Review: Jekyll & Hyde [UK Tour]

Musical: Jekyll & Hyde [UK Tour]
Venue: Grand Theatre, Leeds, UK
Date: 27th July 2011
Cast: Marti Pellow (Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde), Sarah Earnshaw (Emma Carew), Sabrina Carter (Lucy Harris), David Delve (Sir Danvers Carew), Mark McGee (John Utterson), Amira Matthews (Lady Beaconsfield/Nellie), Jacob Chapman (Lord Savage/Spider), Michael Taibi (Simon Stride), Martin Dickinson (General Glossop), Matt Stevens (Sir Archibald Proops), Jon de Ville (Bishop of Basingstoke)
Rating: *


Review:
I enjoyed Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical and have followed its past and future incarnations ever since I first saw it in Chattanooga back in 2000. However, it is that kind of musical where you either love it or totally hate it. Critics seem to go with the latter one as can be seen from its 1997 Tony Awards outcome and its reception since. With 2 concept recordings and a countless number of professional cast recordings and productions in USA, Europe and Asia, it is far from a perfect musical but each incarnation is different and interesting in its own rights. So it seems that nowadays, a production of Jekyll & Hyde can be comprised of any songs in any of the 3 main cast recordings (1990 concept album with Colm Wilkinson, 1994 complete album with Anthony Warlow and 1997 Broadway cast album with Robert Cuccioli) up to the director's decision.


The current Bill Kenwright's touring production of Jekyll & Hyde marks the 2nd UK Tour of the musical after the horrible 1st UK Tour in 2004 starring Paul Nicholas I saw on YouTube. I was looking forward to the show very much since it boasted the fame of ex-Wet Wet Wet leading man, Marti Pellow and 2 former West End's Wicked cast members, Sarah Earnshaw and Sabrina Carter. However, it turned out that the production was another huge disappointment beyond my imagination. I love the show and I love the material despite its flaws and I usually can tolerate bad production of it but this was just the most painful production of the show I've ever seen.

The 2004 Jekyll & Hyde production starring Paul Nicholas

The weakest link of the show was Marti Pellow as the dual roles of title character. He made David Hasselhoff sound like Anthony Warlow. I have seen him in Chess DVD but I would never imagine him to be this bad. And this really hurt the show because his characters were the one that had to carry the whole show but he just couldn't achieve that task. To call his acting "stiff" would be an understatement. The man just really needed some serious acting lesson.

His vocal range and tone didn't suit neither characters and he seemed to slur through every song which was really annoying. His "Transformation" was the worst that I've seen, but maybe that was the fault of the director too. It didn't look like he was transforming into something, just prancing round the stage and pulling out some hair and voila, he's Hyde!... Yeah, right! There isn't a single song that he performed well in the show. He even forgot a verse of the lyrics in "Confrontation" and just hummed through the music. I also didn't like how he portrayed Hyde at all. He made Hyde such a horny character and nothing more. I really hated how Hyde would constantly be portraying sexual interaction with Lucy every time they met (she's a whore, we got it!). It was just disturbing to see notably in "Dangerous Game" and the reprise of "Sympathy, Tenderness". I could see many disapproving face in the audience as well.

Marti Pellow as Dr. Henry Jekyll
during "Transformation"

Marti Pellow's promotional shot as Edward Hyde
(If only he would look like this on stage!)

Sarah Earnshaw and Sabrina Carter were Emma and Lucy. They both were taken from the current Wicked company in London so I had my expectations up quite high for them since they both were standby for Glinda and understudy for Elphaba respectively. Though not as bad as Marti Pellow, their performance was pretty mediocre with Carter being a little bit better especially in "Bring on the Men". Their acting still needed a lot of work and I didn't know if it was due to sound system or what, their voices, though quite nice, were very unpleasant to listen to through the microphones making "In His Eyes" such a painful song to live through. I don't know why but I kept feeling tired after each and every song that these actors were singing and that was not a sign of a good time at the theatre at all.

Marti Pellow and Sarah Earnshaw as Henry Jekyll and Emma Carew
during "Take Me as I Am"

Sabrina Carter as Lucy Harris

Sarah Earnshaw and Sabrina Carter in their Wicked days
(as standby for Glind and understudy for Elphaba respectively)

Our Utterson, Mark McGee, had a lovely voice but his acting was still very stiff and recited. Amira Matthews was alright as Lady Beaconsfield if a bit too screechy at times in "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" and the number at the "Hospital Board". However, she didn't look the part of Nellie at all and it was really weird to see her dancing as one of the ensemble during "Bring on the Men". Jacob Chapman was quite funny as "Lord Savage" with his feminine take on the role but his "Spider" was quite creepy and, again, disturbing, to see. The ensemble, though possessing quite better vocal ability than the leads, didn't seem to come together well and made most ensemble numbers pretty messy, both vocally and emotionally. There I would blame the director as well. "Facade", "Murder, Murder!" and "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" were all plain bad and the keys were obviously too high and most cast members were screeching to reach those notes.

Marti Pellow and Mark McGee as Dr. Jekyll and his best friend, John Utterson

The ensemble in "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch"

The ensemble in "Murder, Murder!"

I really do try to find the good out of this really bad production but I seemed to not be able to. I mean the scenery was ok and fairly impressive for a touring production. I like how they utilized the mirror to reflect Hyde (think Phantom in the mirror). But that's pretty much all the good things I could think of from the production I saw because I felt that the rest of the directions was just like a high school production (if not worse).


The choice of music was quite interesting which I would elaborate quite a lot here to capture what songs were chosen into this particular production. It seemed that they chose a fairly equal amount of songs from the 1994 version and the 1997 with some that they mixed between both versions and some totally rearranged. (See my musical numbers below for full list of songs and the version they came from based on my understanding.)

Marti Pellow and Sabrina Carter as Dr. Jekyll and Lucy
during "Sympathy, Tenderness"

Some interesting choice here was having (an abridged version of) "I Need to Know" after Jekyll's proposition was rejected from the Hospital Board. Same as most productions after the Broadway run, this production chose "Bring on the Men" as Lucy's opening number rather than the Broadway's "Good and Evil". Before "This Is the Moment", they chose to use a verse of "now there is no choice" and then went into "when this all began, we knew there'd be a price" first before actually starting "This Is the Moment" which was kinda pointless to me. They should have just picked one over the other. The arrangement for "Alive" was the worst I've heard and with Marti Pellow's poor acting skill didn't help much. Instead of 'Lucy Meets Hyde", they also decided to do a verse from "Dangerous Game" which seemed kinda out of place to me. "His Work and Nothing More!" was totally revamped starting with Emma and Sir Danvers arguing about Jekyll in his home, then left and then a short conversation between Poole and Utterson and then Jekyll came out and they did Utterson and Jekyll part of the song and end with Utterson alone singing "I pray you may..." bit.

"Bring on the Men"
(Oh, what a hideous costume!)

Marti Pellow as Edward Hyde during "Alive"

"Murder, Murder!" seemed to be a mix between the 2 versions, started with 1997 version but ended with 1994 version where there was the "Sweet death has taken this brave man..." bit before the end. "The Way Back" started with "Am I a good man..." bit with the tempo being fairly slow plus a key change at the last verse (think "With One Look" in Sunset Boulevard). Another rather strange choice here was after Lucy's death, instead of a reprise of Facade, they chose to have Nellie sang "Girls of the Night" as they figured out what to do with Lucy's body...?  Again, totally out of place! I don't think I know what they did to her body in the end. And again there was another undecided choice before "Confrontation". They used "It's Over Now" and then went into "Lost in the Darkness" before staring "Confrontation". My gosh, the creative team just needed to make up their minds.

The screechy newsboy in "Murder, Murder!"

"Confrontation" was done 1994 style where Marti just sang the Jekyll part to previously-recorded Hyde part. He first sang it with his reflection in the mirror which grown into a huge projection on the window. Visually, this was OK, I guess, though I much prefer the 1997 version where the actor was required to sing both parts live to test his ability as an actor. Again, Marti acted the part poorly and actually forgot the verse to the song. I guess it would be a nightmare if he had to sing both parts. He didn't sing the last "Never" but drank the potion and said "Free" instead, probably to indicate that he had won over Hyde? Then we had Emma singing a pointless reprise of "In His Eyes" with new lyrics (costume change purpose?) as she prepared for the wedding and forgave Jekyll. The wedding was pretty much like 1997 version. After Jekyll died, the ensemble sang the requiem "Mass" (which can be heard just before "Murder, Murder!" in the 1994 version) before Emma sang her "you are free now..." bit.

"Confrontation"
with Marti Pellow singing to his pre-recorded Hyde

The Finale

I mean by the end of the show, I really didn't know how to response to the actors during their curtain call. I clapped a bit but didn't feel satisfied or approved of the production at all. There were people jumping and screaming for Marti which annoyed me even more to the point where I just stopped clapping and was ready to leave the theatre. Needless to say more, I hated the production and everyone should just stay away from it, period! Now would you please excuse me, I need to put my Anthony Warlow's recording on to erase that horrible experience off my head!

The curtain call

MUSICAL NUMBERS (based on my own listing, not from the programme)
ACT ONE
Lost in the Darkness**... Jekyll
Facade*... Ensemble
The Hospital Board**... Jekyll and the Hospital Board
Pursue the Truth**... Jekyll and Utterson
I Need to Know*... Jekyll
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch*... Ensemble
The Engagement Party Part 1*... Sir Danvers and Stride
Emma Carew**... Stride and Emma
The Engagement Party Part 2*... Stride, Jekyll and Ensemble
I Must Go On**... Jekyll and Emma
Take Me As I Am**... Jekyll and Emma
Facade (Reprise)***... Ensemble
Bring on the Men*... Lucy and Ensemble
Lucy Meets Jekyll**... Lucy and Jekyll
This Is the Moment**... Jekyll
Transformation**... Jekyll/Hyde
Alive**/Dangerous Game (Preview)***... Hyde and Lucy
His Work and Nothing More!***... Emma, Sir Danvers, Utterson and Jekyll
Sympathy, Tenderness**... Lucy
Someone Like You**... Lucy
Alive (Reprise)**... Hyde

ACT TWO
Murder, Murder!***... Ensemble
Once upon a Dream**... Emma
Reflections*... Jekyll
In His Eyes**... Lucy and Emma
Dangerous Game**... Lucy and Hyde
Facade (Reprise)**... Spider
The Way Back**... Jekyll
A New Life**... Lucy
Sympathy, Tenderness (Reprise)**... Hyde
The Girls of the Night***... Nellie and Girls
Confrontation*... Jekyll/Hyde
In His Eyes (Reprise)***... Emma
Mass*/Finale**... Emma and Ensemble

* from 1994 Complete Cast version
** from 1997 Original Broadway Cast version
*** rearranged/mixed of the 2 versions