Jekyll & Hyde

[beebee2]

^^^I agree. Also found this post that I thought was interesting. Went to the show a doubter, came out a fan.

"To all of you deciding if you should see Jekyll maybe this will help. I live in Houston and my friend wanted to see this play. I agreed but only because he wanted to. In all honesty I wasnt sure about seeing Constantine in this part. As the orchestra warmed up I thought ok....here we go this is gonna be a long night. The play started, there was music, cool set design and dialogue. Then Constantine started to sing Lost in the Darkness. 10 notes into the song..... My eyes got big, I looked at my friend and mouthed Are you kidding me? I sat on the edge of my seat for the entire show. This show was AMAZING. We had just been to New York and saw 7 plays in 6 days. Everything from Evita, The Best Man, Harvey, Phantom, Ghost, Mary Poppins to Sister Act. I can say without a doubt that Jekyll has to be at the top. Debra Cox was wonderful as was the rest of the cast. If you have the chance to see this show DONT MISS IT. I cant wait to see it again."

[NOB88]

This a very long but interesting article on Wildhorn's past shows and a review of his new Jekyll and Hyde. Now this guy saw the same show I saw (twice in Detroit). Except I think I enjoyed Cox a lot more than he did.
Theater review: Jekyll & Hyde in Dallas is superior to original production

[lucky1230]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1JuIl-niwso

[ACL2006]

Cox sounded amazing singing "A New Life". Very impressed.

that's a solid run for this show, 5 months. It should sell based on it's following and with Cox & CM. I could even see it extending through the end of the year.

[bwayphreak234]

This production is just incredible. Watching the new videos reminded me just how much I loved it.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Calling this 'incredible' is a little much, don't you think? It's being sung like they're auditioning at American Idol. So very overblown and eventually, grating and boring.

What Cox is singing is nowhere near true to the character of Lucy. It's obvious from seeing her live, as well as the bootlegs out there, that she's unable to handle this show 8x a week like Linda Eder could. Eder was a workhorse who could sing the score as written flawlessly. No one has come close to singing those songs like she does, ever.

It's nice to see this show make another stab at it, but nothing about it is exciting to me. Teal is the only legit lead voice in the show.

[BlueforBroadway]

I just saw the show in Detroit last weekend. I made a point of not looking at any previous versions of this show before I went.

I loved it.

I think the entire cast is first rate. Loved how Constantine can transform back and forth from Jekyll to Hyde. His Hyde is demonic.

I also think Deborah Cox makes a fine Lucy and she can sing her heart out.

Teal Wicks is wonderful as the beautiful Emma.

Yesterday, I watched some of the video available from the original production.

This current production is so much more updated for today's audiences. I hope it has a long run on Broadway. I can't wait to come to NYC to see it again.

[philly03]

Firstly, I'm a huge fan of Linda Eder, but its pretty hard to not sing the score flawlessly when your husband is writing the musical based on your voice.

Deb Cox does fine in the role, surprisingly I think she shines better in "A New Life" than the other songs.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Yeah, well I never said it was fair... I said she sang the **** out of it, it was immensely enjoyable to watch and no one has come close to her vocal performance since.

Cox is serviceable, but to add all of that R&B riffing doesn't do anything for the score. To me, it reeks of someone who's not able to consistently hit the notes, so they compensate with tricks. Ever wonder why Christina Aguilera never sings anything straight? I'm not sure that she can, at least not reliably.

And, as long as I'm on Eder, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNeL9dwtdmM

[bwayphreak234]

Calling this 'incredible' is a little much, don't you think? It's being sung like they're auditioning at American Idol. So very overblown and eventually, grating and boring.

No... Calling it incredible is not a little much. I personally found it to be an incredible production through and through.

[philly03]

I'm seeing the production again in December, but I don't think this will ever become the "definitive" version of the show they were hoping for.

BTW - Thanks for that video of Linda.. She's still got it, I haven't seen her in concert in over a year.

Cox is being coached (similar to Constantine) to sing that way, though it is obviously natural for her.

[someone.else's.story2]

Okay, I,Ike CM and I really want to like this revival. I already got my ticket for the LA run. That said, I have to agree with Benjamin Nicholas. WAY too much riffing and American Idolesque sounding.

I am far from a purist, but singing like that sounds like the performer is way more concerned with their riff than playing a character. Appropriate for a talent show,r American Idol, but do we really need this in a show like Jekyll and Hyde?

[orangeskittles]

Do they still have the eyeballs during Confrontation? It was so bad, it completely pulled me out of the moment to the point that I couldn't take the rest of the show seriously. I'm not a fan of projections in general, but the flaming, blinking eyeballs were the worst use of them I've ever seen.

[bwayphreak234]

^ As much as I loved this production, I wholeheartedly agree about the eyeballs during the confrontation.

[My Oh My]

I'm sorry but I can't get past the comment made about the show's supposed "update." And no, J&H isn't one of my dear, beloved old shows that I saw a hundred times and still yearn for more. In fact, I've never seen it, and I know exactly 2 songs from the show well enough to sing along to. One is "In His Eyes," and that's mostly because I was asked to do a backing track for it several years ago, and "Bring On the Men" is a recent one that I can't get out of my effing head! LOL.

I haven't seen the current production, but I don't have to see it to have an opinion on the current, tired trend of chucking a show's sets and replacing them with boring projections and cheesy video clips. It's fine if people actually like to watch flat, boring images on a giant screen where actual, physical sets used to do the job of suggesting locale in the unique way that only live theatre could and all, but I know many people who share my opinion that one feels cheated when subjected to lighted movie shows in a live, theatrical stage production.

And that's just ONE element of live theatre that is slowly being chucked in favor of cheap ways to stage a musical. In reality, a good set and lighting designer with some theatrical sense/vision could produce something far more evocative and satisfying to the eye with the bare minimal physical set AND even have it cost less than cheesy movie slide shows, probably made with Windows Slideshow Maker. It really disappoints me when people actually buy these "update" claims/hype when anyone who has seen good theatre even once in their whole life knows that projections are not only nothing new, they are a cop-out and shameless approach at boosting profits.

I remember when projections were used for purposes other than cheap, gimmicky CGI cartoons and distracting slideshows. In Evita ( 1978 ), they were used to infuse the very theatrical, visionary approach to the show's staging with a striking, contrasting sense of reality. This was back when all things theatrical were celebrated, even to the point of making the stage presentation look even more "staged" and theatrical by showing photos and film reels of the real Eva above the stage.

Kiss of the Spider Woman ( 1992 ), first staged at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London's West End, was considered innovative for its creative use of projections, which beautifully married with Molina's many escapist, dreamy, surreal Aurora reveries. The production didn't use projections as a cheap solution to scenery as in today's supposed "updated" use, they were used specifically to better denote a character's dream sequences involving the movies. It was brilliant, a dream within a dream.

There is nothing "modern" or "innovative," much less "updated" in most uses of projections in musical productions these days. In fact, they are very 70s nowadays. Hell, I recall the awesome Viewmaster shows my older bro and sis used to put on for my family during the early 80s.



And they were better and more 'advanced' than most projections seen in live shows these days...they were 3D!!!!

[EricMontreal22]

Ahem, don't you mean Spider Woman was first staged in Toronto at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre in June 1992

[My Oh My]

I actually considered mentioning that, being the detail obsessed ranty ranterer that I am.

But that production did not use the projections and Hal Prince staging later seen in London that same year. Or was it 1993 that it played in London? That's one detail I'm not sure about. A rarity! LOL.

But speaking of details, I suppose you're right it was FIRST staged in Toronto, but that's one detail I'm willing to overlook since the subject of my post was about the projections, which were first implemented in London. =)

[EricMontreal22]

I didn't s until on tour a few years later, in Vancouver--I had no idea major changes were made between Toronto and London!

[NOB88]

I HAVE seen the current production and I think the set should be award winning. If some of you think the eyeballs should be gone, that would be fine. Wouldn't matter one way or the other for me. I was riveted by the guy on the stage in that scene. The light show on the screen behind just helped set the mood of madness - very well in fact.

[jekyllforever]

I don't know how anybody can have an opionion about a show they haven't even seen! Well, you are entitled to your opinion, but I loved the sets. Loved the whole thing. I saw it again in Detroit and it was better than before. "Confrontation" was fantastic. CM was fantastic. I think Constantine Maroulis is a wonderful actor and singer, and the cast is fabulous. And I really don't give a damn about what was done before in the 90s. It was good then, but this is now and this is BETTER.

[silent]

April can't get here fast enough. It would be nice if Deborah and Constantine booked guest starring gigs on "Smash" as well.

[jekyllforever]

I bet is pretty hard to get booked on that show. I see they are having Jennifer Hudson and Liza Minelli, both of whom I don't care to see.