Thursday, December 09, 1999
'Jekyll' seldom hits right chord
THEATER REVIEW
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It does not bode well for a show when the first spontaneous eruption of audience interest comes early in the second act, when a couple of crunchy neck-breakings are included among a series of grisly murders.
Jekyll & Hyde returns to Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series and Aronoff Center for the Arts Procter & Gamble Hall after four years. The first time we saw it, it was on its way to New York. Now it's on national tour after having spent the past three years on the Great White Way.
Jekyll is no worse than a lot of musicals that find their way to Broadway theaters. And like so many of them, it's one long “so what?”
This is, of course, a musicalization of Robert Louis Stevenson's slight gothic horror story about a doctor who, with the best possible intentions, starts playing with very bad chemicals.
Jekyll (Chuck Wagner) believes that man is made of good and evil, and that evil can be banished through the marvels of injecting mysterious glowing fluids into the body.
Good concept, but Jekyll has to be the most inept scientist in fact or fiction. One shot and he transforms into his dark side Hyde.
Hyde takes over and starts killing off members of the hospital board who wouldn't give Jekyll human guinea pigs. (Hadn't he heard of lab mice?)
We're supposed to buy that the victims deserve what they get because they're essentially rotten hypocrites (and they have too much money). The truth is, Jekyll is not the most ethical and humane medical man you'll run across, and most of us in the audience wouldn't give him humans to experiment on, either.
Much more significant is the romantic triangle. Jekyll is engaged to a beautiful blond aristocrat (Andrea Rivette) but drawn to singing prostitute Lucy (Sharon Brown). Too bad for Lucy, he acts out his attraction as Hyde.
Mr. Wagner is strangely uninvolved with both women in Jekyll/Hyde's life, and there's something about his performance as Jekyll that suggests he's something of a bounder to begin with, not a tragic hero. There's more melodrama than drama to his transformation into the villainous Hyde, more reminiscent of a Kiss concert than anything else.
Ms. Brown has a lovely voice, and the show's highlight is “In His Eyes,” a second act duet between her and Ms. Rivette — not Mr. Wagner singing the show's anthem-like breakout hit “This Is the Moment.”
For all her vocal ability, Ms. Brown's Lucy is a disappointment. Linda Eder originated the role and found a wonderful combination of heat and bruised vulnerability. Ms. Brown has none of either.
Jekyll is one of those mostly sung shows in the style of Phantom and Les Miz. Leslie Bricusse's lyrics are just as dopey as the surtitled translated lyrics from so many 18th- and 19th-century operas, the kind you like better when you don't know what they're singing.
The best of Frank Wildhorn's tunes are pure pop and feel wildly anachronistic sung by a stageful of Victorians. They scream out to find a better home as music videos. The oddness of it keeps interrupting any involvement in the action one can muster.
Jekyll & Hyde, Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series, Aronoff Center for the Arts Procter & Gamble Hall, through Dec. 19. 241-7469.
House OKs late-term abortion ban
Who's at fault when kids play with guns?
City high schools 'a failure'
CPS facing tough decision on levies
'Super Saturday' likely to stay - for now
Voice-mail crash affects thousands
Cincinnatian files suit over T-shirt shoot
Judge scolds adults in Justin case
Clermont discovers role on the Underground Railroad
Sewer rates to soar
Shirey review will be done in open council
Mayor wants to be rec director
Mental health agencies merge
Serious about spreading cheer
Study: New college needed
Vote to raise tax required courage
Canadian quartet's concert intense, pleasing
Clooney return to 'ER' uncertain
Diamond rolls through career of gems
GET TO IT
'Jekyll' seldom hits right chord
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Stuff for stockings
Toddler needs special chair to sit up
'Nutcracker' mom does fancy steps
Colerain sees need for road levy
District rejects idea of arming school principals
Fernald worker database needs funds
Fire alarm saves man asleep
Girlfriend's killer gets 16 to life
High school/rec center will cost $71.9M
Killer convicted after five years
Ky. 9 stretch completed
Man overcome in blaze rescued by firefighters
NKU grad's neighbor: Didn't mean to kill her
Ohio bill declares campaign donations on Net
Project will take kids on virtual tours of Cincinnati Art Museum
Quoted words turn township meeting ugly
Sirens to be ready for tornado season
Sister tells of burying body parts
Some postal offices to be open Sundays
TRISTATE DIGEST
Warren sheriff clears new hurdle
Young driver may end up in adult court
