brothel “Bring On the Men” keeps verging on sounding like “Those Were The Days” by Mary Hopkins and conjures up nostalgia more than decadence.  Three songs do come off well.  “In His Eyes” sung by Lucy and Emma is a great ballad and deservedly won the most applause from the audience on opening night.  “Someone Like You” in Act 1 and “A New Life”, both ballads sung by Lucy also felt like excerptable hits.  The bane of the majority of songs are the lyrics usually by Bricusse is that they never avoid a cliché when one is at hand.  If “night” ended a line, you could be sure “light” would end the next, and vice versa.

The show could be a showpiece for the actor playing the title roles.  As it is Constantine Maroulis does well enough as the earnest Jekyll but does nothing except put a bit of grit in his voice as Hyde.  He mostly distinguishes the two by having his shoulder-length hair in a pony-tail as Jekyll and unbinding it as Hyde.  But characters are not made by hairstyle alone.  Calhoun should have invested in a movement instructor to give Maroulis as Hyde at least a different gestural language from Jekyll.  As a singer he has a nice high tenor when singing softly, but as soon as he puts any pressure on his voice it goes nasal.  The same is true of the soprano of Teal Wicks as Emma so that “Take Me As I Am”, the big duet of Jekyll and Emma, sounds like a battle of the sinuses.

Vocally and dramatically the star of the show is Toronto’s own R&B singer Deborah Cox as Lucy.  Except for “Bring On the Men”, Wildhorn seems to favour Lucy with all the best songs and Cox delivers them with power and soul.  Because of Cox Lucy emerges as the most fully human character in a show filled with stereotypes. 

In supporting roles another Canadian Laird Mackintosh, last seen here as Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins, is excellent as John Utterson, Jekyll’s trusty friend, and Richard White is a pleasure as Emma’s father.

Tobin Ost’s set alternates between five flown vertical panels and three larger panels on wheels that serve as surfaces for Daniel Brodie’s often clever projects.  This scheme goes completely out of control in the scene called “Confrontation”, where Jekyll sings with a projected image of Hyde whose electronically altered voice sound like Darth Vader’s.  Images of flames and broken mirrors cover all the surfaces as if the show where a comic book come to life – a notion not far from the truth.  When Jekyll & Hyde first played on Broadway it was directed by former Stratford Festival Artistic Director Robin Phillips.  It’s hard to imagine he would permit such a display nor the inattention to detail that mars Jeff Calhoun’s direction.                                                      

If you want to see what all the fuss was about back in 1997, you will want to see the show – but, of course, you won’t be seeing Robin Phillips’ production or Robert Cuccioli’s performance in the title role that garnered him a Tony nomination.  What you will see is a musical written in the wake of Phantom of the Opera that very much wants to be like it but lacks the invention in music, lyrics and book to do so.

              

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox. ©2012 Chris Bennion.

For tickets, visit www.mirvish.com.