The * ideal * Jekyll & Hyde: A discussion- Page 4

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 12:56pm

DigificWriter said: "BotM and TGotN paint a picture of Lucy as a whore, which just doesn't jive with the reluctance she shows in Dangerous Game when she and Hyde get intimate,  which means that if I'm going to be absolutely true to my principles, I really shouldn't use either song."

 

But she is, though. The girls at the Red Rat (or the Spider's Web, or the Dregs, or whatever the hell it's called in your version) are all hookers. They sleep with men for money. It's hard to call it subtext because it's barely concealed. (This is especially true in the Broadway version; Spider is quite clearly a pimp, Gwennie is quite clearly a hard-nosed madam, the girls -- and boys -- are scantily clad and mingling with customers and doing "cheesecake" numbers. It's a hair away from being a grittier 1880's version of a Chippendale's. Lucy ain't there because it's an easy way to pay for college.) Being a whore shouldn't make it impossible to sympathize with the character. What you do doesn't constitute the whole of who you are, no matter what your profession.

 

Further, in "It's A Dangerous Game," she's not showing reluctance to get intimate in general, she's showing reluctance to get intimate with Hyde specifically. Some of that is lost because numbers/scenes like "Lucy Meets Hyde" have since been cut, taking out the story elements that clarify this some. The thing about J&H is that it's a show that really could get better with revision, but first, they have to decide which elements best fit and clearly explicate plot, character/relationships, and situation.

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 12:56 PM

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 1:22pm

I have seen the show, but it's still hard for me to picture Lucy expressing fear about embracing "forbidden pleasures" if she's a prostitute.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 1:24pm

Again, that ties into what was cut from the show. As I said in my reply above,  she's not showing reluctance to get intimate in general, she's showing reluctance to get intimate with Hyde specifically. It was poor choices in editing in the show's pre-Broadway phase that completely lost that element of it, but that's basically what the "Dangerous Game" number is still intended to convey, lyrically speaking. Part of why people keep revising the show -- every new edit that keeps bad decisions made in the original frays the plot even further.

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 1:34pm

I looked at the lyrics to Lucy Meets Hyde, and it still doesn't jive for me, especially when you consider that Lucy is 'seasoned', as it were, and, logically, should've lost her illusions when it comes to intimacy a long time ago.

 

Lucy Meets Jekyll/Here's to the Night doesn't work either in that regard, to be honest.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 1:45pm

She is a little like Sweet Charity - Hooker with a heart of gold.

[philly03]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:16pm

If you have seen the show (and not heard just hte songs sort of strung together across various recordings), you know it is Hyde who attacks Lucy. In every version of the show you see the actual attack on stage, except for the Broadway and 2nd National Tour ("The Broadway Tour". She doesn't "want to get intimate with" (these word choices.. yikes) Hyde because he attacked her and since meeting Jekyll she desires to be with someone more "noble." She is a prostitute. She is supposed to be the overtly sexy girl - why do you think Emma is completely covered up (the overtly innocent girl). I mean her best gal pal Nellie is sleeping with the bishop!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:20pm

Hey now, in the Broadway version it's the prostitute dressed as a schoolgirl sleeping with the bishop. Aren't there some versions where he favors the choir boys too?

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:24pm

At the time I saw the show, the OBCR was what I was familiar with, and the idea of Lucy being a prostitute just hadn't registered with me, and didn't until I started thinking about exactly why I prefer Good 'N Evil to Bring on the Men.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:34pm

But that doesn't make sense. Even with Good N Evil she's still depicted as a prostitute.

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 02:34 PM

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:46pm

CATSNYrevival said: "But that doesn't make sense. Even with Good N Evil she's still depicted as a prostitute.

 

"

There's nothing inherently hooker-esque in the lyrics to GNE, at least that I've noticed.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 2:59pm

It's not the song that makes her as a hooker. Even in the Broadway version the rest of the book hints at it. Yes she has dreams and yes she wants to make something of her life but no matter which song she sings, in all versions, she is still a prostitute. In the synopsis included with the OBC recording Leslie Bricusse even describes her as being "irresistibly attracted" to Hyde during "Dangerous Game" in spite of his previous mistreatment of her which seems to contradict your interpretation of that song as well.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:03pm

As I said jocularly in an earlier reply, she's not there to pay her way through college. I wouldn't even concur with CATSNYrevival that the Broadway version "hints" at it. The Broadway version is pretty damn explicit (I would argue almost more blatantly than any other version existing at the time) about the nature of the pub and its business if you read the dialogue and watch the scenes, even blindfolded. Spider is quite clearly a pimp, Gwennie is quite clearly a hard-nosed madam, the girls -- and boys -- are scantily clad and mingling with customers in an unseemly manner. You don't need to write a song called "I Sure Love Boning Random Males for Cash" to complete the picture here.

 

She has dreams and wants to make something of her life because her life is that of a bang-tail in any 1880's penny dreadful. What do you think she's doing singing a song in a sexy outfit and putting on makeup in what is pretty blatantly the middle of Hookerville otherwise? :P

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 03:03 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:14pm

I used the word "hint" because there isn't a song or dialogue called "I Sure Love Boning Random Males for Cash." That seems to be where this confusion is coming from because it's never stated outright but at this point it just seems more like denial on dig's part.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:17pm

I mean, no it's never stated outright, but how hard is it to see?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:19pm

Apparently it's difficult to accept or we wouldn't have to explain it.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:23pm

Just realized that the fact that there is no song or line of dialogue that explicitly states "I Sure Hate Boning Random Males for Cash" might be a stumbling block as well. xD

[philly03]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:49pm

Robin Phillips (RIP) the Broadway director had actually envisioned making Jekyll onstage have much more mass appeal, to give a little credit DigificWriter. His idea was to I don't want to say make the piece more "family friendly" but compared to the 2012-13 revival it was PG to R. That's one of the reasons "Bring on the Men" was cut. However, anyone who knows Frank Wildhorn and his later works (Dracula, Bonnie & Clyde in particular) knows that Frank wanted the grittier version, something he has admitted that he regrets about the original Broadway production.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 3:59pm

There is a scene in the Broadway version that makes it clear that Lucy is at least sleeping with Spider when he says he'll be up to her room later to show her how good of a mood he's in which is admittedly another example of the writers beating around the bush and not saying it outright. There's also a scene in one of the other versions between Lucy and Spider in the second act that implies that they have just slept together and he says that her found her "less than satisfying" that night but those are both examples of Lucy sleeping with Spider only.

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 4:12pm

g.d.e.l.g.h.i. clearly wins the internet with this post, forever and ever.

Just one more mention of "I Sure Love Boning Random Males for Cash" because it made me laugh and laugh.

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 4:21pm

I want to know what that song would sound like.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 4:50pm

I offered to show this to DigificWriter off the forum, but I feel a synopsis clearly explicating the way my version works plot-wise, with little parentheticals here and there, will help the way I structured the piece hit home.

 

As a general note before I begin, for me, the FCLO version's plot just works. It's lean, it's mean, and with the tinkering I gave to it as explicated here, it's a (semi-)fast-paced thriller (it does include Wildhorn's ballads, after all!) that proceeds logically from point to point and delivers on chills, blood, gore, and sex: the primeval elements that keep audiences riveted. The push for me is its expanding the Stride/Emma dynamic (which was there on Broadway, but underplayed), and retaining much of the recitative [such as "Lucy Meets Jekyll"] that kept the plot moving, with haunting and creepy elements reminiscent of the moody touches of Phantom and Les Mis.

 

ACT ONE:
 

 

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London, 1888. DR. HENRY JEKYLL, a brilliant young research scientist, has devoted himself to the study of the dual nature of man -- the good and evil (Prologue / I Need To Know). Jekyll is obsessed by the belief that, given appropriate support by his peers in the medical profession, he can separate the dual elements of good and evil that are constantly struggling for supremacy inside every human being. He is about to present the findings of his research to the Board of Governors of a great London hospital, St. Jude's Mental Hospital. 

 

We soon learn why this man is obsessed with the subject of his research when he tears himself away from his work and, on his way to the Board meeting, stops in at the same hospital to check on his father, a patient, who has been struck as he aged with a catatonic delirium punctuated by unpredictable bursts of violence that at the time could only have been viewed as an inexplicable mental illness, which Jekyll anguishes over. SIR DANVERS CAREW, an eminent and revered figure of London society, Jekyll's future father-in-law, and chairman of the Hospital Board, is unable to do more than look on with pity.

 

[Insert Façade here. No real way to describe the number in any synopsis, but we'll simply allow that, as with "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" and other similar precedents, it establishes one of the show's main themes which the audience will consider over the course of the evening. I don't really know how to stage it except that I don't care for how the original Broadway version did it; the revival version, with the Governors getting readied for the meeting, works as well as any other staging if you want to keep the number driving the plot.] 

 

Jekyll then presents his case to the highly conservative and unsympathetic Board of Governors (Jekyll's Plea). Jekyll insists he has found the key to separating the good and evil elements of man's nature, but needs to conduct a human experiment (he needs to test his theories on a live human being) to prove his theories conclusively. His ideas are greeted with outrage and scorn by the high-minded but hypocritical governors, who unanimously and summarily reject his request, with the exception of Sir Danvers, who abstains from voting. The rest of the Board dismiss Jekyll as a dangerous radical. The Board's Secretary, SIMON STRIDE, takes a moment as he leaves to sympathetically pat Jekyll on the back (Stride's Apology), but his smug little grin as he asked the Board for their decision belies the edge to his kind remark. On the other hand, Jekyll's closest friend and adviser, his lawyer JOHN UTTERSON, truly sympathizes (Pursue The Truth). Ultimately, their unanimous negativity crushes Jekyll's immediate plans, but not his determination to continue, with or without their support.

 

[Of note about the above: I made a minor nip and tuck in the Board of Governors scene that I'm surprised no one, to my knowledge, ever tried. (I mean, seriously, Broadway cut the sung portion, but no one doing similar surgery to this version is ridiculous.) I remember listening to the Complete Work recording, following along with the MTI "red cover" script which basically has that version (plus some minor lyrical rewrites from the Broadway version), and being struck by how, at least in the script (though this is to some extent present on the recording), Jekyll sings his proposal… and then, aside from one line establishing he wants to test it on a human being which needs to be there, he proceeds to re-state the whole damn thing in dialogue form! Like, seriously? We could be, I dunno, GETTING ON WITH IT! Furthermore, in the script, this dialogue re-statement is preceded by a Jekyll/Stride exchange (the bit about dispensing with the niceties) that would seem very fitting, if they actually got to "the matter at hand." So, I structured the beginning of the number like this instead, going from a clunk to a hum: a] "Distinguished Governors..." verse from Jekyll; b] Jekyll-Stride exchange; c] "Friends, you're aware..." through "...history here in our hand!"; d] and the remains of Jekyll's dialogue ("My experiments have convinced me..." and so on) lead us back into the scene proper.]

 

The ill-feeling from the fateful encounter carries over (Façade (Reprise)) into the evening at the glittering, if superficial, reception, a social event given by Sir Danvers to celebrate Jekyll's engagement to his eligible and lovely daughter EMMA CAREW. Stride appears, somewhat the worse for drink, and we learn the reason for the edge to his kind remarks when he questions what Emma sees in Jekyll that she presumably doesn't see in him (Emma's Reasons). For a moment, the scene is fraught with uncomfortable tension as Stride is really all over her, following her around, and she keeps pushing him away. The day is saved when Jekyll, unrepentant, arrives late at the party (and yet at just the right moment). He tells Emma he is more determined than ever to pursue his course of action (I Must Go On), but in the same breath he expresses his fears and doubts to her. Emma reassures him that they will see it through together (Take Me As I Am). This, of course, does nothing to brighten Stride's mood; dumping out his celebratory glass of champagne in the shadows, he vows to make Jekyll "pay" for taking "his" woman (Stride's Confession).

 

Utterson, consoling, tries to take Jekyll's mind off his problems, but their walk down the dark streets of London leads them to a disreputable East End Dockland dive called "The Red Rat."  Jekyll recklessly decides to drown his sorrows in this bawdy London pub, where an unwilling Utterson abandons him, and where he encounters and is drawn to LUCY HARRIS, a sweet-and-spicy, seductive and sympathetic young lady of the night, who displays a vibrant personality as she sings an appropriately decadent song on the stage of "The Red Rat" (Bring On The Men). They share a drink and a confidence or two (Lucy Meets Jekyll), and an unlikely friendship is born when Jekyll gives her his card. But the moment is ruined after Jekyll leaves... by Stride, whom we are shocked to discover is one of Lucy's frequent customers at this seedy club! He physically abuses her in front of the customers, and also wounds Lucy, a disillusioned young soul who wants to make something of her life, psychologically by reminding her of the lot she shares -- and laments -- with her fellow whores (The Girls Of The Night).

 

Returning home from the dubious relaxation provided by the "Red Rat" episode, Jekyll is met by POOLE, his butler, with devastating news: his father has died. A distraught Jekyll talks to Poole of his father's great qualities before his dark illness descended upon him. He decides to work late. Jekyll's mind is made up (Now There Is No Choice). With renewed confidence and determination, Jekyll convinces himself that the logical and only candidate for his experiment is himself (This Is The Moment).

 

[The Bremen production, which got to play with a lot of elements of the Complete Work recording that the Broadway production didn't (they started gestation at about the same time, allowing them to proceed with their own version uninhibited), kept a lot of great elements from the original version, and also introduced a unique contribution to the book: the death of Jekyll's father. It may seem a bit blatantly placed as the spark that ignites "This Is The Moment," but Jekyll's anguishing over his father's illness and doing it "for his sake" gains a little juice from this element. Sometimes you just gotta go with what works.]

 

In his laboratory, Jekyll prepares and consumes his formula, HJ7 (Transformation). He records in his journal his every move. Within minutes it takes effect -- disastrously. He is horrifyingly transformed from the gentle, quiet, civilized Jekyll into the vain, uninhibited, violent, libidinous monster EDWARD HYDE. He glories in the power and strength he feels running through him (Alive), and starts to display all of the hidden and repressed evil characteristics of Jekyll's nature. (During this scene, in a vignette, Hyde attempts to buy Lucy for the night; she is cautious, but she likes him, sensing she knows him but not sure. However, he quickly becomes violent, and Lucy runs away.)

 

Back in Harley Street, Jekyll's experiments continue. He disappears from society and become reclusive, unavailable even to his closest circle -- Emma, Utterson, Poole, Sir Danvers. They are increasingly concerned about him, unaware of the demons he is dealing with as he remains isolated and locked away in his laboratory. Still, Emma gamely tries to put on a brave face, telling Poole when he turns her away (as per Jekyll's request) to remind him there are other things in his life than his work -- "myself, for example" (If You Only Knew).

 

[I chose to position this after some initial difficulty as a simple park-it-and-bark-it, this-is-how-she-feels-at-the-moment number, at the appropriate juncture in the scene (i.e., before she goes out on the doorstep and tells Utterson and her dad that Jekyll won't see her). Sometimes you just gotta go with what works. If you play it more wistfully ("oh, there's my crazy husband-to-be again, letting his hobby get in the way of us... if only he knew how much it bugged me" etc. etc. et-fucking-cetera), it doesn't seem overly emotional for that moment, and it doesn't drag on a moment too long like "His Work And Nothing More."]

 

Jekyll finally emerges, to be confronted by an anxious Utterson, who is -- much to his chagrin -- tasked with holding onto letters Jekyll has written for him, Sir Danvers, and Emma, only to be opened "if I should ever be taken ill... or should have to go away for a time."

 

Jekyll then receives an unexpected visit from Lucy, unaware that Jekyll and Hyde are the same man, who has been badly injured by a sadistic, violent gentleman visitor to "The Red Rat." (Her presence is not unnoticed by Emma, who is leaving with Utterson and her father as Lucy arrives at Jekyll's doorstep.) Jekyll is appalled, and tenderly treats her wounds. Lucy says she will never forget the man's name: "Hyde... Edward Hyde." Jekyll is transfixed with horror. He completes her treatment. Overwhelmed by his kindness, Lucy's feelings for the good doctor grow stronger; she kisses him, at first in gratitude, then in passion (Sympathy, Tenderness). A confused Jekyll takes his leave of her. Lucy daydreams of her impossible relationship with Jekyll as she wanders the streets of London (Someone Like You). Little is she aware of the terror the good doctor's alter ego is about to inflict on London.

 

Back in the seedier streets of London's Dockland, Hyde interrupts a sordid liaison between THE BISHOP OF BASINGSTOKE, one of St. Jude's Hospital Board of Governors, and a prostitute. Hyde batters the hypocritical cleric to death in a frenzy of rage. Hyde has become Jekyll's Avenging Angel of Death, Jekyll's frustrations finally getting resolved through Hyde's agency (Alive (Reprise)).

 

 

ACT TWO:

 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

The terrifying other half of Jekyll now emerges in its full horror to wreak a terrible vengeance on society for its neglect and injustice toward Henry Jekyll. Hyde's rampage of killing continues as he systematically assassinates further members of the Board of Governors of St. Jude's Hospital, dispatching them from this world in the most gory fashion imaginable (Murder, Murder). By the end of it, in swift succession, five of them are dead.

 

Emma, frantic with worry about her fiancé, enters Jekyll's for-once unlocked laboratory, looking for him. She sees and reads his journal. Jekyll returns and is furious at her intrusion. Unaware of the truth, she soothes and encourages him, trying to bring him back to the path of reason (Once Upon A Dream). She will wait for him, however long it takes. Emma departs.

 

Meanwhile, on Jekyll's doorstep, Lucy, who perhaps naively holds hope that her relationship with Jekyll will blossom into something more fruitful, is turned away by Poole. Embarrassed by this refusal, Lucy now sees her dreams begin to fade (No One Knows Who I Am).

 

["No One Knows Who I Am" is a key song for Lucy, as much as it slows down the show wherever it sits, but with my dictum to keep every song and dialogue moment (there were few, but they existed) from "Resurrection," I had to fit it in *some*where. Luckily I found a lovely spot in the FCLO script in Act Two that parallels my new slot for "If You Only Knew" in a surprising way that really works.]

 

As Emma leaves the house, she notices Lucy lurking about again, and the seeds of suspicion that were planted in Act One begin to take root. While (on another part of the stage) Hyde comes to seek out Lucy, who is disappointed, hoping against hope that she will see Jekyll, but nonetheless irresistibly attracted to Hyde in spite of her increasing awareness of the consequences of such a relationship (It's A Dangerous Game), Emma, through a little snooping, becomes aware, or so she thinks, that their romance is disintegrating.

 

Meanwhile, Jekyll records in his journal that the experiment is out of control. Utterson arrives, deeply concerned over Jekyll, but Jekyll persuades Utterson to continue to have faith in the experiments. Utterson goes in search of the drugs Jekyll desperately needs from the pharmacist to continue his struggle against Hyde. The horrendous pendulum swings back and forth between Jekyll and Hyde, gathering momentum as Jekyll continues to gamble with death, risking everything in his desperate struggle to achieve his ultimate purpose: the isolation of good from evil in man. It is, however, driving him slowly but inevitably toward madness, as the many remarkable qualities we have come to admire in Jekyll have now gradually given way to his basest animal instincts (Reflections (Jekyll's Soliloquy)). 

 

[The subtext is that Jekyll is becoming increasingly detached from reality and Hyde is taking over, allowing him to rationalize his actions -- "hey, I don't agree with murder, but the Board of Governors rejected my proposal, serves them right" -- and let the transformations continue unabated as long as no one Jekyll loves is hurt. The possibility that Jekyll is now so amoral in his own skin that he is not affected by Hyde's actions until he kills Lucy will be appropriately frightening to the audience who have come to sympathize with him.]

 

Unaware of the monster he has become, Lucy and Emma separately and simultaneously pine in song for the man they both love, expressing their deep but confused feelings (In His Eyes). Emma, now convinced that Jekyll must be having an affair, is sad, while Lucy is disillusioned by what Hyde has just told her about Jekyll and can't believe she could have been so wrong about him, and his interest in her. But by song's end, Emma has come to an empowering realization of the truth: she is willing to forgive Jekyll. As for Lucy, she determines the reason Jekyll won't see her anymore is because of her station in life. But, she realizes she felt loved when he looked at her, and for the first time, she's actually loved someone!

 

Utterson returns to Jekyll's lab with the drugs from the pharmacist, horrified at Jekyll's tragic state. Jekyll gives him a farewell letter to Lucy, begging her to leave London at once. He believes that with the new drugs he can finally destroy Hyde. Utterson hurries away on his errand of mercy. Jekyll is in torment (The Way Back); the drama spirals relentlessly upwards, and he strives desperately within himself to reverse the implacable fates that threaten to engulf those nearest and dearest to him -- Emma, Lucy, and himself!

 

Utterson delivers Jekyll's letter to Lucy and beseeches her to do Jekyll's bidding and leave London with the money he has sent her, and start a new life elsewhere. But no sooner has he left than she returns to her room, where her frequent customer, Stride, is getting dressed after an evening's "fun." Prying into her business, he reads Jekyll's letter. Sensing he has all the ammunition he needs to insinuate himself back into Emma's life, he pockets the letter and leaves a disillusioned Lucy alone to consider her frail future, allowing herself one last glimmer of hope (A New Life). Unfortunately for poor Lucy, who has already packed her bags for a brighter destination, Hyde enters. He taunts Lucy for her relationship with Jekyll. Jealous now even of himself -- his other and better person -- Hyde starts off singing to her soothingly, but then stabs her viciously to death and slits her throat in a fit of murderous passion as his voice rises to a frenzied pitch of fury (Sympathy, Tenderness (Reprise)).

 

Realizing what he has done, Jekyll is in total despair. He breaks with reality under the strain of what he has done as Hyde, haunted by the ghosts of his victims as he rushes home (The World Has Gone Insane).

 

[The "Jekyll's Nightmare" sequence in the FCLO version following Lucy's murder is the perfect slot for this, and also makes the cumbersome lyrics make more sense, as an emotionally broken man would probably trot out the horrors in his head in just such an unintelligible fashion.]

 

Back in his lab, Jekyll knows he has entered the very gates of Hell. Jekyll resolves to make one final supreme effort to overcome Hyde. He drinks the last of the formula HJ7, looks at himself in the mirror and sees... Hyde. The voice of Hyde is now within him, and the two halves of his broken soul engage in a desperate final battle for supremacy (Confrontation). Jekyll trades Hyde blow for bitter blow, determined not to succumb to his evil alter ego. He destroys his laboratory by fire. Who has won?

 

A month passes, and back from the edge of Death he comes, to the sound of wedding bells. Jekyll makes ready to stand  at the altar, before an elegant congregation of friends, with his beautiful bride Emma at his side. All seems well, but unbeknownst to him, Stride plays the remaining card in his hand, leaving Jekyll's letter to Lucy where Emma can find it (Façade (Reprise)). After a moment's distraction where Sir Danvers discusses his concerns with Emma, cautioning his beloved daughter about Jekyll's recent unreliability, though he is motivated by his own reluctance to lose her (Letting Go), Emma finds the letter and is devastated by its contents.

 

Before she has time to fully react, however,  the indestructible evil spirit of Hyde wells up inside Jekyll yet once more and takes over him (The Wedding), to the horror of the assembled guests. Hyde claims victory -- "There is no Henry Jekyll -- only Edward Hyde!" In a final scene of utter mayhem, Hyde strangles Stride and threatens to kill Emma. Emma speaks calmly to the Jekyll deep within Hyde, and knows he will not harm her. The Jekyll in Hyde hears her, and somehow finds the strength to let her go. Hyde begs his old friend Utterson to end his suffering and set them all free. Utterson cannot do it. When Emma's life is threatened yet again, Utterson shoots and kills him.

 

The goodness of Henry Jekyll finally drowns in the ocean of evil of his own creation -- Edward Hyde. Emma cradles him in her arms. Jekyll's voice and persona return to him as his life slips away and she holds him close and comforts him, as he dies in her embrace (Once Upon A Dream (Reprise)).

 

[I initially tried this as a pre-bows epilogue, but the "Resurrection" reprise works better as the show closer, a final showcase for the three leads that ties up the story in a neat little package. Good, evil, and temptation -- all in one shot.]

 

What do you think?

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 04:50 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 5:53pm

I'm too emotionally attached to the Broadway libretto to really have anything to say about that other than "it's not the Broadway version." I definitely don't like the idea of Jekyll's father dying. In the Broadway production the portrait of Jekyll's father hung center stage as the audience entered the theatre. It was clear, possibly even before the show began, that helping his father would be Jekyll's highest priority and his main motivation for developing the formula. In that frame of mind it almost seems like the loss of his father at that pivotal moment would drive him to suicide rather than motivate him to continue to try and help others.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 6:39pm

CATSNYrevival said: "I definitely don't like the idea of Jekyll's father dying. In the Broadway production the portrait of Jekyll's father hung center stage as the audience entered the theatre. It was clear, possibly even before the show began, that helping his father would be Jekyll's highest priority and his main motivation for developing the formula. In that frame of mind it almost seems like the loss of his father at that pivotal moment would drive him to suicide rather than motivate him to continue to try and help others."

 

That's understandable, but that point of view also hinges on a design element in keeping with the Broadway script, which made the "father" motivation much more central to the plot and even devoted a song to it. Emphasizing "I Need To Know" in place of "Lost In The Darkness" establishes this has become an all-consuming obsession, and the following short dialogue scene establishes that his father is the reason he started the quest, but it's clear from devoting a whole song to the quest that it's not the only reason: he started off trying to help his dad, and then slid down the rabbit hole into trying to discern the fine line between good and evil in man's personality.

 

Now, with his father dead, he isn't continuing that quest to help others, in my head. It's because he doesn't know what else to do. He's come too far to give up on anything, if you ask me. And at any rate, a series of events have played with his head: all in one day, the Board rejected his proposal, he was late to the engagement party and afraid that Emma would grow ashamed of him and break it off, he had a strange interlude with a hooker who took a shine to him, and now his dad's dead. The combination of elements could push him into making a reckless decision to put the formula into himself, come what may, very easily, in my opinion. Not knowing what the formula may do to him almost makes it a suicide mission, doesn't it?

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 06:39 PM

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 6:41pm

I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to lay out my new arrangement of the score in synopsis form, but that's what I'm going to do as soon as I have a chance.

 

I do want to use Good 'N Evil because I like it so much, but am also going to defer to Linda Eder and put Bring on the Men back in. I'm also going to try to find somewhere to put Lucy Meets Hyde.

[philly03]

Posted: 12/22/15 at 6:46pm

Digific, generally almost every production plays the full version of "Alive" following transformation and in the middle of that is "Hyde Meets Lucy" - he attacks her, then he finishes the song. The last verse gets reprised at the end of Act 1 similar to the OBCR.