Jekyll & Hyde: POST TOUR REVIEWS HERE!

Saw the show last week (my first time for this production) and had mixed feelings.

Some of the rewritten book scenes are a vast improvement. Teal Wicks and, surprisingly, Constantine Maroulis were quite good, and Deborah Cox sings well, but will, I think, suffer from comparisons to Linda Eder's star quality. She doesn't occupy the space as well as her costars, and her acting is inconsistent (aling with her accent, which she totally abandons in her Act 2 musical numbers, for starters).

The show crosses into gratuitousness/vulgarity in "Dangerous Game", where we somehow learn that Lucy's kind of into Hyde's kinky tendencies. But we never really see nearly the chemistry between them as we do between Jekyll and Emma. We get that Hyde is having sex with Lucy...do we really need to wonder if he's about to go down on her during a musical number? Because I'm not a prude, but from where I was sitting, that was what it looked like was about to happen.

You never really root for Lucy in the way I'm used to seeing. And "In His Eyes", while wonderfully sung by both ladies, was not helped by the staging, which basically had them sort of wandering around the stage. Stand and sing, girls (although of course, that's up to the director!)

Poor Nellie--it must suck to have your one song cut. She was funny, though, even if the makeup design was a little clownish.

I did like the projections very much, and thought the new take on "Confrontation" was far more effective than the borderline campy original staging--which was convincing when done by good actors and awful when done by anyone else.

As for the issue of the Jekyll vs Hyde voice, I was fine without any big difference, mostly because a) he IS still the same person with the same vocal apparatus and b) all the other elements of his performance made the difference quite clear. There were a couple moments, especially the last lab scene with Utterson (he was very good, btw) where the actors were staged so straight-on to each other that all the "who are you?" stuff felt like people not knowing Clark Kent was Superman just because he had glasses on. I mean, how hard is it to recognize your best friend, even if his hair's hanging in his face?

Overall, C+, with the ability to improve on the tour....which I imagine and hope is the goal.

On to the professional reviewers:

http://sdgln.com/entertainment/2012/10/04/theater-review-jekyll-hyde

http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/theatre/article_16a01e6e-024d-59d4-9783-84b610a4e984.html

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/04/play-review-jekyll-hyde/

Updated On: 10/5/12 at 09:30 PM

Is "going down" during sex kinky?

Wait. Is this:

the climactic “Confrontation,” with its massive, projected image of Hyde exploding into fireballs

a real thing that actually happens? Because LMAO.

Here's one:
<http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/04/play-review-jekyll-hyde/

Intermission now! I absolutely LOVE it. It is campy, creepy, intense, and just mindblowing. The three leads are perfect, the set is simple but awesome and at times jaw dropping. The orchestra is absolutely out of this world. More when I get home, but so far I LOVE it.

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Just got back. I absolutely LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it. As I said earlier, it is campy, creepy, intense, steamy, and thrilling. There definitely is some room for changes though (**spoilers ahead**)... I apologize in advance for any typos.

Bring On the Men: It starts out fine with Lucy in her dressing room, but when the scene moves into the actual Spider's Web club, it get messy. Lucy is up on a staircase with ropes forming a web and tied to the men in the club. This makes the choreography for this number a bit of a mess. It should be a showstopper, but how they have it staged with the ropes is just awkward.

Dangerous Game: I love this song, but having Hyde tying Lucy up was just weird. Plus they had some very interesting orchestrations and lighting going on for this song... It wasn't awful, just different.

Confrontation: Okay, this number was really well done, and I loved the projections, but some of the projections were cheesy and cheap looking. And what was up with all the eyeballs popping out of the fire? Tone down some of the weird cgi firey projections, and this number will be good to go.

Emma (Teal Wicks): GIVE HER ANOTHER SONG OR TWO!!! Teal Wicks was incredible, but she did not have enough to sing.

Okay... now on to the good (there were so many good things here, but these are the parts that stuck out the most)

Opening: Having the voiceover of the letter as the letter was projected across the curtain was chilling and a great way to start the show. I also thought it was a good choice to show Jekyll's father strapped down and dying in the opening moments of the show.

Facade: BRILLIANT! I loved how they showed the hospital board getting read with their maids. The five rotating mirror/wall panels worked great for this number, and in the scenes that followed.

This Is the Moment: Constantine nailed it! I think the laboratory set could use a little more, but that was about it.

Alive: Once again, the orchestra was on fire during this song! The moving of the two walls/crooked window pieces to show movement through the streets was very effective. Also when the part where the giant paneled wall rotated then flew out after Jekyll pushed it was pretty cool.

Someone Like You: Deborah Cox is just stunning in every way. I would have liked to have seen her wander the streets during the middle of the song before going to her bedroom instead of just having the scene go right from Jekyll's sitting room to her bedroom.

Murder, Murder!: The use of the stretchers was clever. The part where he pushed one of the board members in front of the train was very well done as well.

In His Eyes: Best number of the night. Sheer perfection. Deborah Cox and Teal Wicks were amazing. Plus the lighting combined with the two crooked window units for the street made a beautiful stage picture.

A New Life: Second favorite number of the night. Deborah Cox just let loose. I know some people have said they felt she was holding back, but she definitely was not holding back tonight.

Finale: Projection of a cathedral on the backdrop, a giant cross flies in. After Jekyll starts to transform, there is a small chase scene and the two crooked wall pieces come in with tables with crosses, candles, etc. The projection then changes to a religious painting. Having them go to a different part of the church made the scene seem more intimate. I did think it was weird how there were many six guests at the wedding, but there were lots of people at the engagement party scene... shrug.
(side note about the engagement party - everyone was wearing green and black costumes, and the projections on the backdrop and panels were green wallpaper. It reminded me of the Slytherin common room in Harry Potter)
Anyways, the death is very intimate with just the four characters onstage. As Jekyll dies, the backdrop goes sheer and shows Jekyll's father died up on the panels as the curtain comes down.

All in all, this was a great night. I would honestly go so far as to say it was one of the best shows I have seen. This is definitely a campy Wildhorn show, but there definitely is a hard edge and "bite" there. The critics will most likely eat this alive on Broadway, but I LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it, and would definitely recommend seeing it for the three leads if nothing else!

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Headset mics only worked in one show I've seen that used them and that's Rent and they must have had a great sound designer because in the many performances and productions I've attended, not one had any sort of extra mic noise and both the cast themselves and audiences forgot they were even wearing them only minutes into the show.

I don't understand the use of those types of mics in theatre, unless--like in Rent--it's meant to tie into the general style of the production.

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Updated On: 10/7/12 at 05:43 AM

About Deborah Cox's singing sounding like it belonged in a recording studio... I guess I liked that about the show. The score is pop ballads, and I thought she KILLED all of her songs. What I love about this show, and this production in particular, was the rock edge. At times it did seem like a concert, but not to the point of being distracting. This production is edgy, steamy, stark, and sharp. I thought Cox's performance, as well as Constantine and Teal Wicks's performance, were spot on and fit seamlessly with the concept and direction of this production.

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They already ate it alive back in 1997 & will do so again being it is a Wildhorn show. The will Moider Moider it and any thing he does. Knee jerk reaction like Pavlov's dog.

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^ I liked it too, and it definitely fit in with the production, I just thought some of the projections looked a little too cheap. The critics in New York will probably tear that scene apart in particular. I liked it though - it's a campy bombastic part of the show.

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The headset mikes must be new; as I understand it, the actors weren't able to hear themselves singing on stage (which is probably why Cox sounded tired).

Headset mikes solve that problem. So the actors' voices will have a lot more longevity.

Really interesting that the LA Times didn't review this show. Probably for the best after what Anne Marie Walsh said about "Allegiance" she would have had a field day in ripping this show apart.

As Jason Wooten said on FB "Houston, here we come". Will be looking forward to reading what their fans and newspaper critics think of the show.

Fanatic, they do have an LA run scheduled next year, perhaps the Times wants to give it a chance to "mature" a bit first, as elphaba.scares.me said it might in the OP (and I wholeheartedly agree)?