Stage review
'Jekyll & Hyde' melodramatic yet compelling
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
It's dark, twisted, and perverse — but with some powerful music.
Eye of the Islands Photography
It's "Jekyll & Hyde," with book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, music by Frank Wildhorn and characters direct from Robert Louis Stevenson's Victorian London. If you called it an opera, it wouldn't sell tickets, but despite some snatches of spoken dialogue, the show is filled with heavy music and a lead character who is appealing only from the depth of his depravity.
From left, Stefanie Smart is Emma Carew, Laurence Paxton is Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde and Isabelle Decauwert is Lucy Harris.
Larry Paxton plays both personalities with dripping melodrama and exaggerated style that piles on gesture and tone like some gothic layer cake. It's a remarkably physical performance that believably transforms the dedicated Dr. Jekyll into the evil Mr. Hyde simply by voice, posture and releasing his pony tail.
It may sound hokey, but it plays beautifully. The device is deftly expanded musically when Paxton sings the show's signature song "This is the Moment," and culminates dramatically in "Confrontation," a duet between both personalities. Here, Paxton convincingly alternates characters with each line of music — chillingly underscored by Stephen Clear's lurid lighting.
Directed and choreographed by Jade Stice, the entire production has a tight, rigid feel characterized by sharp movement, shadowy corners, an excellent chorus and strong principal singers. It's a tough show with a fatalistic plot and uncompromising action.
'Jekyll & Hyde'
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Diamond Head Theatre production
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8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays, through Sept. 30
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Diamond Head Theatre
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$10-$40
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733-0274
Isabelle Decauwert is a standout as Lucy, the young prostitute besieged by both Jekyll and Hyde. She has a broad, strong, showy voice that fills "Someone Like You" with waves of emotion and propels "In His Eyes" into a show-stopping duet with Stefanie Smart as Emma, Jekyll's genteel fiancee.
Jim Seibel does good character work in a couple of supporting roles, and Douglas Scheer provides both narration and the only measure of normalcy as Hyde's friend John.
Donald Yap conducts an excellent orchestra and full-cast ensemble, Patrick Kelly's set suggests a somber 19th century train station, and Karen Wolfe's costumes supply the necessary bustles and top hats.
"Jekyll & Hyde" is a fully realized and generously staged production, filled with vision, talent and energy. \ One might wish for a lighter, less-murderous style, but once swallowed up by the melodrama, the audience becomes a willing victim.
