Jekyll & Hyde -- the ever changing show..

[Noel&Cole]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 2:02pm

Yes, the ballads are syrupy and yes, the song "Murder, Murder" will always make me chuckle. Yet, I am one who adored the full 2 disc concept album. Anthony Warlow was fantastic and of course Linda Eder and Carolee Carmello can both sing to the heavens. And I actually love it for a big power ballad belt fest.

Does anyone think they should have just done that album on stage as a sung through rock opera like Evita or Jesus Christ Superstar and then J&H would have been a lot better? It's always at its weakest when they are talking. IMHO.

Curious what others think.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 2:16pm

YES!

The staging has always been the problem with this show. I'm also a fan of the double cd concept recording, and this:

And I actually love it for a big power ballad belt fest

is spot on.

I don't think I have ever seen a more ridiculous number than Murder, Murder staged with the chorus dancing with umbrellas.

They should just sing the songs. A concert version would be something I might actually pay to see. A fully mounted production not so much.

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

Posted: 4/15/13 at 3:27pm

I will never understand why the producers elected to return to much of the show that already existed in the Broadway and touring version. You had new leads, a new sound and sensibility that came with the steampunk ethos, and a production based on the Resurrection album to go with both elements would have been perfect (leaner, meaner, more direct). Instead, they came out with this, when they could have come out with, oh I dunno, this:

(Disclaimer: The song list that follows is based on my reimagining of the tour through the prism of the Resurrection album and various scripts to different versions of the show that I have acquired over the years.)

Act One
"Prologue" / "I Need To Know"..........Jekyll
"Façade"..........Company
"Board of Governors"..........Jekyll & Board of Governors
"Stride's Apology"..........Stride
"Pursue the Truth" / "Façade" (Reprise #1)..........Jekyll, Utterson, Company
"Emma's Reasons"..........Stride, Emma
"I Must Go On"..........Jekyll, Emma
"Take Me as I Am"..........Jekyll, Emma
"Stride's Confession"..........Stride
"Bring on the Men"..........Lucy & Girls
"Lucy Meets Jekyll"..........Lucy & Jekyll
"No One Knows Who I Am"..........Lucy
"The Girls of the Night"..........Lucy, Nellie & Girls
"Now There Is No Choice"..........Jekyll
"This Is the Moment"..........Jekyll
"Transformation"..........Jekyll/Hyde
"Alive"..........Hyde
"If You Only Knew"..........Emma
"Sympathy, Tenderness"..........Lucy
"Someone Like You"..........Lucy
"Alive" (Reprise)..........Hyde

Act Two
"Murder, Murder"..........Company
"Once Upon A Dream"..........Emma
"It's A Dangerous Game"..........Lucy, Hyde
"Reflections" (Jekyll's Soliloquy)..........Jekyll
"In His Eyes"..........Emma, Lucy
"The Way Back"..........Jekyll
"A New Life"..........Lucy
"Sympathy, Tenderness" (Reprise)..........Hyde
"The World Has Gone Insane"..........Jekyll
"Confrontation"..........Jekyll/Hyde
"Façade" (Reprise #2)..........Company
"Letting Go"..........Sir Danvers, Emma
"The Wedding"..........Jekyll, Emma, Company
"Once Upon A Dream" (Reprise)..........Emma, Jekyll, Lucy

Is my idea more of putting lipstick on a pig? Yeah. But at least the pig looks prettier than it has in years.

Updated On: 4/17/13 at 03:27 PM

[Noel&Cole]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 3:39pm

I find the show at its worst when they speak. At it's best when they sing.

And unfortunately staging the confrontation seems like an impossible task. Maybe it'll work best in a film version.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 4:49pm

I don't think I have ever seen a more ridiculous number than Murder, Murder staged with the chorus dancing with umbrellas.

As bad as it was, the gang rape ballet in Thou Shalt Not was actually worse.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 12:24pm

Act One
"Prologue" / "I Need To Know"..........Jekyll
"Faade"..........Company
"Board of Governors"..........Jekyll & Board of Governors
"Stride's Apology"..........Stride
"Pursue the Truth" / "Faade" (Reprise #1)..........Jekyll, Utterson, Company
"Emma's Reasons"..........Stride, Emma
"I Must Go On"..........Jekyll, Emma
"Take Me as I Am"..........Jekyll, Emma
"Stride's Confession"..........Stride
"Bring on the Men"..........Lucy & Girls
"Lucy Meets Jekyll"..........Lucy & Jekyll
"No One Knows Who I Am"..........Lucy
"Now There Is No Choice"..........Jekyll
"This Is the Moment"..........Jekyll
"Transformation"..........Jekyll/Hyde
"Alive"..........Hyde
"If You Only Knew"..........Emma
"Sympathy, Tenderness"..........Lucy
"Someone Like You"..........Lucy
"Alive" (Reprise)..........Hyde

Act Two
"Murder, Murder"..........Company
"Once Upon A Dream"..........Emma
"It's A Dangerous Game"..........Lucy, Hyde
"Reflections" (Jekyll's Soliloquy)..........Jekyll
"In His Eyes"..........Emma, Lucy
"The Way Back"..........Jekyll
"The Girls of the Night"..........Lucy, Nellie & Girls
"A New Life"..........Lucy
"Sympathy, Tenderness" (Reprise)..........Hyde
"The World Has Gone Insane"..........Jekyll
"Confrontation"..........Jekyll/Hyde
"Faade" (Reprise #2)..........Company
"Letting Go"..........Sir Danvers, Emma
"The Wedding"..........Jekyll, Emma, Company
"Once Upon A Dream" (Reprise)..........Emma, Jekyll, Lucy

I love this "set list," if you will. At the Houston talk back, I asked Wildhorn why they didn't have "The World has Gone Insane" as it seemed a natural choice to have Maroulis sing that tune. He reposnded that they felt it didn't fit the show as they wanted to do it this time around. I was not pleased...

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 12:28pm

Ironically, Murder, Murder (and the chorus with umbrellas) is really the only thing I remember from the original production. Probably because it was so ridiculous (I also remember laughing at it then).

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 1:55pm

In reverse order of ridiculousness:

3. The Degradation Ballet in THOU SHALT NOT
2. Murder Murder in the current JEKYLL & HYDE

and for sheer unspeakable hilarity, the number that had me curled up in the fetal position literally helpless with laughter:

1. The Carpe Noctem number in DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, in previews where they still used the long wigs to flog each other with.

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

Posted: 4/17/13 at 11:19am

^ As I recall, Carrafa, who later sued a small theater company over plagiarism of his staging for Urinetown, got such bad feedback that he scrapped said dance number, and pretty much inputted what they had in the original European production (one of the few good ideas the NY production ever had).

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/17/13 at 11:22am

I don't think I have ever seen a more ridiculous number than Murder, Murder staged with the chorus dancing with umbrellas.

You need to see the New Zealand production of Chess that had a shopping trolley ballet!